Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Vol. 3: Full Circle

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey

by Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Rogê Antônio (Artist)

The Birds of Prey are more than a team: Batgirl, Black Canary and Huntress are friends, allies and sisters. Even when the Birds’ membership swells to include partners like Catwoman, Poison Ivy and even Harley Quinn, those three heroes—Barbara, Dinah and Helena—are the beating heart of the team.

 So what happens when the trust that unites them is betrayed?

 Barbara Gordon isn’t just Batgirl—she’s also the elite hacker known as Oracle, and she’s been using a backdoor into the computer system of the dangerous information broker known as the Calculator to take down his criminal enterprise, bit by bit. But when the Calculator decides to make it his mission to find and destroy Oracle, Dinah and Helena discover that Barbara hasn’t been open with them about where her intel is coming from … and innocent lives are lost in the cross-fire.

 Now, their most dangerous and personal enemies are united against them, and the Birds are barely on speaking terms. Can the Birds of Prey learn to stand united … or will they fall once and for all?

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Fiction

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 18, 2018

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some short filler stories sandwiched between two longer arcs. The first being about a virus that only makes men sick so the women of the DCU all pitch into help. My one bugaboo about it was that Harley Quinn was way out of her current continuity, back to pining over her "puddin". Then the Bensons wrap up the series with the Calculator's return along with some other reoccurring villains from the series. Plus, a robot named Burndown that they kept referring to as "she" even though it was just an A.I. with zero personality. I was constantly puzzled by that.

Ultimately, I just found these stories boring and drawn out. There's very little fun to the book and the action is meh as well. No one's really been able to make "Birds of Prey" work since Gail Simone left IMO. The art is serviceable but nothing special. All in all, I was kind of happy this title ended.

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terminando esse run das Aves de Rapina com o sentimento de diversão, e com a sensação de que fiz parte desaa equipe junto com as personagens.

Toda a dinâmica da equipe, potencializada pela amizade de suas identidades civis, fez com que o quadrinho fosse divertido do começo ao fim, com aventuras que mesclaram investigação, ação e superação de problemas.

Este volume é dividido em 2 arcos, em que o primeiro traz um problema bem interessante, muito semelhante ao de Y o Último Homem, já que em Gotham todos os homens estão doentes, deixando apenas a população feminina intacta.

Isso faz com que Gotham fique em estado de emergência, deixando-a em estado de quarentena. Dessa forma, As Aves de Rapina, junto de outras heroínas femininas, buscam encontrar a origem dessa doença e porque afeta apenas homens.

As participações de outras personagens da uma dinâmica muito legal na trama, acrescentando novas interações interessantes.

Já o segundo arco retoma questões envolvendo o Calculador, a Fenice e a Blackbird. Na trama, as Aves de Rapina precisam lidar com o Calculador que está em busca da verdadeira identidade da Oráculo, tudo porque ele a vê como mais inteligente que ele.

A perseguição do antagonista contra a Oráculo é impulsionada ainda mais quando ele descobre que a Oráculo está acessando seus sistemas. Isso inclusive gera uma discussão interna entre as Aves de Rapina, o que é um momento diferente das personagens.

Ainda, nesse volume temos um destino para Gus, e isso influencia diretamente na equipe de heroínas.

[Eyla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still think this series reads VERY young and it just never was what I was hoping it would be. It's unfair to judge it based on that I know, but the two stars remains justified with the "pandemic that only affects men" plot.
I do think this series is especially suited to young readers getting into DC and comics, especially girls. Maybe between ages 8 and 12? But there's also implied swearing, not sure if that would be an issue.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Full Circle picks up where the previous volume left off, collecting the last nine issues (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #14–22) of the 2016 on-going series and collects four stories: "Gotham City Limits", "Manslaughter", "Eco-Deadly", and "Full Circle".

"Manslaughter" is a two-issue story (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #15–16) and a finale (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #17) has the Bird of Prey taking on a mysterious contagion that made every male in Gotham City sick, which has the Birds of Prey teaming up with formable women of the DC Universe to combat a mysterious organization calling themselves Daughters of Gotham.

"Full Circle" is a three-issue story (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #19–21) and a finale issue (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #22) has the Bird of Prey, now including Selina Kyle as Catwoman and Pamela Isley as Poison Ivy going against Noah Kuttler as the Calculator and his team.

"Gotham City Limits" is a one-issue story (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #14) has the Birds of Prey teaming up with Selina Kyle as Catwoman and Pamela Isley as Poison Ivy and going against Deacon Blackfire. "Eco-Deadly" is also a one-issue story (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #18) has the Birds of Prey teaming up with Tiger from Spyral to go against Zin Bast.

The team of Julie Benson and Shawna Benson penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it was written rather well. The two main stories are rather interesting in premise, although lacked suitable execution. I do like how the series ended with the bookends of Oracle stories.

Roge Antonio (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #15–17, 19–22) and Marcio Takara (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #14 and 18 respectively) are the pencilers for the trade paperback. For the most part, the penciling styles complement each other rather well, making the artistic flow of the trade paperback somewhat smooth for the most part.

Overall, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey is a good series that introduced the team rather quickly and well, although most of the series is centered on Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, which makes sense, considering the title of the series. On the whole, more stories seems to be rather good than not and while there was a vast penciling team throughout the series, there were rather good ones.

All in all, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Full Circle is a good conclusion to wonderful series.

[Wing Kee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best in the series is also the last. 3.5 stars.

World: The art is good, but it doesn't get amazing until Antonio comes back on the book, when it's Roge's art, it's beautiful, it's emotive, it's what I want this book to look like. The world building here is full circle because this is the end of Benson's run and like all writers in the modern era, when their time comes they pull all the pieces they created and do something with it. But that's not the only thing that is great about the world building this time, Manslaughter was fantastic cause it pulled on a lot of the female characters of the DCU and it was just FUN! In the end Benson has reignited my enjoyment of this team and this little piece of the DCU, I'm gonna miss them.

Story: A couple of stories with this packed 9 issue book. There are a couple of one and done stories that are solid but nothing special, the weather wizard wand one comes to mind...and the camp one. But there are two very solid stories found here. 'Manslaughter' is paced well, it's methodical and distant just like Benson's writing has been, it's a bit stilted and trying to hard for natural dialog ends up being...unnatural (I think that's one of the main things that this book did not hit and I wish it had). That being said the message of female strength is very on the nose and it hits pretty hard to the point of preachy but wow this 3 issue story was fun. The characters that are apart of it, the insane plot, the poorly defined villain it was just peak Benson but because of the cast of characters it made it so much more, I really enjoyed this story. Then we have 'Full Circle' which starts with the death of a character I did not care for I did not mind and honestly the emotions did not hit because I did not like this character. It also starts with a fracture of the team for a reason I find fairly illogical, when they are breaking the law constantly, piggybacking the Calculator feed is not a big deal, I don't see the issue but it's a mountain from this molehill that starts this story. But that being said this story does end strong and it does call back enough of all the pieces the Benson has created for this run that I enjoyed. The end was satisfying, open ended and honestly as much as I wished this run had been better I do think Benson has the chops and I think over time she will be a better and better writer through experience. I wished they gave her more time.

Characters: I love this bunch of characters and they do have distinct voices and Benson does overall write them well. There is however still a distance and stilted feeling to their interaction and dialog that makes you feel that Benson is trying to hard to write natural dialog and it doesn't quite jump off the page. It's well intentioned but it's there. Helena's arc is the best of the bunch, from where she started in Rebirth to where she ends up it's a good run for her. Babs is always going to be Babs and she's great but looking at the grand scheme not a lot of growth from her. Dinah is the same but then again she's really well written in Percy's run so I fill in the gaps in my head canon from that. Overall the characters are done well, but a little bit more depth would have been amazing.

A solid end to a solid run, I wish Benson has more time to grow this series and her take on the Birds.

Onward to the next book!

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty sure this included the worst story for a female led team comic that I've ever read. That is quite a feat.

This series was rather meh, but it ended on such a sour note for me. Just skipping to the finale story, we get the culmination of a bunch of unearned grief. We get a story that made me wonder if it made sense for a decade old beef (Calculator v. Oracle) to be the center of this run when this had to essentially be retold for Rebirth. In addition, this writing team couldn't touch the old run. And I truly felt the OG Birds of Prey didn't truly take flight until Gail Simone took over writing it.

There's a story where Helena takes her students on a field trip and Dinah tags along. They stop an evil, immortal villain (no biggie, I guess) and I think we're meant to assume the students they showed their combat skills in front of thought it was a theater production or a prank? Weird.

We see the death of Gus Yale - a character that was never fully formed. Who's entire backstory is told to us in like 2 pages of a monologue before he disappears from the series. Only to return when he's killed off because Babs poked the bear. What's nonsensical to me is that, before his disappearance, you'd think she found some way to keep tabs on him. Guess she - like the writing team, didn't care enough about this character to do something like that. Anyway, it's "too bad so sad" from Helena and Dinah, who I don't think showed a single second of liking this guy. We also hear Ivy and Selina weren't happy to hear it and I couldn't recall them ever meeting in person.

Again, not my favorite character, but there was potential here at least for someone that popped up from time to time. He existed just to be a helpful fanboy and then dies because of Babs' choices. Bummer. There really isn't great bipolar rep in comics.

We also get the death of Helena's mother who was introduced and had maybe a couple pages before her death. Who's grieving here? She seemed to matter more when Helena already thought she was dead.

The worst part of the entire series is the "Not All Men" story. I can only guess the writing team (shockingly female) wanted to appeal to male readers because I found the entire thing gross. Aside from setting up for your villain squad to be "man-hating" women - there's a segment where they cite actual crimes like sexual harassment and violence as part of their motives and the only response to that (over the top and cringey) speech is Babs saying not all men are bad. You have a team of women - nearly all of whom have been severely harmed and traumatized by men - spending wayyyy too long in a story about saving all of the men. I can't imagine a "broad squad" writing team got together and wrote this for any reason other than to appeal to men. It reminded me of The Falcon and Winter Soldier comic existing to say we should try to save boys going down the alt right pipeline. Perhaps there's a way to tell this story - but this ain't it.

The absolute worst part of it (aside from the horrifically cringey dialogue) was Harley Quinn doing her damndest to save Joker. We've long moved past this version of Harley Quinn. We'd moved past it by the time this comic came out. Male centered Harley Quinn is the weakest, most annoying and uninteresting version of Harley Quinn. Why write a victim of abuse trying her hardest to save her abuser? To go along with Batman's code? What the hell are we doing here?

I don't want to read anything by the kind of female writer that thinks there was something to be served by writing a story like this. I don't ever want to read anyone writing Harley Quinn's character this way, either. Just yikes all around for this one and this is in no way shape or form a recommend from me.

This series was definitely worth forgetting.

[ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow.... this was a fun run!

first: the reason i didn't give this volume 5 stars like 1 & 2. manslaughter. i did not like it. the concept of man-hating feminists vs the "good" feminists who like men in their lives is so old and DONE.
i adored the huge all-girl team up, though - and i appreciated the small comment at the end where renee and batwoman mentioned that the daughters hurt trans women as well as cis men.
but... i don't think the comment was specific enough, it seemed really vague and if i wonder if i would have even understood what they meant if it weren't a detail that was really bugging me. if you're writing a feminist story, you can't skim over stuff like that, imo. i would have also appreciated a trans character or two (alysia where???) within the story line, as physical evidence of the daughters' binary thinking.

however..... the rest was good :) and apart from the binary, eye-rolling bad "good vs bad feminists" aspect of manslaughter, i liked that one, too.

and dang roge antonio. love that art. and takara's art grew on me, too!

[Katy]

3.5 stars.

A nice finale to the series. I really enjoyed the entire run of this iteration of Birds of Prey. It an overall fun and engaging storyline with a lot of my favorite characters.

This particular installment featured a storyline about a flu that comes to Gotham, quickly spreads, hospitals are full, overflow patients have to go to the stadium, Gotham goes on lockdown, should people from different sides team up to stop the spread of this flu? Should they make a vaccine? Oh, and the flu is only affecting men so the Birds of Prey and the GCPD will need help from a lot of unexpected allies to help with this. When I checked out the entire run of Birds of Prey Rebirth back in March to read during my time off of work, I had no idea one of the final storylines would be so timely.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lackluster ending to a decent start.

So first arc is about a man-killing disease that is hurting all the men in Gotham so all the women, both villains and heroes, team up to stop the people who have created this disease. The 2nd arc wraps up the big twist in the first volume, I won't spoil it, but it basically closes up loose ends and a bitter farewell to the series.

Good: Some of the dialogue is fun. I enjoyed seeing all the women team up and kick some butt for sure and the very very end is nice.

Bad: The storylines and plots are too on the nose. Too cheesy at times. I also thought the pacing were entirely too slow. I was bored half way through.

Overall this is just okay ending. I enjoyed volume 1 but 2 and 3 have not been working for me. A 2 out of 5.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Plot: First the Birds of Prey have to save the men of Gotham City from the Daughters of Gotham, then they take on Calculator one more time.

This volume was the end of the writer's stint with the Birds and it wrapped things up neatly. There were loose ends tied up and closure given to characters. Overall, the stories were very solid and I enjoyed the art. I was saddened by character deaths. The first story with the Daughters of Gotham was really awesome, bringing in lots of female characters from the DCU and Bat family. The second bug arc was the one that brought the closure. I am looking forward to the next era of the Birds and what they have to offer.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Equality is achieved at last. Finally someone is brave enough to refer to a murderous robot that has no identifying physical female characteristics using girly pronouns. Feminism is dead, and SJW crap like this killed it.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Birds of Prey expand here until this almost a Brave and the Bold spinoff: we have Poison Ivy, Harley, Catwoman, Wonder Woman and during the Patient Zero plotline several more women. The heroes deal with a man-killing virus, their old foes the Calculator and Black Bird and Huntress' conniving mother. I couldn't get into this as much as V2 — it felt cluttered, though I"m not sure if that's the arc, the sheer number of word balloons or what. Not really bad, but it didn't grip me.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

The Birds of Prey deal with a virus that is making the men of Gotham sick. They also deal with the Calculator again.

[rima · Rating 4 out of 5]

dinah lance could run me over with a car and i’d thank her

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]

After the stresses of the previous volume, it’s time for a field trip. But Deacon Blackfire has other plans for the Birds Of Prey! Then, a deadly plague targets the men of Gotham City and it’s up to the Birds and their allies to find a cure before it’s too late, before the series concludes with a three-way supervillain team-up between Calculator, Blackbird, and Fenice that will change the Birds Of Prey forever!

We open with the Field Trip one-shot, which pits the girls against Deacon Blackfire, but this story is more about showing how far the cast have come in terms of teamwork and cooperation. They may fight together, but their different approaches to problems are always working against each other, and this issue highlights how much that’s changed over the past 13 issues.

The three-issue Manslaughter story reads a little like fan service on paper – all of the DC Universe’s female characters team up to save all of the men – but it’s actually a well thought out story that establishes good reasons for the characters to assemble and work together, even those that wouldn’t normally. The villains are a bit daft in motivation, but they’ve got a Plague Doctor aesthetic going on which I always like. There’s a Huntress Spyral story sandwiched between this and the final arc, but I’ll admit I don’t remember too much about it, which is indicative of how important it was, I suppose.

Finally, we come to Full Circle. I’m a sucker for stories like this, in which all the previously established villains of the series return for one final combined hurrah, and this story is no exception. With Calculator, Fenice, Blackbird, and new robot villain Burnrate assembled against the Birds, it’s a no-holds-barred final story that leaves each character in a different place than the series began due to the intrinsic link between each of the villains and the heroes that have been built up over the course of the series. It does feel a bit like the Bensons are cleaning house in some respects (no spoilers here), but it doesn’t detract from the success of the story.

I think I’ve worked out why I enjoy the Bensons’ writing so much now (it’s only taken 23 issues, shut up); their approach to comics reminds me of Dan Slott. They use shorter arcs, three or four issues stories, rather than unnecessarily bloated six issue arcs which seem to be the norm these days. This means that it feels like we’ve covered a lot more ground in 23 issues of shorter arcs than we might have otherwise.

The majority of the art here is by Roge Antonio, who again seems to have become the unofficial regular artist of this book after Claire Roe vanished, and I honestly prefer Antonio’s softer edge to his work. He’s really made this book his over the past year or so, and there’s an ease to his pencils that definitely shows. Marcio Takara hits up both of the single issue stories, although his style has been a bit unpolished recently. I’m not sure if it’s a permanent change in style or just the pressures of deadlines getting to him.

Full Circle is a great ending for the series; aside from one issue that didn’t make an impression, this volume is chock full of great storytelling, good character development, well developed villains, and lovely art from a creative team that have really built up a lot of faith for me personally. I’m sure the Bensons’ Green Arrow run is going to be great, and whatever Antonio gets to draw next will be better for it. The Birds definitely go out with a bang – I just hope they don’t spend too long out of the spotlight.

[Minh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite super-hero graphic novel series continues. I really wish this was a TV series Sure Black Canary and Huntress already appeared on Arrow and are very different from these version, but even an animated series would be awesome. The art is beautiful, the characters badass. It's a real girl-power series.

[John Yelverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

All I can say is that Julie Benson is no Gail Simone, and this cheese ball, girl power, woo hoo graphic novel is Exhibit A.

[J.R. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my gosh. This may have been one of the worst graphic novels/comics I've read. The first two volumes were good, but this was just all around no good. Here, let me give you a rundown in case you don't believe me.

1) The dialog is awful. I haven't seen this much of characters stating the obvious/describing what's clearly going on in a panel by talking to themselves since the '60s comics. "Bast's goons are firing on us from behind!" "We're under attack!"

2) There's a scene where a bunch of thugs in Gotham don't know who Batgirl is.

3) Batgirl marches up to Poison Ivy and says "You're the only person who has the means of pulling off a widespread infection and who hates humanity enough to try." Really? The ONLY one? Joker literally did that a couple years ago. Ra's al Ghul does it regularly. And that's just two Bat-villains. Plenty of others in DC.

4) Huntress and Batwoman have a big argument, with Batwoman refusing to work with Harley, Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Batwoman refuses to work with the Birds of Prey because of this. It takes all of one panel for her to change her mind. Its a very tense moment that just resolves itself instantly.

5) Batgirl makes a joke about how she won't ask Wonder Woman how she got in a quarantined Gotham because "she's Wonder Woman." Except literally any super hero that could fly could have made it in. The roads are closed and so are the airports, but there's nobody stopping super-humans from flying in.

6) Amanda Waller, her armed forces, maybe 1/3 of the GCPD, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, the Birds of Prey, Batwoman, and her team are all standing around outside the police department. We're talking at least 25-30 people right here. Somehow, NONE of them notice a similar sized group of people just walk onto the steps with masks on until they are all assembled together.

7) Waller is going to blow up a stadium of sick patients to contain this mystery virus. Some crap about containing the infection. The stadium is basically a big hospital at this point, and the hospitals are also full, but Waller doesn't go after them.

8) Wonder Woman somehow alley-oops Batgirl from the floor of said stadium, straight up so Batgirl lands perfectly in Waller's helicopter. I might buy this, but they seem to have forgotten that the stadium has either a glass or plexiglass roof, which Batgirl miraculously gets through (pretty sure the writers just forgot the roof existed).

9) The dialog...oh man...
-Black Canary, telling Harley to stop stealing medical drugs: "I think you need to put those back to avoid my side effects."
-Catwoman, while clearly stealing from a jewelry store: "I'm not stealing. I'm borrowing."

10) There's the tired old "oh, we don't trust our teammate anymore because she didn't tell us everything." Batgirl is hacking into a criminal's system to locate crime. This is something she's done plenty of times in the past. She doesn't tell her teammates who she's hacking into, and somehow that equates to lying. Or maybe not. In one panel they make it clear that Batgirl didn't lie, she just withheld certain info. Then a couple pages later it says she lied...not sure...

[Chris Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought by the end of volume 2 the series was finally picking up but the final volume is a letdown again. There are 4 stories collected, none of them are awful but none of them are very good.

Gotham City Limits - Barbara is back to Oracle-ing and we get to see that in action while Huntress and Canary are chaperoning a school trip out of Gotham. It’s sweet and fun and I enjoyed it.

Manslaughter - The Daughters of Gotham have poisoned all the men in Gotham. Yes, they really did a manflu arc. This leads to a huge women team up for Batgirl, Canary, Huntress, Catwoman, Ivy, Harley, Batwoman, Orphan, Spoiler, Gotham Girl, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman. I like all those characters except Gotham Girl. It was hard to care though because I knew the majority of them would do nothing but stand in the background. The design of the Daughters of Gotham is quite cool. I’m now out of positives. The stupid premise of the story just annoyed me from page 1 and the the great female hero coalition was such an underwhelming waste.

Eco-Deadly - one shot Huntress focus where Spyral asks her and the Birds to go after an arms dealer at an energy event. Entirely unmemorable.

Full Circle - the big finale where Calculator returns after Babs has been hacking his systems for intel, to find out who Oracle is once and for all. He’s going to do this by busting out Blackbird and Fenice from prison (remember them? No? Oh.), by killing off Gus (remember him? Yes? Great. Do you care? No? Oh.) and by sending a robot called Burnrate to kill the Birds of Prey.

Batgirl is once again written like a teenager in over her head just to annoy me. The three heroes spend the whole thing bickering in the most annoyingly petty way ever. Green Arrow, Poison Ivy and Catwoman are dragged in again to try and distract from the underwhelming plot. Drama is beaten in with the back of a wooden spoon as Helena decides she might care about Fenice after all. There’s an I’m Spartacus moment for Oracle. It’s all so forced and rubbish.

But the last few pages show Barbara re-established as Oracle again, Helena focusing on herself and being a good teacher, Dinah focusing on her relationship with Ollie and the Birds still active for other writers to use. So I’m okay with all that. This series does at least leave the Birds of Prey in a good place for a better writer to pick them up hopefully soon.

[Scott Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of this book was fantastic, particularly the "Full Circle" arc with which it culminates and which provided the volume's title.

The first story in here gives us a truly impressive and formidable team of Gotham ladies plus Wonder Woman dealing the a reasonably large scale threat. Unfortunately, those the were the best parts as the story itself underwhelmed a bit. The villains turn out to be a cadre of Gotham women who set to destroy all men. Ummmm....it just...I don't know the Birds deserve better plotting than that.

The man-hater villains arc was followed by a stand-alone story about an eco-inventor that Barbara, Dinah and Helena save while on a visit to France.

The final story--and by far the best--is "Full Circle" which gathers up the various strings of the Birds' previous volumes and tells a wonderful Calculator story. The Birds are nicely balanced as each has been directly challenged by one of the characters/circumstances focused on in the story. The ladies find themselves in the sights of a resurgent Calculator who's created a robotic assassin named "Burnrate" who's out to destroy anyone it can find with any connectin to Oracle. In pursuing Oracle, the Calculator pulls out both Black Bird (the meta power-thief who souped up Dinah's Canart crt some issues back) and Fenice (Helena's mom's street name as the mob queen of Gotham). A slow even build, I just wish the whole volume were as good as this.

[Louis Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve got 2 arcs here and a one-shot in-between.

The first arc sees the Birds of Prey teaming up with a whole bunch of female heroes (and a couple of anti-heroes). All the Gotham ladies, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman? Give me more! I loved seeing them together and honestly never wanted it to end. I would love, love, love to read more comics with all female/ trans/ non-binary heroes.

The actual story was okay but I was confused by its message. Essentially it’s about feminists fighting misandrists in an effort to protect men. Uhhh... is this the 90s? This is super old school. Also, the arc fails to acknowledge trans people and non-binary characters barring one throwaway line. As glorious as this team up is, the positioning of feminists in this story is strange at best, bordering on problematic. Sigh.

The one-shot was lots of fun and full of action. More one-shots please.

The final arc is too focused on the one dude in BOP - Gus. This is not why I want to read about three badass female heroes. I feel like this was an editorial decision, and it doesn’t work. I would have much preferred if the whole arc had been more focused on Helena’s mother, and maybe even given us some clues to where Dinah’s mom disappeared to. That’s still a mystery that hasn’t been solved.

The art got much better in this volume but it still had a few goofy moments. I’m not sure what’s happening with BOP now but I would love to read some more of these ladies.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying this series. (I haven't seen a volume 4 come out yet, so I'm hoping its continuing.) This book had a nice balance of "fun" and "serious" stories. The fun ones: The issue where Huntress and Black Canary take some students camping and end up awakening an evil spirit--and meanwhile, Batgirl goes on patrol solo, missing her buds. The Paris one was also a pretty fun one-shot. I mean, it's the Birds of Prey in Paris... what's not to love? My favorite story, though, was definitely the one with a virus attacking only the men of Gotham. I loved the theme about how feminism isn't about putting down men--which, in a broader sense, is a lesson we all need to remember: You don't build yourself or others up by putting someone else down. Plus, we had a girl power team-up that was also a heroes/villains team-up. Honestly, it was kind of the perfect comic story. (And also a callback to an episode of the Justice League animated series--points to anyone who remembers that episode!) The final one was a bit more serious, as Batgirl put everyone in danger in an attempt to help the city. Add into that some mama drama with Huntress--plus two deaths (the other "Oracle" and the aforementioned mama), and you get a decently intense story... that, at the same time, never went so intense that it was difficult to read. All in all, this was a really great comic: marrying classic action with some thought-provoking and interesting plots.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short On Ideas

This was pretty bleh to me. Most of the stories fell flat, with the absolute worst being about the men of Gotham falling ill in a purposeful plague.

Who would want to kill all the men? If you guessed evil man-hating feminists, you win the prize of an unoriginal plotline. Just once, I'd like the person trying to wipe out men to have a different motivation. Like a dude trying to get rid of the so-called Chads of the world so he has a shot at a girlfriend. I would love to read that! But nooooo, it's so unoriginal while trying to be woke at the same time. And that's just the beginning of the storyline of stupid. The villain does stupid revealing the plot stuff in order to get caught and has a needlessly complicated plague so it can be stopped without massive man death. It's just a terrible storyline, and it feels like it's forever when it's probably only three issues.

Other issues aren't as bad, though there's none I outright love. Characters are brought back to be killed for cheap drama. There's stupid infighting. There's some good bits, like the first issue, but mostly it wasn't great.

The art varied in quality, with some great and some sloppy.

I don't recommend this volume. Maybe without the man plague story, I'd shrug and say it wasn't awful, but it really left a sour taste in my mouth, and there was nothing good enough to wash it out.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a nice fluffy single-issue story about Deacon Blackfire that is fun but feels very slight for the character's villainy. But at least it focuses on the Birds of Prey. The first of the story arcs gets kinda weird as a plague disables all men in Gotham, and the prominent female characters in Gotham (and a few from the larger DC Universe) girl-power it up to resolve the issue. It's kind of uncomfortable to read post-COVID, and the motivations of the villains are not particularly logical. Still, it gives a lot of characters chances to have some interesting interactions, even if the story feels a bit short-changed by its length. Then we get an arc dedicated to tying up all the loose ends before the series stops, which also feels pretty rushed and unearned, with character decisions that are obviously plot driven and make no sense in the context of the characters making them. A side character's death feels really cheap and its ramifications unlikely, but ultimately required for the story's conclusion.
Ultimately, this iteration of the Birds of Prey is just okay. It never soared to the heights of Simone's runs, but it's definitely nowhere near the worst the characters have been portrayed either.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Rebirth launched title ends on a high note. A very long Volume, but contains the following stories:
- A one-shot involving students, colonial dresses, and an urban-legend-turned-real encounter with Deacon Blackfire
- The Daughters of Gotham release a virus that attacks only men, so the Birds of Prey band together with other DC ladies and take the fight to them. Batgirl, Huntress, Black Canary, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Orphan, Spoiler, Gotham Girl, and Wonder Woman... amazing team! (Perhaps DC's version of A-Force??)
- Calculator has finally had enough and must know the identity of Oracle. Creating a fiery, near-indestructible robot named Burnrate, breaking Fenice (a Gotham crime lord and Huntress' mother) out of Arkham, and joining with a mind-controlling metahuman who goes by Blackbird, gives the Birds of Prey quite a bit to focus on and fight against. Gus dies in the crossfire, but once the enemies are stopped, his legacy gives them a new lair, new costumes, and a lot of once-lost memories and trinkets.

What's next for the Birds of Prey?

Recommend.

[Flavio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Há um ditado que se popularizou após o filme “Campo dos Sonhos”, de 1989: “Se você construir, eles virão”.

Muito se fala sobre “representatividade” quando se discute os quadrinhos americanos, cujo público consumidor é majoritariamente masculino.

Em “Batgirl e as Aves de Rapina” eu enxergo exatamente tudo o que eu pretendo mostrar pra minha sobrinha quando ela tiver idade suficiente para ler: uma história escrita por mulheres (as irmãs Julie e Shawna Benayon), ilustrada de forma nada apelativa ou sexualizada por desenhistas talentosos (os homens Rogê Antônio e Márcio Takara), mostrando aventuras protagonizaras por mulheres com personalidades distintas e bem caracterizadas.

Não faltava nada. Mas faltou: público. Apesar da qualidade, esse é o ultimo volume da série, que foi cancelada.

“Se você construir, elas virão”? Não sei, mas espero que as editoras continuem apostando em boas histórias como essas.

[Rosemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really loved the first storyline about the virus that only affected men, and the resulting all girl team up. The only problem was there was so many characters to keep track of, and they never really explained how the virus spread, not all those thousands of men could have been injected. I also wish they had spent a little more time focusing on why those relationships were important to the female characters, like some were obvious, but others could have been explored a little, although that probably wasn't possible with such a large cast of characters. As for the final storyline I was a little disappointed that they killed off a character to cause strife between the team, I think much of the final storyline could have been handled differently. However, I am glad they ended it with the team still together.

[Robert Bussie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julie and Shawna Benson's writing continues to imitate Gail Simone's style with good stories and banter between the Birds of Prey. The story picks up plot points from volumes 1 and 2 with the Huntress' mom, Calculator, and Gus aka the New Oracle stories coming to a close. Add in an extra story about a women's group trying to kill all the men in Gotham and this book is a fun read. As a bonus Catwoman and Poison Ivy help out the Birds team again. Their appearances make these stories better and more enjoyable.

The art is forgettable. It is good to average.

I recently met Julie and Shawna Benson at a comic con. They are very nice and like taking about comic books and libraries. Very cool.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This forgettable series comes to an end not with a bang, but with a whimper. There are two brief stories in this book and a whole lot of guest appearances. Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and more all make an appearance and aid the Birds of Prey, but this book is never the Girl Power/Feminist tome it aspires to be. Instead, we have uninspired writing and bland artwork wrapped around some run of the mill stories. Everything gets resolved in the end, but not to any great satisfaction. I don't know what DC's vision was for this title but I have to think that it was more than this series produced. This is a title that can only claim to be over and has left me with little more than a want to move on.