Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #22 Review

Fly, Fly Away

Written By: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson

Art By: Roge Antonio, Marcelo Maiolo, Saida Temofonte

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 9, 2018

It's the final issue of Birds of Prey and while I can't say that I'm sad about this, I can say that there were a few moments in this run that were fun and were some of the best portrayals of Batgirl that we've had during Rebirth.  That being said though, this seems like it will be a mostly forgettable run, but we still have this issue left and hopefully, this will make this run one worth remembering.  In our previous issue, we saw the Birds of Prey and friends battling Calculator and his crew so that the information broker could find out who Oracle is and with Blackbird's power of mind control, he just might find out because Huntress became their hostage.  Let's jump into this final issue and see how everything ends up.  Let's check it out.

Like I said at the beginning, I haven't really been a fan of this run, but this issue for all of its faults actually does try and do this team justice by trying to tie everything that they've done back into the first arc that started this series.  Yeah, not everything works out in that endeavor and some things like Burnrate now having the power to cancel out meta powers comes out of nowhere, but overall, you have a journey for each of our three main characters to take in this issue that will lead them to revelations that will hopefully guide them past their uncertainties in the future.

All in all, I love the art in this issue and what the Benson's tried to do with the characters, but by the end of the issue everything just felt a bit forced to get to the ending so that our Birds of Prey could have a moment of reflection, which would have been nice if it would have ended there, but instead we have to reveal what the key that Gus Yale gave Batgirl unlocks and while there's some cool visuals from this reveal, I don't quite get how any of this could actually go down or how Gus Yale could have set it up or why.  I'm happy to see this run leave for a bit until it's resurrected again because while we have gotten our best Batgirl out of this book, there never really seemed to be much for our heroes to do in this title that wasn't just a setup for a silly joke or anything that really evolved the characters that didn't seem forced out of nowhere.

Bits and Pieces:

While I'm sure that fans of this series will find something to love in this issue, I felt that it came off a bit forced to try and wrap everything up that it needed to and while we do get a decent send off for Huntress, the progression of her arc here, like the rest of the story felt rushed.  I love the art in this, but besides that, there isn't much I'm going to miss from this series ending.  

5.5/10