In this review of Birds of Prey #22, already reeling from the loss of Big Barda, the Birds face another catastrophe!
Birds of Prey #22 main cover by Annie Wu (DC Comics)
Birds of Prey #22
“On the Run Part 3 of 5”
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sami Basri
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Main Cover: Annie Wu
Variant Covers: Rian Gonzales, Serg Acuna, George Perez, Edwin Galmon
Release Date: June 4th, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Black Canary, Batgirl Cass Cain, and Sin/Megaera examine the crater left by Big Barda’s landing from space in the UAE.
In Gotham, Oracle evaluates her footage of the attacks – Velvet Tiger (boosted with returned Super Speed powers), Golden Lion, Copperhead – and notes she thinks there’s still a leader hiding. Babs sends a drone to Chinatown following an energy signature.
Dinah, Cass, and Sin find Barda’s Mega Rod, and Magaera/Sin uses it to boom-tube back to Gotham. Babs is relieved to see them unhurt, but she and Dinah fight about safety and decision making in the field. Unresolved, Babs briefs the team on following her drones into Gotham’s Chinatown.
Cass enters the warehouse first, but is thrown out of the window, yelling “abort.” She’s followed by Barda, but covered in shadow and clearly mind controlled. Barda grabs Oracle’s drone and overloads it, also shocking Babs in her VR setup at HQ, knocking her out. Canary takes on Dark Barda, and Magaera slams a huge brick on top of Barda.
Oracle wakes to the sigh of a cat, Poe, with mystical wisps and a purple haired woman from the future, Cela, in HQ. They chat for a while, but then the tech Dinah brought back from Japan activates, and Babs screams for Cela to run. Dinah, Cass, and Sin are almost at HQ when they see it explode!
Analysis
Writer Kelly Thompson and artist Sami Basri once again deliver a Birds of Prey issue with all the action and character interactions that made the classic Dixon and Simone era beloved. While it’s a welcome continuation of the first two issues, there’s still a sense that Thompson is more imitating the surface of those runs without really digging into why Dixon and Simone created such a long beloved piece of DC history with the Birds of Prey. The fight between Babs and Dinah is familiar, but doesn’t really serve that much purpose beyond making Dinah’s distress in the final page more regretful. The hints of the wacky future time travel plot in the appearance of Cela and Poe also don’t bode that well, though again, time travel to the past was a big part of the classic Dixon run, so one cannot begrudge the current BOP writer from enjoying a dabble in that plotting arena, even though neither the past nor the future are this reviewer’s favorite element of Birds of Prey lore.
Sami Basri’s art is once again gorgeous – assisted for most of the pages by Vicente Cifuentes’s assured inking, and Adriano Lucas’s rich coloring, it’s another sexy, action packed, well acted Birds of Prey issue up there with Butch Guice (RIP), Joe Bennet, Ed Benes, and of course the masterful Nicola Scott.
Dinah and Babs fighting about field vs. Oracle decision making is classic, though it feels a bit artificial when Babs could be in the field as Batgirl.
Annie Wu’s main cover shows Babs, her face lit up by the Oracle symbol hanging over her hand, glancing sideways at the reader – simple but bold, as the best of Wu’s work always is! Rian Gonzales’s paper doll variant showcases Big Barda, with some additional chibi Bardas thrown in as well. Serg Acuna’s variant shows Canary and Batgirl rocking out on the microphones to some karaoke – a fun hint at behind the scenes shenanigans. George Perez’s legacy variant showcases his illustration of Dinah in leotard, fishnets, blue jacket, a bird, sonic scream, and cityscape behind her motorcycle – extremely classic. Lastly, Edwin Galmon’s 1 in 25 incentive cover features Barda joyfully riding her huge motorcycle, with Batgirl joyriding behind – another fun behind the scenes hijinks style cover.
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Final Thoughts
While not offering a ton of new elements, Thompson and Basri continue to serve up classic Birds of Prey action as the team faces the loss of one more of their members, just as they face the last one under mind control!
