The name's a bit of a misnomer, though. In this continuity, the Birds of Prey are Batgirl and Black Canary, with Huntress as the outsider. So really, it should be called Huntress and the Birds of Prey, especially considering this is the first issue not to feature the entire trio on the cover.
(I get that it's being called Batgirl and..., because Batgirl's the most popular of the three and it's an easy way to distinguish this title from the pre-Flashpoint iteration, where Barbara was stuck in her Oracle persona.)
As I've mentioned before, Huntress is one of my favorite comic book superheroes. And as I mentioned last time, I'm pretty sure the villain of this storyline is her not-actually-dead mother, Maria Panessa. Now there's no actual confirmation of that this time - which is a shame, I was actually hoping Huntress would hit the Luke I Am Your Father bit at the darkest vertex of her character arc - but she does have some Cry For Blood-style flashbacks that confirm that, for some reason, Maria Panessa was dragged away before she was "shot."
Oh, and maybe her maiden name wasn't Panessa. The five families' backstory got rewritten so that the Bertinellis outright betrayed the Cassamentos, rather than "were kind of just dicks to them" that we got in Cry for Blood.
Okay. Let me go through this issue. We start with some backstory on the revised Bertinelli-Cassamento rivalry, right down to Frank Bertinelli (renamed from Franco to match his Arrow counterpart?!?) marrying a woman named Maria... And we never see Maria's face in the flashbacks. Between that and her conveniently being dragged away rather than being shot in front of Helena, I'm thinking this story isn't quite as clever as it wants to think it is.
Or, maybe it's telegraphing the outcome in advance for some dramatic purpose. I'll keep you posted.
Anyway, Huntress tracks Santo Cassamento (who is, in the old continuity, her biological father - we'll see if that holds up) to a warehouse, where she sees Fenice's silhouette (but not any identifying features - convenient, that). The snake-men show up, prompting Helena to go from "thank God I abandoned that know-it-all bat and the screaming bird" to "oh, hey, friends," when Batgirl and Black Canary show up. Batgirl has now figured out Helena's identity, and the three regroup at the clocktower...
Two things I want to quick point out. One, Black Canary gives Batgirl a peck on the cheek right before they do a rope swing - is this a Star Wars reference? Because that's adorable. Two, could they ask the current writers of Suicide Squad to come in and do a pass on the dialogue? Because sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's cringe-worthy.
Random other thought. I kinda want Huntress's coat. Has a bit of an old-timey military coat feel.
The artwork, by the way, has also toned down a bit from the hypercartoonish look of the earlier issues (seriously, there's one particular frame of Batgirl's face in issue #1 - not Rebirth #1 - that reminded me of something straight out of Calvin & Hobbes). That said, did we really need to see a ten-year-old boy (Helena's brother) with a giant hole in his chest during the murder flashback?
We have a flashback to the funeral service. The priest says that God spared Helena, but her narration says "Wrong. My instincts protected me that night. Not God." I also note that for the first time, she hasn't got a cross incorporated into her outfit in some way. I assume these are holes for subsequent character development to fill - please, let's not take away her religious aspect, it is so important to her character.
The flashback continues - Helena's uncle in Sicily tells her that she was born with a fire inside. The narration recalls the "crucible" speech that popped up all over the place on season 2 of Arrow - and, fun fact, though I suspect this is venturing way into the realm of coincidence - the first person to use the term, back in season 1, was Huntress herself.
The team raids a building where Fauxracle is supposedly hanging out. There's an animatronic Rogues Gallery waiting for them, to fulfill the issue's action quota, I guess. Batgirl punches the animatronic Joker right through the spine. Catharsis. The girls take the Elevator From Ipanema to Fauxracle's lair... and learn that Fauxracle is a Batgirl fanboy. To be continued.
As I said, I was kind of expecting The Reveal to happen before Huntress rejoined the team. Alternatively, now that Huntress has rejoined the team - and explicitly calls it a family - that new conviction can be tested when The Reveal happens next issue. And guys, please - let it happen next issue. Most of us (I assume) can see it coming now. Don't drag it out for three months.
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