Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #16 Review and *SPOILERS*



The Daughters of Gotham


Written By: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson
Art By: Roge Antonio, Marcelo Maiolo, Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 8, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The men of Gotham City are out of luck because a virus is spreading through the streets and only leaving women unaffected.  Thankfully, we have not only Batgirl and the Birds of Prey on the case to find out who could be behind such a virus, but we also have Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Spoiler, Orphan, Gotham Girl, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Harley Quinn and while not all of these guest stars make sense in this arc, it's still kind of appreciated because we've never seen this title face a threat this big before and it's kind of cool.  Let's jump into this issue and see if the women of Gotham can get to the bottom of what's effectively getting rid of all the men in the city.  Let's check it out.


Explain It!:

Our issue begins with this newly formed team deciding to separate so that they can cover many aspects of the city going to hell and first off on the agenda is finding out who's behind this virus in the first place............. Too bad, it's immediately figured out with no real substance because all our heroes do is dress up like doctors, go to the hospital and wheel Oliver Queen in on a gurney, where a doctor who's been there all along just pulls out a needle and starts talking some crazy shit about men........ Okay, our heroes stop her and we find out that this group behind this is called the Daughters of Gotham and not only that, but Poison Ivy is given a the virus so that she can start working on an antidote.  


Now that Ivy has the virus, we have to spend way too much time collecting blood samples from the people that our team care about so that they can be cured first and while this is not only tedious, it's a bit nonsensical too because we even get a blood sample from Clayface........... nonsense.  


In the end, after Batwoman and Batgirl interrogate another member of the Daughters of Gotham, we have a full out confrontation on the streets with the cult/organization, where surprise, surprise, they don't like men and believe that the city would be better off without them.  The scuffle ends with the Daughters of Gotham throwing some smoke bombs and Batwoman, Batgirl and Harley Quinn being taken to the cult's leader.


That's it for this issue of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey and while I still enjoy the scope of this story because of how big it is and roster of characters that have come to handle it, there's just not enough for these characters to do so them being involved just feels forced and unneeded, especially because some of these inclusions don't make sense to the rest of the DC continuity.  This issue for the most part is just a whole lot of nothing, with good to not so good art accompanying it.  All in all, while this arc may come through in the end and be something special for this series, this issue doesn't do much besides quickly reveal its villain, get a sample of the virus and then spending the rest of the book doing nothing.  

Bits and Pieces:

While I was optimistic that this arc may propel this series into the major leagues of DC titles because of the scope of the dilemma, not to mention the amount of characters it's sporting, after reading this issue I see that we just have a big problem with a whole lot of characters, but sadly, the problem is already being taken care of and the majority of characters really have nothing to do.  

5.5/10

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