DC Teases New Birds of Prey Team
Over the past thirty years, the Birds of Prey have been a unique tenet of DC Comics lore, bringing a number of underrated female heroes into the spotlight. While the team generally is led by some combination of Black Canary, Oracle, and Huntress, it looks like a brand-new roster for the group is about to take flight. The April 2022 solicitations for DC Comics tease a new version of the Birds of Prey, which will be debuting in a back-up story in Batman: Urban Legends #14 and will be written by Che Grayson, with art by Serg Acuna. The new group will be led by Lady Shiva and Katana, and will also welcome two newer additions to DC canon — Miracle Molly and Ghost.
This Birds of Prey roster is definitely a surprising one, even as both Katana and Lady Shiva have had ties to the team in the past. Shiva first teamed up with Black Canary and the Birds across an arc in Gail Simone's Birds of Prey run, and eventually joined the team during the "One Year Later" storyline, after she and Dinah swapped status quos and mantles. Katana, meanwhile, joined the Birds of Prey early on in the New 52, after Oracle took a leave of absence from the team.
Miracle Molly, meanwhile, is a cyberpunk-inspired vigilante who recently made an impact in Gotham City, particularly as an antagonist of Batman and company. Ghost is also a new vigilante, who debuted in the recent Legends of the Dark Knight series.
The Birds of Prey story in Batman: Urban Legends #14 is definitely interesting, especially given other news that has surrounded DC publishing this week. In particular, there's the impending Justice League #75 issue that is also set to debut in April, which will see all but one of the core Justice League members — a list that includes Black Canary — be killed off, in what is expected to kick off the next major crossover event. While the Batman: Urban Legends story might end up being a one-off, the long-term future of the group could take on a whole other meaning If Black Canary is among the casualties in Justice League #75 later this month.
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