In this review of Birds of Prey #28, the Birds face the Shadow Army in their final battle…and Big Barda shows them the meaning of her name!
Birds of Prey #28 main cover by Annie Wu (DC Comics)
BIRDS OF PREY #28
Written by KELLY THOMPSON
Art by SAMI BASRI
Main Cover: ANNIE WU
Variant Covers: DANIELE DI NICUOLO, SERG ACUÑA, RIAN GONZALES
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 12/3/25
This review contains spoilers
Birds of Prey #28 begins as Sin plunges from the skyscrapers after being shot by an arrow. Megaera takes control, saving her, but then going on a rampage of revenge against the game players in the Unreality being driven mad by the fear gas. Barda has an idea to control the crowd and deal with the out of control Megaera.
Oracle faces Damon Prime in her headquarters, seemingly supported by the treacherous Inque, as the Shadow Army leader demands all of Oracle’s data. But when he tries to kill Oracle, Inque pulls a quadruple cross and blocks his bullets, then wraps him up with her powers. Oracle tells her anti-Inque drones to stand down.
Barda’s plan involves growing to skyscraper size, causing the fear-gas addled players to stand down or run, and then helps to pick up and calm down Megaera, sending the enraged metahuman to take care of the Shadow Army. Oracle manages to connect with Vivi and shut down the game, releasing everyone from the virtual reality.
Back at the Clocktower, Babs and Dinah decide together to shut down the Birds of Prey for now. Dinah wants to focus on Sin/Megaera, and Oracle needs to rethink her approach when so many of their missions ended up being about the Birds being the targets of villain attacks for Oracle’s data. They tell the rest of the team on the rooftop, having drinks together, and the team goes their separate ways, secure in their friendship and with plans for the future as Birds of Prey #28 comes to an end.
Analysis
Big Barda toys with the idea of this iteration of the Birds of Prey being called “the Big Barda era” or “Big Barda and Small Bat era” – emphasizing a bit the way the character combinations have defined the Birds of Prey. When Jordan B. Gorfinkel persuaded Chuck Dixon to help create the Birds of Prey in the late 90s, the partnership of Black Canary and Oracle became a buddy cop action team the world had never seen. Gail Simone added the volatility of Huntress, defining her own era with huge character development arcs for all three of her heroines, then expanding the team as editorial demanded to include a huge rotating roster (including some very memorable Big Barda missions), plus the addition of the now long-missing Lady Blackhawk and Misfit at the end of her run. Tony Bedard added a few of his own creations as he finished off that original 127 issue run. Gail Simone returned in 2010, adding Hawk and Dove to her core four-woman lineup, and then the New 52 rebooted the team with a nearly entirely forgettable 3 year run, featuring unrecognizable variations of Black Canary, Poison Ivy, and more.
Rebirth returned the team to Batgirl Barbara, Canary, and a reintroduced Huntress fresh from the Grayson super spy series, and while it was fun to see the old team reunited, the adventures were ultimately pretty forgettable, though not as offensively stupid as the New 52’s shenanigans. With a few thankfully abortive attempts to relaunch the series around the regrettable movie, Kelly Thompson’s 2 year run represents probably the most memorable work since Simone’s second run. While her initial team left a LOT to be desired, once she re-added Oracle to the team and got the Dinah and Barabara dynamic going, the series felt on much firmer footing (not to mention ditching the ill-advised washed out coloring idea for the first few arcs).
For the past year, Sami Basri and Thompson have been producing a warm, quippy, and action oriented female team book with a solid core of Babs, Dinah, Barda, Cass, and Sin. While this issue shows distinct signs that the Shadow Army probably needed at least another issue to fully wrap up, Thompson manages to compress the plot details enough that we still get some very nice bonding and character moments amidst all the action and exposition. Basri, assisted by Vicente Cifuentes on inks and some of the pencilled pages, turns in yet another extremely appealing and fun book, though a few pieces of the action don’t quite make sense (when Megaera is almost calmed down, suddenly a huge red beam hits her, but there’s no sign where the beam came from).
All in all, this run of Birds of Prey stands above the Rebirth’s friendly but forgettable nostalgia and the New 52’s ridiculously bad plotting and ideas, but while it captures some of the spirit, it never quite hits the highs of the original Dixon or Simone runs. However, I would say that Thompson’s come the closest to restoring the heart of the team, so whoever picks it up next hopefully has a stronger foundation to build on than she inherited. And while Sami Basri won’t quite go in the hall of fame of Birds of Prey artists like Ed Benes or Nicola Scott, he has a run to be proud of as he turns to the New Titans title in March 2026!
In her last cover for Birds of Prey #28, Annie Wu plays up the humor and warmth of the team as they all go out for ice cream, with a lot of pink in the colors! Daniele Di Nicuolo’s variant features the team as Russian nesting dolls standing next to a batarang and Big Barda’s Mega Rod – again playing with the humor of the team. Serg Acuna’s variant features the team blowing out the candles of a 28th’s issue cake, emphasizing the warmth. Lastly, Rian Gonzales’s cover features a photo of the team baking cookies and other treats for a 28th issue celebration as well, with fun little stickers over the polaroid frame.
Final Thoughts
Kelly Thompson and Sami Basri’s run on Birds of Prey ends with a virtual reality shattering battle, some great humor and team moments, and the kind of humor and action we’ve come to expect from a high quality Birds of Prey book. 3.5 out of 5 Batarangs.
