Review: Birds of Prey #27

In this review of Birds of Prey #27, as the Birds of Prey battle the Shadow Army inside The Unreality, betrayals and violence threaten all of Gotham.

BIRDS OF PREY #27
Written by KELLY THOMPSON
Art by SAMI BASRI
Main Cover: ANNIE WU
Variant Covers: CHRISTIAN WARD, SERG ACUÑA, FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 11/5/25

As Birds of Prey #27 begins, in Gotham’s “Unreality” game world, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) asks Sin/Megaera, Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), and Big Barda who’s coming with her into “the Seam”, and Barda volunteers. Oracle cautions them all, and urges them to evacuate civilians. At BOP HQ, the villainess Inque and Oracle trade barbs about the mission. In “The Seam”, Cass and Barda see no sign of the Shadow Army, but their game avatar illusions begin to degrade, so they are forced to leave.

Back in “Unreality”, Barda meets with the other Birds, while Cass confronts Vivi, head of the Unreality company. She discovers that Vivi’s twin sister fell into the Seam as a small child, and Vivi is searching for her. Just as Vivi seems willing to cooperate, a huge blimp appears, and Cass realizes that the Shadow Army will gas everyone with the chemical, making people aggressive and easily led.

The rest of the Birds find the Shadow Army and start a battle, using teamwork to take them out, but still have to inhale the chemical. Meanwhile, Inque betrays Oracle to let Daemon Prime in to steal Oracle’s data.

Somehow, Golden Lion’s magic makes the Unreality real, and a game player shoots Sin with an arrow straight through the chest.

Analysis

In Birds of Prey #27, our penultimate issue of Kelly Thompson’s run, the Birds of Prey vs. the Shadow Army fight ramps up to a very personal casualty. I’m really hopeful that Thompson won’t kill off Sin, as she remains a fun character in this run and a lovely redemption of the frequently ignored or misused character from Gail Simone’s beloved run in the early 2000s. Only next month’s issue will tell if we’re ending on a dark note, as the original Birds of Prey title did with issue #127, or on a more hopeful one.

Sami Basri’s art is once again extremely appealing and clean, assisted quite well by Vicente Cifuentes’s inks. Adriano Lucas’s coloring emphasizes the Unreality, the Seam, the real world, and all of the Birds’ wacky costumes really nicely. All in all, the Birds of Prey book continues to be one of the most fun and appealing books on the shelves, matching the days of Butch Guice, Greg Land, Ed Benes, Nicola Scott, Jesus Saiz, and so many other wonderful Birds of Prey artists.

Thompson has said that she didn’t plan to end the book on issue #28, so some of the compression of Birds of Prey #27 makes sense. Still, the gas from the blimp and its effect on people are very choppily handled, and it’s quite confusing how the Lion’s spell makes the virtual reality into real reality. The revelation of Vivi’s sister as motivation for the construction of the game space is fine, but given more time likely would have been revealed in a flashback instead of dashed off in a few words of dialogue. All in all, while not bad, there’s definitely signs of hurry towards the ending here. But Birds of Prey #27 is still a reasonably solid issue with characterization and humor Birds of Prey fans have come to expect.

Annie Wu’s main cover features the Birds in their Unreality disguises in a cyberpunk setting – classic girl power Matrix vibes. Christian Ward’s variant features Inque in all her melting, goopy, sexy glory. Serg Acuna’s variant also features Inque, though in a more action-heavy pose alongside Black Canary, with a magic portal style background. Francesco Francavilla’s variant features Inque once again, this time posing like a model in front of a larger Batgirl portrait. If you like Inque, this month is your month for variants!

Final Thoughts

Thompson and Basri begin the wrap-up of their final arc with the Birds, and despite a few rushed pieces, the adventure and characterization remains pretty solid.

Ian Miller

A latecomer to comics - I started reading Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Birds of Prey, Hush, and War Games in college. Over a decade and a half later, I'm still inspired by Batman, and especially the Bat-Family (Stephanie Brown!) I started out listening to BTO, then Stella drew me to TBUCP, I volunteered to write reviews, and the rest is history! Love recording the podcast, especially with my amazing cohosts. Also a huge fan of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and many more books!