A new arc kicks off with a bang as Oracle sends Batgirl (Cass) and Sin, Barda, and Black Canary across the globe, and all three run into big trouble! Check out our review of Birds of Prey #20.
Birds of Prey #20 main cover by Annie Wu (DC Comics)
Birds of Prey #20
“On the Run, Part 1 of 5”
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Sami Basri
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Main Cover: Annie Wu
Variant Covers: Serg Acuna, Rian Gonzales, Robbi Rodriguez, Zoe Thorogood
Release Date: April 2, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Birds of Prey #20 begins on one Gotham night, Batgirl (Cass) investigates a faked suicide, meeting Batman in the crime scene. They both note all of the obviously staged clues, and the connection to mysterious experimental military drug research. Babs tries to filter them, but knows it’s a trap, and sends her agents with that warning. Barda to the UAE, Black Canary to Tokyo, and Cass and Sin to Gotham.
On stakeout, Sin and Cass have a heartfelt chat about their similar upbringings.
Barda drops off Dinah in Tokyo, and she Canary Cries through the skyscraper door.
Barda arrives in the UAE desert, cranky that Babs forbade her bikini armor, and breaks into the seemingly empty skyscraper there. In the top penthouse, she hears a strange voice in the air vent.
In Tokyo, Dinah sees a tech demonstration of a camo suit that appears to make someone completely disappear.
In Gotham, Cass and Sin see a partygoer duck into an alley and drop down a manhole, and follow him.
Barda finds the voice in the air vent is a strange black mist person, who steals then drops her Big Rod, then flies away as the top of the skyscraper turns into a spaceship and blasts off.
Oracle gets reports from Cass and Dinah that they are under attack, but she is torn between three catastrophes as Barda’s spaceship explodes in orbit. A sinister voice crosses Barda’s picture off and says “four to go”.
Analysis
Birds of Prey #20, the start of a brand new arc seems, like a great place to start reviewing this title! After a very odd opening arc, Thompson seems to have settled into a solid storytelling groove in the same mold as Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone’s definitive runs – a blend of globe-trotting action adventure, character drama, and fun banter. Sami Basri on art is a worthy heir to early 2000s Greg Land, Butch Guice, Ed Benes, and Joe Bennet – drawing very sexy and strong Birds in action, with a lot of humor and emotionally effective moments. Vicente Cifuentes’s inks and Adriano Lucas’s colors perfectly complement Basri’s pencils, making this a great looking action book just like Birds of Prey at its best always has been. It’s very nice to drop into Birds of Prey again and it very much feels like the Birds of Prey of old.
The plot itself reminds me a bit of Simone’s last arc of the second run of BOP back in 2010-2011, when the Birds went up against Ragdoll’s sister in a terrifying skyscraper – the urban setting, skyscraper, and multiple teams running into trouble all at once has distinct flavors. Thompson thankfully doesn’t have to wrap up her story in just two issues as Simone did, so the pace is a bit less frenetic, but still quite busy. The triple team plotline allows for more variation and makes the action feel a lot less simplistic than a lot of DC comics I’m reading these days.
The character interactions and banter is quite nicely deployed throughout the book. Cass and Batman’s interactions at the beginning are a nice building of where their relationship was left in Batgirls – mutual trust. Babs struggling to lead her smart-alecky team is quite funny and classic (especially with Dinah), and it’s great to see Barda’s personality fit so well into the dynamic. Cass and Sin’s connection through upbringing was quite sweet, and hopefully has some payoff in this arc as well as their continuing dynamic. I admit I wasn’t completely sold on Sin being so grown up, but this is a pretty nicely written version of the character, even if I’m a bit lost on the Megaera naming/personality element.
All in all, Birds of Prey #20 was a great issue to start reading the title again, and I eagerly await the next issue!
Our main cover by Annie Wu is a bit more polished than I expected from Wu, but still has her great line work energy, plus a fun action shot of the team pinned as a photo on a conspiracy board with Barda crossed out – a nice reference to the internal story! Serg Acuna’s variant shows the new Birds of Prey bird logo silhouette framing the five team members looking boldly at the reader. Rian Gonzales’s variant shows Sin with two costumes (perhaps highlighting her dual nature?), with the rest of the birds in chibi form around her. Robbi Rodriguez’s 1 in 25 incentive variant shows a big Oracle head overlooking the four field members arrayed across a cityscape in classic Birds of Prey composition, though a lot rougher and more collage-like than I’m used to seeing from Rodriguez. Zoe Thorogood’s April Fools’ variant shows Joker hiding behind a curtain after writing “Ha ha ha” on Canary’s mirror – not quite as light hearted as I’d expect from an April Fool cover, though dark as I’d expect a Joker cover to be.
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Final Thoughts
Thompson and Basri spin a classic action adventure story for the Birds to tackle, and give their first encounter a nicely executed bang.
