Birds of Prey #25 – Kelly Thompson, Writer; Cliff Richards, Sami Basri, Artists; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: This arc continues neatly from the previous one, but also feels like a completely new story as Thompson deftly switches genres once again. In the last arc, Inque was one of the deadliest villains the Birds had ever faced, as she possessed Barda like a symbiote and proceeded to puppet her against her own team. But now she’s…a Bird? Barda doesn’t think so and nearly leaves the team over it, but the rest of the team decides to hear Inque out. What comes out is that she’s a time refugee, one who took advantage of Meridian (who cut herself off from the past to protect herself from Inque, explaining why we haven’t seen her since). But when she was working for Daemon Prime, she discovered something about his true plans that scared the hell out of her – and she’s willing to take the risk to align with her former enemies to stop them. Now she just has to convince the Birds.
After a tense debate and Megeara revealing another new power, the team decides to reluctantly work with Inque, and they kick off a search for the weapons that the villains are assembling. After a few fight sequences and some great dialogue, it becomes clear that the team will have to enter a new digital world to continue the fight – essentially picking their own avatars and becoming a new kind of hero. This leads to some great visuals, as well as a really nice scene between Cass and Sin as their bond gets a little closer. And then the issue shifts dramatically to a new horror tone with the final page, as Kelly Thompson once again shows off her strength with flipping genres. This issue feels like a breath of fresh air after the action-heavy last arc, and the way the team keeps shifting with each arc is really fascinating. Inque has been a great addition to the book in particular, both as a villain and whatever she is now.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
