Review by Frank Plowright

A Clash of Daggers sets this incarnation of Birds of Prey back on the right path again, not least because it’s almost all drawn by excellent Dutch artist Romano Molnaar.

Molnaar’s art on a single chapter was among the highspots of the otherwise ordinary Your Kiss Might Kill, and his clarity, imaginative layouts and some eye-popping spreads are on show here. Juan José Ryp, normally an artistic highpoint of any collection in which he’s represented, is second best here, although also excellent.

Duane Swierczynski is back to employing his strengths, starting with a well paced thriller unfolding over five chapters while delving into Katana’s background. Her sword absorbs the souls of those it kills, and among them is her former husband who can communicate with those souls and provide information to Katana. She was once involved with the Dagger Cult, a dangerous organisation now polluted by ambitious leadership, but that’s led to them being tracked by an armoured flying man called Condor. There is a resolution, but Katana’s story spins out into her solo graphic novel Soultaker.

Katana’s departure reduces the team to Batgirl, Black Canary and Sparrow, so Strix is introduced, once a Talon, and Condor becomes the first male team member. Everyone other than Batgirl has something they want to keep to themselves, although in Black Canary’s case it’s becoming difficult. The two chapters in which they’re together are a more conventional superhero story, functional without being compulsive beyond the secrets from Swierczynski, and the suspicion is that without Molinaar’s dynamism they’d seem even less.

A Clash of Daggers is Swierczynski’s swansong, the team bequeathed to Christy Marx for The Cruelest Cut. Thankfully this improves on the previous volume, but Swierczynski set the standards very high with his opener, and didn’t match that afterward.