Birds of Prey #5: A Slight Bump in the Road

Birds of Prey #5 is an action packed issue that disrupts much of the solid pacing from the series so far. The writing slightly falters, however, the art is awesome and makes for an entertaining read.

All hell has broken loose on Themyscira and for the past couple of issues the team has been facing off against Amazons, Wonder Woman, and now a giant magical monster. From a high level, this all works well, however, the dialogue and pacing in this issue takes readers out of the situation in hopes of having comedic moments.

Writer Kelly Thompson has crafted a fun story so far and while this issue isn’t my favorite, I still look forward to reading the issues as they are released. From a story perspective, I like what’s been done by Thompson and trust it will all payoff, however, some of the writing in this issue leans into trying to be funny and it’s more disruptive than enjoyable. Granted, other issues have had similar snarky dialogue, but in a part of the story where all should seem lost, it makes the gravity of the situation less dramatic and unbalanced.

The art is a shift from Leonardo Romero’s work from the first four issues, however, his style is still present in the cover art–which is great. The interior work is done by Arist Deyn and while it is definitely a shift from Romero’s style, I was still wowed with the panel designs and the attention to making every action moment (and there’s a lot of them) feel visceral and exciting.