#Oracle (DC Comics)

[pedrocomicreviews]

Birds of Prey #21

“Oracle's pissed at me or just has her hands full. I'm not sure which bodes worse for us.”

The Birds are on the backfoot as the new villains gain momentum. Parallel to that, DC’s quest to make an evil Oracle produces another super hacker based on classic Greek aesthetics. 

I’m still on my bullshit: I think this is a stealth crossover with Batman Beyond. I think the technology involved being so more advanced than what the characters are used to, Inque being here, and the identity of the new villain Daemon Prime being a secret is all going to culminate with Terry McGuinness interrupting affairs to shway all over the villains. The fact he’s already been confirmed to be in another series soon simply fuels me with power.

Even if it’s not what’s gonna happen, this is still very fun. It’s officially a full-on organized assault on all the Birds of Prey, and they don’t know how to fight back yet. The villains chosen are a little generic; it feels like Vixen should be here with how many of these are animal-themed. Inque and Daemon Prime definitely feel like they stand out, which makes me think they’re in this together a lot more than the rest. 

And, as usual, when the Birds are directly targeted, we get our mandatory roll call so we can check who’s still in Barbara’s rolodex. And I gotta say, it’s very funny that Constantine is queer enough to be here.

Look at him, he doesn’t even remember the mission. The alcohol’s washed it away. Ah, completely defanged, just the way I like my Vertigo legacy characters. Fuck.

Still, this is shaping up very nicely. The previous arcs were a little too fantastical in my opinion, and I think Birds of Prey as a franchise deals much better with more grounded stories, even if those grounded stories involve dropping a New God from low-orbit like a meteor just to daze her. I like that so far there is no magic involved beyond the simple fact that some of these characters use magic.

But, back to the eyecatcher’s point– DC really can’t just make the Calculator work again as her nemesis, huh? This is the second or third super evil hacker with a Greek/mythos theme that directly opposes Oracle ever since The New 52 irreparably damaged this franchise. Which obviously I get: Oracle is the best and she has no equal opposite force. Batgirl has equal opposite forces; if she didn’t before, she certainly does now, what with her brother and occasionally the Joker. 

But after doing this specific bit so many times, it kinda just washes over me. The others didn’t stick and this one feels very similar to those. At what point do you just bring back Spy Smasher, since at least she had something to do with Barbara? Birds of Prey’s relationship with its past is fraught at best and usually just very messy and unfulfilling, but again, we had solved this problem before. There were several characters with a cool, established relationship to Oracle that could be doing this instead. 

Which, again, is why I hope there’s a twist to this one. I keep mentioning Batman Beyond, but, really, anything that makes it stick out more than just “the new Not Calculator” would be nice. I trust Thompson to deliver, but the fact she has to write around how much damage retconning these relationships and stories away did to these characters in particular is always going to feel tragic.

[siracethegreat]

Based on a stupid meme of a pikmin with a hammer 👍👍

[catastrophicalcat]

Batkids sleepover

Wayne Family Adventures

[itssacarose]

had some fun drawing random batfam headcanons (pt 1? let's see how it goes)

[non-binary-lil-star]

Bruce, introducing his kids at a family Interview: This is my eldest Dick, my second eldest Cassandra, then my son Jason, my second youngest Tim, and my youngest Damian

Bruce: That's my daughter-in-law Barbara, and my other daughter-in-law, Stephanie

Tim: ??? Steph and I broke up forever ago?? How is she your daughter-in-Law?

Stephanie: I may not be dating any of you anymore but I'm the State of daughter-in-law. Daughter-in-law is not a family title, it's the friends you make along the way

Jason: I'm not high enough for this shit

Golden boy Dick Grayson: Me fucking neither

Jason: what

Dick: what

Bruce: ??? What do you mean she's not my daughter-in-law anymore?? I was counting on her marrying into the family :C

Steph: Sorry B, unfortunately your son would rather kiss superbitch than me

Dick: TIM IS KISSING WHO NOW

Bruce: >:( We'll talk about that later, right now-

Tim: I don't think that's necess-

Bruce: We'll talk about that later. Right now can't any of you date her?? Jaylad, you're sin-

Steph: HELL NO

Jason, already on his second blunt: You're so funny, old man. I'm literally co parenting my best friends kid. I'm literallyyyy be gay do crime. Haha.

Dick: YOURE WHAT WITH WHO NOW

Bruce: CAN ANY OF YOU JUST DATE HER

Cass, slowly raising her hand like in Hunger Games: I volunteer

Bruce: ...

Tim: ...

Dick: ...

Bruce: This is why you're my favorite daughter 🥹

Cass: Father, I'm your only daughter

Tim: Untrue. I did drag one time, that has to count

Steph: Does this mean I have a girlfriend

Damian: This family is a disgrace

Interviewer: ...

[dcoraclestan]

Wonder Woman: this feels… unethical.

Red Hood: don’t care, we’re settling this debate once and for all!

Batman: get me out of this thing!

Spoiler: not until you tell us who your favorite kid is.

Nightwing: the lasso only works if you ask it like a question.

Robin: father, please tell the others that I am your favorite child so we can put this ridiculous debate to rest.

Nightwing: once again, question.

Batman: Diana! Get me out! Now!

Wonder Woman: I’m also curious, and they paid me.

Batman: I can promise you, I can give you more than what they offered.

Batgirl (Cass): now, Batman, out of all of us, who is your favorite child?

Batman: *all but bitting his tongue off*

Red Robin: you know you’ll have to say it. Just say it. Just say “Tim.”

Batman: it’s Ace!

Everyone: …

Batgirl: the dog?!

Signal: yeah, that tracks.

Robin: you mean you love the dog more than your own blood?!

Red Hood: this hurts less than if you said Damian, so I’ll take it.

Spoiler: I knew you wouldn’t say me, but wow.

*Later*

Batman: *paying Diana* thank you for not using your real lasso.

Wonder Woman: I don’t believe it should be used for petty purposes… however, I have to ask, do you have a favorite child?

Batman: of course I do. It’s-

*a loud train passes by*

Oracle: *listening over comms* Dammit. Don’t worry, Cass. He’ll admit it’s you one day.

[ashoss]

batman…..

[ckalaveram]

I procrastinated a whole lot but I finished mostly

[astrovvitches]

📸family fun!

[arttuff]

thank you so much to @goldfishinaplasticbag for donating to the DC for Gaza ROUND TWO!

the prompt was for tim and babs siblingisms!!!

Find out more, or donate to get your own fanart HERE: dcforgaza.carrd.co/

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Birds of Prey #18, but also just an essay on Birds of Prey in general

"I think Oracle is actually the master of our destinies?"

So, it's not a packed issue or anything, but I thought I could cheat and connect it to my current reading project-- I've been reading all of Birds of Prey recently, from Dixon to Thompson, and I'm pretty much done (only really gotta get through the New 52 book).

So I thought I would try to connect that experience to this issue, which starts dealing with things that are very much related to the original vol 1: Sin's relationship to that good, stupid ninja shit, and how they keep trying to come for her. So, while eventually I do talk about the issue here, this is mostly an essay about the current state of Birds of Prey, coming from a relatively complete but maybe not exhaustive understanding of their history.

I actually really like Thompson's Birds of Prey, I think it's as good as we've had since Simone left volume 1, but I do think it's watered down by the necessities of the new status quo DC has going on. Most of the original adventures apparently aren't canon anymore, nor are the relationships -- the perfect woman Zinda Blake doesn't even exist right now and as far as I remember from N52/Rebirth, Huntress is basically a completely different character with very little relationship to anyone in here. And, of course, Barbara's walking around and is Batgirl on the regular.

I can't get in on everything wrong with the setup, because that's not the book's fault, but it does mean this new, good Birds of Prey book is basically entirely different from what made Birds of Prey work originally. I have a lot of issues with some of vol 1's takes, but I can't stop wondering about how the more mundane and grounded problems the Birds dealt with on the regular meant their relationships were also more grounded and more raw, real, and interesting to follow. Thompson's Birds of Prey, in contrast, is a super hero book about magic and stuff you see in every other book now.

It's a good book about magic and stuff you see in every other book now, but I think it also ends up being a little less unique because of that. The team is the main attraction-- Barbara Gordon is still my favorite character in this entire universe and I will kill for her, I will always go for bat for Cassandra, Big Barda is always cool, and it's wild to see Sin actually being used by any writer. Their relationships ring true and occasionally they even have some cool drama between each other.

But every once in a while you get this feeling that... this really wouldn't be happening if we hadn't had to kneecap every singular character in this book because of continuity reboots and, a lot of the time, really uncomfortable racist and sexist problems that DC editorial famously has. The entirety of the first half of this book wouldn't have happened with Barbara being Oracle instead of Batgirl, Dinah and Sin wouldn't be here like this if it weren't for reboots, Cass had a whole thing going on before before the Orphan era and we're still trying to go back to it. And now, finally, about this issue: we're back to ninjas from Asia wanting Sin to be something. Probably not the new Lady Shiva at this point, but, something.

And I feel that, after so long, after so many reboots, after so much is different (Sin is a full grown woman while everyone else is frozen in time, for instance), I feel like coming back to this is fanservice for a story that never ended, and can't continue? I feel like every element that made these characters care about this story isn't real anymore, and this is only here because hey, I remember when Birds of Prey had to deal with stupid ninja shit occasionally, and a lot of it was pretty cool.

We're probably getting Shiva to show up in the next couple issues for the arc, and it's a little awkward that Cass has been conveniently placed outside of the location where she's most likely to show up. I suppose they don't want to confuse her solo that features Shiva heavily right now. But even though they keep saying "everything is canon" is the new status quo after Death Metal, I just simply do not believe it, because it's not true, and it doesn't work. Because of that, this is less a continuation of a story from a long time ago and more a reference to it, and as a reference...

I mean, it's fine. Some characters that were here last time around are present, in very new forms that are nearly unrecognizable. Sin's magic now, Barbara can jump around again, Dinah's relationships aren't as turbo fucked as they used to be. The rest are either not real or not interested. I hope this story still ends up being cool, but... yeah, liking Birds of Prey is suffering, it's never coming back.

This book is good, though. Kelly Thompson is very good in it. Read her Absolute Wonder Woman, it's one of the best books out every month. And this issue was fun. Just kinda made me wistful.

[e-for-annoying]

Especially Tim. Barbara at least had the excuse of traumatizing parental death, Tim's backstory? "I went to the circus once when I was three. Also my parents should prbly have gotten a divorce. I attended a lot of boarding schools."

[theartistonthemoon]

The biggest reason Cass is the only natural option as heir to The Batman comes from the fact that every other character’s growth relies on them at some point either removing themselves somewhat or completely leaving the Bat symbol behind. Cassandra is the outlier whose found a reason to live on as that same symbol.

We can argue day and night who the best vigilante, detective, fighter, hero, strategist, or whatever is but none of that changes who can survive being the symbol without losing themselves in the process of following Batman’s footsteps.

[random-sparks-98]

Listen... All I know is that the kids I babysit were singing that one Gummy Bear song and next thing I knew my brain made a parody

[ciricearts]

i love her…

[dailydccomics]

Detective Comics cover art by Evan Cagle