In this review of Birds of Prey #23, the Birds take a break to regroup, but come back swinging in a frontal assault on the Shadow Army!
Birds of Prey #23 main cover by Annie Wu (DC Comics)
Birds of Prey #23
“On the Run, Part 4 of 5”
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sami Basri
Colors: Hi-Fi
Main Cover: Annie Wu
Variant Covers: Nimit Malavia, Serg Acuna, Rian Gonzales
Release Date: July 2, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Birds of Prey #23 begins as Black Canary, Batgirl, and Sin look up in horror at the explosion of their headquarters in Gotham, Dinah remembers BOP protocol – meet at a safe house in 3 hours. Cass wanders the streets, Sin hits an arcade, Dinah drinks at a bar. Heading into the sewers, they find Oracle along with Cela. Babs says she blew the HQ as soon as she realized it was compromised to prevent enemies from using it to access Oracle’s powers. Babs briefs the Birds on their enemies – The Shadow Army, led by Daemon Prime, with a lot of competition for power. Babs tracks the energy of Inque’s locket, which is controlling Big Barda.
The Birds head to the Shadow Army base, jumping from the vents after immobilizing most of the Shadow Army with a Canary Cry. The Birds attack the mind controlled Barda, but are unable to free her despite huge effort. Daemon gloats that the Birds are losing, but Dinah calls in the whole team – Harley Quinn, Cela, Vixen, Thunder and Grace Choi, and Constantine.
The remaining Birds go their separate ways… for now. (DC Comics)
Analysis
After three solid issues ratcheting up the tension, Kelly Thompson has the team take a break in Birds of Prey #23 – but because it’s a break required by two massive losses, it allows for really effective sad character work. Cass’s ramen stop, Sin’s video game, and Dinah’s bar antics (so much better than the awful Brian Azzarello Birds of Prey Dinah bar antics) all highlight their characters in a nicely paced and emotional way. Sami Basri and Hi-Fi sensitively and appealingly render the characters and their feelings in the best tradition of Birds of Prey.
Once the action starts, Birds of Prey #23 leans more on plot than character. The Big Barda fight works well, but the reappearance of earlier arc characters highlights the lack of strong relationship roots that defined the series under Dixon and Simone. Despite Basri and Hi-Fi’s great art, the newer team members feel forced, unlike Simone’s well-developed ensembles.
With one issue left to go on this arc, one expects the finale to be largely fighting, and given Basri’s skill in the action department, probably enjoyable fighting at that. However, one hopes that the character moments that have made this feel like the classic Birds of Prey balance for the first three issues prevent the intruding extra cast members from overwhelming that balance.
Cela’s parents are two of the villains? Also asking Dinah not to kill – that’s very strange, since Dinah’s not known to be a lethal superhero.
Annie Wu’s main cover is a gorgeous close-up of Black Canary fighting a silhouetted Copperhead, with Dinah’s blonde hair nearly luminous in forming the background. Nimit Malavia’s variant features a huge Big Barda and a bunch of tiny Sin’s jumping on her – very Lilliputian. Serg Acuna’s variant features Batgirl holding and surrounded by Big Barda missing person posters and looking very sad – a nice reflection on Barda’s relationship to the team. Rian Gonzales’s incentive variant features Batgirl/Oracle in paper doll format, with a lot of fun and cute accessories.
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Final Thoughts
While the character work in the first half of Birds of Prey #23 is strong, the stakes and action of the second half drag a bit, and the expanded team unfortunately brings to mind the annoyances of the first couple of arcs of this run.
