Birds of Prey #117 - DC

This seems to be the beginning of the next chapter in the Bird's life. Last issue they started investigating Platinum Flats because of it's complete and utter lack of crime . . of any sort. It just wasn't natural. No gangs. No mob ties. To ties to any major crime or crime outfits at all. That is until Oracle runs across somebody who's wearing a Platinum Flats hockey jersey. That's when she decides to start sniffing around. Come to find out, there's actually a quite prominent meta-human gang running rampant through the city. But, they have some expert hackers on their side and they've used that to cover-up any trace at all of their existence. "We've always cleaned everything. Never a whiff of a crime having been committed, never a scrap of paper . . not even a memory. Our organization has thrived because as far as anyone knows, Platinum Flats doesn't have an organization." We don't know who all the players are yet, but it seems to be lead by a guy called the Visionary. Not to modest . . huh? Some of his people include Mind-Bullet, Topaz, Tuatara, Gangly Man and Diamond. Also Arthur, a kid, seems to be their resident hacker. We don't know all their powers yet, but when ManHunter comes face to face with them, and is in trouble, Misfit goes to join the fight and try to help save her. They are both in way over their heads. Eventually Oracle gets ahold of Huntress and Zindy to come release them from capture. But, it's not before Visionary does something to ManHunters mind to give her a really scary vision. They don't confront the gang any farther, because they just want to get their people home. But through the process of all of this, Babs has decided that they're going to move their base of operations to Platinum Flats. Plus, they haven't really decided yet, but I'm thinking that they're going to use some of that booty that they found with Killer Shark last issue to finance some of their operations. They can't count on Bruce all of the time. Right? Also, on the final page we see that Tabby isn't actually dead. Remember? She's the girl that disappeared in the vacuum of the device she was trying to use. That's what originally brought Oracle's attention to all of this. Anyways, Aurthur apparently has a bit of magic in him. That's what helps to make him such a good hacker I guess. Well somehow that magic has attracted Tabby from wherever she's at . . to him. We don't actually see her. A vortex appears in Arthur's room, and Tabby's image is inside of it. Very interesting. So it appears that Sean McKeever has decided to take this group in it's own direction, although we appear to be dealing with the same basic core group of characters. So far I like his take on things. It's ok to shake things up every now and then. Also Nicola Scott turns in another great art job. She seems to be the Birds of Prey artist for the foreseeable future. Which is ok with me. She has a great handle on these characters, and consistently turns in a solid performance. This continues to be one of my personal favorites.