In this review of Birds of Prey #26, the Birds of Prey play a game…one that could end in their final moves!
Birds of Prey #26 main cover by Annie Wu (DC Comics)
BIRDS OF PREY #26
Written by KELLY THOMPSON
Art by SAMI BASRI
Main Cover: ANNIE WU
Variant Covers: KYUYONG EOM, CHRISTIAN WARD, SERG ACUÑA
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 10/1/25
This review contains spoilers
Birds of Prey #26 begins as Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance) and Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) heist their way into the Unreality building to install a piggyback for Oracle. After evading security, Dinah and Cass leave the building, and Dinah confesses she is nervous about the plan, with Cass concurring.
In Sewer BOP temp HQ, Oracle (Barbara “Babs” Gordon) goes over the plan again – to find out what Vivi, the developer of the VR suits the team tested last issue are up to with the Shadow Army. Babs wants the Birds to parachute into the VR finale of the game, but Cass insists that the enemy is searching for something in the Gotham Augmented Reality portion of the game.
The Birds go through the AR game in Gotham, solving riddles. Barda is extremely bored, and when she sees some Shadow Army members, she and Canary break off to fight them. They fare well against the gang, but one of the Army members casts a spell on nearby GCPD police, who fire on the Birds. Barda shields Dinah from the fire, taking several hits. The two teams of Birds reunite, and Cass tells the team she’s figured out the goal of Vivi’s game – to find the entrance to The Seam.
Analysis
The Shadow Army arc will be the final storyline for Birds of Prey, concluding with issue #28, and in Birds of Prey #26, the stakes are heightened for the team of Big Barda, Cassandra Cain, Sin/Maegara, Black Canary, and Oracle, who have united after their initial battle against the Shadow Army. While the augmented reality game element resembles fantasy ARGs more than the popular Pokémon Go, it provides artists the opportunity to showcase the heroines’ entertaining alter egos.
Those alter egos do prompt the question – how was the creepy ending of last issue resolved? Does the mind control of the technology fade away? Did Oracle figure out a way to prevent it? The transition sadly isn’t very smooth, leading to a sense of disconnect.
However, Thompson does make the heist opening, the briefing room scene, and the ARG scene each feel different and fun, giving each Bird personality and things to do, as any good Bird writer should. Current series regular artist Sami Basri and inker/penciller Vicente Cifuentes do a great job of showing off the Birds both as fighters and as characters with their acting, continuing to make this book a pleasure to read visually. Hopefully Basri is able to finish out this arc as main artist without too much need of fill in! The consistency of art has been a real strength of this book since I’ve started reviews.
How did the creepy ending of last issue resolve?
In Birds of Prey #26, the main cover by Annie Wu features the four field Birds and Inque, who is mentioned but not seen, posing around a car trunk, with Batgirl humorously depicted as a cute gremlin. KyuYong Eom’s variant presents a sexy and distressed maskless Batgirl and Black Canary in a digital style, while Christian Ward’s variant shows Barda, Batgirl, and Canary in full costume, with Canary using her cry towards the reader. Lastly, Serg Acuna’s variant captures all five main Birds joyfully leaping across city rooftops.
Final Thoughts
As the finale to this run looms, the Birds navigate uncertainty and unreality (pun intended on so many levels) towards the final confrontation with the Shadow Army!
