Birds of Prey #22 // Review
It’s 7:00 am in the UAE. A couple of people are investigating a rather large crater there. The thing is as big as a city block and it’s right in the middle of the desert. It’s weird for them to know that one of their friends made the crater. It’s weirder still to know that friend likely survived the impact. They’re going to have a hell of a time finding their friend in Birds of Prey #22. Writer Kelly Thompson continues her all-woman superhero saga in an issue drawn by artist Sami Basri, inker Vicente Cifuentes and colorist Adriano Lucas.
The friend in question was Big Barda. Anyone who can make a New God like her just completely vanish is going to be a challenge to say the least. They still don’t know who they’re up against, though. The good news is that they have one of the best investigative minds on the DC universe working on trying to figure out what the hell happened and why she’s gone. Unfortunately, Barbara Gordon doesn’t have a whole lot to go on and there’s reason to believe that she’s not going to have a whole lot of time to work it out.
Thompson takes her time with the drama. Slightly more traditional comics might have a tendency to want to speed through things a little bit more quickly than Thompson is doing in this issue. She has some very important drama to work out with respect to the team dynamic that is absolutely essential for being able to connect up with the strange collection of people who currently form this particular team. And it's delicate. She can't afford to dive into the complexity of it completely. But she does just enough to allow the reader a bit more of an emotional connection with the characters which is its own kind of genius.
Once again, Basri and Lucas do a particularly good job throughout the issue with Barbara Gordon. There’s a hell of a lot of her simply gazing into the middle distance and having comm conversations with everyone in the field. That’s not an easy thing to make look compellingly heroic, but Basri and Lucas manage to make it look great. Some of the breakdowns in dramatic beats work quite well on the page as well...ensuring that the proper dramatic emphasis occasionally fitnesses its way onto the page, even if that might mean a couple of nearly identical panels right next to each other. It’s sharp stuff.
The cliffhanger at the end of the issue is remarkable. Prior to this, there’s a rather prominent moment in the central search for Barda that might not have quite the dramatic impact it could have managed with a slightly different approach, but it’s all a lot of fun from beginning to end and once again...Thompson is doing a very good job of delivering the increase in tensions as the story continues to run its course. It’s another fun issue for Thompson and company.
