Birds of Prey vol. 3: Bird Undercover

The Birds caused a lot of trouble on Paradise Island back in vol. 1 as they tried to rescue Sin.  Lots of Amazons, including Wonder Woman herself, got knocked around and even though things worked out in the end, a debt was owed because of it.  Now Queen Nubia has come to call it in as an organization known as Ninth Day has kidnapped some Amazons for their own purposes.  It’s now up to the Birds to find a way in and get these women back, starting with Cassandra Cain going undercover to see what’s what.  After that’s over, it’ll be time for some R&R as Black Canary and Sin head off to the mountains to chill… and lay a trap for a group of killers that are looking to take the latter for themselves.

It may have taken two volumes to get here, but “Birds of Prey” has finally delivered the lively action/adventure series I was expecting from the jump.  No longer weighed down by inconsistent art and blah coloring, we get two stories that are fun, exciting, and even a little witty in their depiction of superhero action.  Neither breaks the mold in terms of what to expect from them, but the ladies get plenty of quality banter, Cassandra gets to show off what a consummate badass she is, Barda rocks the house, and there’s even an entertaining bit part to enjoy from John Constantine as well.

One thing I got wrong about what to expect from this volume was who’d be providing the art as Juann Cabal only does a two-issue arc, while new regular artist Sami Basri illustrates the preceding four.  Basri does solid work here, with clean storytelling and action, and Adriano Lucas’ colors complement her work quite well.  However, Cabal delivers more stylish work here as he plays with panel and space layout on the page in sequences like the one where Barda kicks a golem by swinging around on a panel gutter.  That doesn’t mean I’m disappointed to see more work from Basri on this title as she shows from the start that hers is very well suited to the title going forward from here.