Oracle: The Cure

This collection bridges the gap between the first and second iterations of Birds of Prey, breaking up the original team and then showing us Barbara operating on her own. The Birds get their final showdown with the Calculator, who has been dogging them on-and-off since Perfect Pitch. I liked this, though it was obviously very rushed, and Barbara is forced to blow up yet another headquarters. Less convincing was Babs breaking up the Birds-- she just smashed the Joker in the face (and played a key role in the Final Crisis if I have my timeline right)! How could she be lacking in self-confidence now?

Mopey-for-no-reason Barbara drives the rest of this book, in a solo adventure where she tries to stop the Calculator from getting hold of the show more anti-life equation. Barbara has been written better, for sure-- characters always seem to be telling her tech-stuff here. There's a good idea here, but the story never really engages the reader. Except maybe with a good twist at the end... but then it's too late, and the staging is very awkward and sudden.

Also: gratuitous shower scene. What the hell? And Guillem March's covers are like 50% beautiful, 50% skeevy.

(Point of interest: as I usually do with comics, I acquired my copy of this book via interlibrary loan. The library my copy came from? That of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center.)

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Part of my massive Barbara Gordon Re-read which I had a glorious amazing time with. It was nice seeing more Oracle/Barbara stories after the end of BOP, but this one wasn't all that well done. Though the references to A Killing Joke were well done.

Not a huge fan of the cheesecake covers but I do like the story.

Not a huge fan of the cheesecake covers but I do like the story.

Not a huge fan of the cheesecake covers but I do like the story.

Not a huge fan of the cheesecake covers but I do like the story.

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