Cheap Birds of Prey: Sensei & Student (Birds of Prey (Graphic Novels)) (Book) (Gail Simone) Price

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Customer Reviews of Birds of Prey: Sensei & Student (Birds of Prey (Graphic Novels))

A Little Sugar
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>Sensei and Student is the second TPB collecting the second arc of Gail Simone's Birds of Prey book. It involves one of the long time Birds of Prey going to Hong Kong to see her dying martial arts teacher. While there she meets Lady Shiva the DCU's deadliest assassin who used to also be a pupil of said teacher. The teacher gets killed and the book evolves into a long convoluted story that would be too long to rehash here. <
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>I have been with this book ever since Gail Simone took it over. I was looking for a new book to collect and the addition of Huntress, one of my top favourite heroines meant that I would be collecting the book for sure. <
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>Gail Simone is one of the few comic book writers in the business who tells stories the old fashioned way. Meaning she opens threads and keeps threads dangling to be addressed at a later date (you might want to read the "Of Like Minds" TPB before reading this book). Or to be frank she doesn't write for a trade. Something which many readers, including this reviewer, really appreciates. She has a lot of ideas and it shows in the book. She is also very good at writing action and the dialogue is crisp and a lot of fun. <
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>But I find that the action is sometimes too frenetic and too fast paced. Things happen without any explanation. It's as if the author wants to get from point A-Z without examining the in between. Sometimes I feel as if I am reading the comic book version of Charlie's Angels (the movie not the TV show). But it was something that I was willing to overlook and dismiss as growing pains of the author. That is until I got to the last chapter of this story (issue #68). Which frankly made my hair stand on end and almost made me quit collecting the book altogether. <
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> If there is one transgression I will not tolerate, is a writer coming on board a book and writing a character out of their prescribed character. Willy nilly changes to a character without any reason is something I find incredibly irritating. And unfortunately that was what Gail has done in this book. It seems that the author has a story in mind that she wants to tell, and she is going to write each character in a way that will fit with her story. As opposed to allowing each `Bird' to breath on their own. <
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>This greatest fault of this lies in Simone's portrayal of Huntress. She has not only ret-conned the characters past (Helena got fired for going AWOL not for showing up at school with bruises). But has also changed the characters personality. For some reason Simone has decided that she wants to portray Huntress as a clichéd one dimensional soap opera/ B-movie femme fatal given to loose behaviour. That is NOT who Huntress is, and it is not the same character I've admired and respected for the last four years. If it were I would not be a Huntress fan and I would not be reading BoP. <
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>Some BoP fans, mostly fans of Barbara "Oracle" Gordon, are annoyed that Huntress has been added to the team. Since the two women have never gotten along and Oracle has been shown to openly dislike Huntress. They argue that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for Oracle to call upon Huntress for help when she has access to such a wide network of allies. I on the other hand argue that Huntress has no business being in the group especially after the shabby way that Dinah and Barbara are treating her in this issue. Huntress has previously been portrayed as a very no nonsense and proud woman. Part of the reason she is not in the Bat group was because she couldn't tolerate Batman's arrogance. So I am supposed to believe that she would willingly stand by and allow Dinah and Barbara to disrespect her this way? And not mention Josh. Huntress' whole behaviour in this incident is not only out of character it's completely absurd. <
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>However I must praise Simone for coming on board and not writing Barbara as a neurotic mess, at least I could see where the change came from and was addressed. <
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>Anyway this is all academic and might in itself not bother readers who are unfamiliar with the character. Or who don't mind a character being written out of character or who are just looking for a sugar fix and a fun read. <
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>While I am not completely pleased or happy with what Simone has done to Huntress. I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt for now. Because faults or not she's one of the few good writers in the industry who can still tell a comic book story the old fashioned way. And that is to be appreciated. <
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Gail Simone is the best writer in comics
Funny, insightful, and plenty of action; I can't imagine a comic fan not loving this. Ms Simone has no current peer in comics today.

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best Birds of Prey TPB
Gail Simone has rescued this series! This title has been around for a while, it floundered around for many years with different writers. Simone found the groove! <
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>This is a solid, action-packed, well-paced story. I love the flashback story with the original Black Canary. This book really captures Huntress well too. Simone and her team of artists make this book sexy without it being crass, so I think guys and girls would like it. <
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>Buy it!!! <
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