Birds of Prey #79 & 80 (2005)

And with these two issues, I now have every issue of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey. I'm not sure why I ever dropped it, I think I must have been sore after Chuck Dixon left the book to go to Crossgen. In any case, I really dug the Birds on their cross-country tour of taking out vigilantes.

These two issues, the Birds are trying to reign in Thorn, the Metropolis vigilante suffering from split-personality disorder. I appreciate that Simone has the Birds and Thorn go up against the 100. The Metropolis villain group that is always tied to Thorn, so I liked seeing her get some sort of closure dealing with the villains. The Birds are never really in danger; these two issues are much more about the redemption of the Huntress as she joins the team. It is true, Oracle can be one manipulative lady. The entire trip around the country dealing with these vigilantes was a process to calm Huntress down and sell her on a kinder, gentler path. We know it worked, but it is interesting seeing it happen.

The best scene has to be when Black Canary shows a cop a name on her cell phone. Imagine trying to tough talk someone and they show you they have Superman on speed-dial!

Ed Benes draws everyone in these issues like a stripper. Including the male characters. Everyone is posing and standing around showing off their best assets, it's pretty funny. And Thorn's outfit is the worst. She looks like she's about to burst out of her costume in about four different places.

Good