Comic Book Reviews: Batwoman #25, Birds of Prey #25 and Red Hood & The Outlaws #25

I was as surprised as anyone to find out that there was a Batwoman Zero Year tie-in. Why is it here? Because the creative team quit and this was the only thing they could do to fill time.

How did it hold up? Well... it was a book. That's about it. Nothing special that would make you think the new creative team is going to make the book great; nothing so outrageous fans of the book should feel the characters are being bastardized.

It's a cookie-cutter, by-the-numbers plot that will most likely do nothing to add an audience to the character. The art has been greatly downgraded, but it's not bad. It's just... a generic Batwoman title. And I'm not sure that's a good thing for it.

Birds of Prey was solid, but nothing you'd jump up and dive at. The Black Canary origin set-up here is more jarring than anything for those who were used to the old origin, but it's executed well. The art is solid enough.

Ultimately, it's not strong enough on its own to make you want to see what is going on in BoP, and considering it's in Gothtopia's crossover in January, next month's book probably isn't new-reader friendly anyway. But it's good enough to get me interested in the Gothtopia tie-in, and if that goes well, I could see myself picking up the book.

RHATO is the best title this week for sure in terms of tie-ins. It's still not a must-buy, but it does plenty to add intrigue to Jason's origins with the All-Caste, sets up his time with Talia al-Ghul and introduces a Joker who is between identities at the moment from the looks of it.

The art is almost as good as the BoP art and the story itself is the best of the three, if for no other reason than Tynion had plenty to go on from the Scott Lobdell era. He appears to be good at understanding the characters, just really awkward when it comes to advancing a plot.

Anyway, none of these books are pick-ups you NEED to make, but none of them will outright upset you if you buy them, and depending on your tastes, you may actually be glad you picked them up. As for me, I have better books to recommend to you over the next two comic review blogs.

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