Is plot really necessary to a good comic?

Birds of Prey has me wondering. And not because I’m dissing the book. I REALLY enjoy this book. It’s nothing like the previous Birds of Prey that I’ve had a read of but I’m really enjoying it. Just not for the plot. Kind’ve like Batwoman…

I couldn’t tell you what’s going on in this book without actually getting my copy and reading it to you. Something about people blowing up. Somewhere in Gotham, I think. A really clean version of Gotham. And you know what? That’s all I need. Because I don’t care about the plot. It’s bland and uninteresting and only serves to get the characters together so that they can do their thing. Which at the moment is all I want it to do.

Starling would have to be one of my favourite characters in the new DC ‘not a reboot’. I couldn’t tell you what her superpower is because that’s the least important part about her. She laughs funny, she drives crazy old school cars, she has tattoos and she has a fringe and she enjoys breaking stuff, probably with the previously-mentioned awesome old school car. And threatens to cut people if they don’t serve her drinks. She’s just plain old awesome.

And Katanna’s great too. For completely different reasons. Because she’s completely bat(cr@p) insane. Talking-to-the-spirit-of-her-dead-husband-in-her-sword insane. While still being one part creepy and one part funny about it.

In fact in a weird twist Black Canary is the one who suffers amongst all this character. She’s ‘the good girl’ from what I can tell. She’s got superpowers and everything but she still seems to be completely transparent, the moral compass of goodness that leads the team towards being all good and stuff. In amongst the shining, quirky lights she surrounds herself with she comes off as very plain vanilla.

The other thing that’s plain vanilla? The setting. It’s supposed to be Gotham but so far we’ve seen the inside of a church, the inside of an airport and a few other places in between. But they don’t really have any character to them. The bad guys don’t help either as they don’t exactly give off a ‘Gotham vibe’. Way too clean and sci-fi-y.

And that seems to be the case with everything else in the series as well. I love the clean art and clear colouring but neither seems to be breaking any new ground or impressing anyone. It just gets the job done. The bad guys? They get the job done. Black Canary’s character? It gets the job done. Etc etc.

At the end of the day this book is doing everything properly but not really rising above that. And maybe that’s where the unimpressive plot comes in. The foundations are all there with good art, great characters and solid writing. But it’s missing that extra element that would make this a really good story.

At the moment I don’t need anything beyond the characters to enjoy Birds of Prey. But going forward the plot may very well be the thing that makes or breaks this title. Especially once the rest of the characters are introduced.

But for the moment it’s a lot of fun.