Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #3(of 3)

This is the final issue of Oracle's "Battle for the Cowl" mini-series. You know, I have NO idea why this even has the "Battle" banner on it... It has nothing to do with the whole "Battle" storyline. Anyway, this issue is written by Kevin Vanhook.

-Picking up from last issue, Babs kills the power at the home of her hackers to prevent Calculator from attacking them through the computer. From there Babs traces Calculator's location back to Gotham and heads back home.

-Back in Gotham, Babs meets with the guy who created the online world Calculator is abusing. Babs has the guy write some new code in the game that would give her an edge for when she confronts the Calculator online.

-While Babs was doing all this, the Calculator was creating crystals that were supposed to serve as the deliverer of the Anti-Life Equation. Calculator heads to his daughter Wendy's hospital and goes online in order to program(?)the crystals with the last of the Anti-Life Equation, which Calculator hopes will bring his daughter out of her coma.

-While Calculator was finalizing the code, Babs attacks his online avatar, causing him to feel the effects of the attack in the real world. Calculator shuts down the computer and rushes to Wendy's hospital room with the hopes of using crystals to wake Wendy. Upon reaching Wendy's room, Calculator is surprised to find Babs there already... I'm kind of surprised as well. For a woman in a wheelchair Babs sure can hustle!

-Babs and Calculator argue a bit and Wendy wakes up even though Calculator never used the crystals on her... Huh??? The cops arrive and Babs tells them Calculator is a murderer, which throws Calculator into a rage. Calculator tries to attack Babs with the crystals(?!?)but she simply smashes them with her staves. The cops then decide to step in(gee, thanks guys)and tackle Calculator to the ground. This mini-series ends with Babs taunting Calculator by telling him she infected him with some sort of virus(I guess)that will alert her whenever he goes online. While Babs is taunting Calculator, Wendy is screaming and crying in the background about not being able to feel her legs... OOOOK...

What the flying hell was THAT?!?!? I'm at a loss... Hmm, where to start... I guess I'll start by saying that it was totally ridiculous that DC put the "Battle for the Cowl" banner on this mini-series. This series had absolutely NOTHING to do with the events of the "Battle" story. Literally nothing. On top of that, wasn't Calculator able to merge himself with Kilg%re near the end of the "Birds of Prey" series? What ever happened to that? I guess it was forgotten, because Calculator sure didn't seem to remember he could do that!

I truly didn't like the story, and to be honest, I have to say I didn't like the any of the characters in this mini. I was a fan of Babs in the "Birds" series, but I really didn't like her at all here. She was really nasty and demeaning to everyone she worked with. Even people who were working with/helping her wound up facing her wrath. Jeez Babs, chill out!

Finally there was the ending... Wendy suddenly wakes up out of the blue while Calculator and Babs are arguing in her room??? WTF??? That just made NO sense on so many different levels. If she could wake up whenever, I guess this whole mini-series was for nothing, since the whole idea was that Calculator was trying to wake his comatose daughter up. On top of that, where exactly did Calculator get the idea to wake Wendy up by using the Anti-Life Equation? It's called the ANTI-LIFE Equation, not the Restore-Life Equation!!! Ugh... For a score, I'll give this issue a 2 out of 10. I have NO idea why I even bothered to read this mini. It didn't add anything to "Battle for the Cowl" or to the characters of Barbara Gordon and the Calculator. My advice? Avoid this mini like the plague!

Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #2(of 3)

Well, I was either going to finish up this mini-series, or the Azrael one, and after remembering how awful the 1st issue of the Azrael mini was, it was a no-brainer. This issue is written by Kevin Vanhook. I'll be honest, I don't remember what issue #1 was about, so hopefully this issue will remind me.

-Now I remember why I've been avoiding this comic book! Oracle heads to Hong Kong and is promptly attacked by three hoods looking to steal her computer(for starters). Babs manages to beat the hell out of them from the ground and gets her computer back.

-From there Babs heads to a den of hackers(I guess)and has them hook her up to some kind of fancy virtual reality equipment where she does some stuff(sorry, that's all I understood!).

-Meanwhile, the Calculator is still searching the Internet for fragments of the Anti-Life Equation which he believes will help him heal his comatose daughter Wendy. To help accomplish this, Calculator attempts to meet with a hacker friend of Babs' online to use him as a guinea pig of sorts to test the fragments of the Anti-Life Equation he has thus far recovered.

-Babs makes a phone call to her hacker friend in the States and discovers that Calculator is trying to meet with him. Babs tells the hacker to leave town and avoid all contact with computerized things, but the hacker decides to meet with Calculator anyway.

-The hacker finds Calculator's online safehouse and uses his online avatar to attack. Calculator swiftly demolishes the hacker and somehow manages to find Babs' location from the hacker's avatar(don't ask me how he did that!). The issue ends with Calculator appearing on the computer screen Babs and her hackers were using.

Man was that frigging confusing! The worst thing about this comic is the fact that I still have to read issue #3! I am not looking forward to that. I'll save most of my comments until I read issue #3, but I will say that I really didn't enjoy reading this comic. For a score I'll go with a 4 out of 10. Just thinking about this comic gives me a mild headache. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book.

Battle for the Cowl: The Network #1

Well, this was laying at the top of my comic pile, so I guess I'll give it a read... For the record, this is written by Fabian Nicieza.

-Basically this comic detailed Oracle organizing the various costumed crimefighters in Gotham City. With Bats gone and presumed dead, Oracle seems to be the point-woman when it comes to dealing with crime in Gotham. This issue showed how, with the help of Huntress, Misfit, Batgirl, Manhunter, Wildcat and Ragman, Oracle is able to free 3 hostages from Dr. Hugo Strange. Yep, that's it.

How's that for a quick review! I did like this comic, but since it's getting late, this review gets the shortform treatment. This comic actually read like an issue of Birds of Prey, which is a good thing, since I used to really enjoy Birds. One negative thing this comic did was really cause me to question whether Batman was all that important to Gotham City. I know the knee jerk reaction is to say that Gotham needs Batman, but Oracle seems to have things in some semblance of control with Bats out of the picture. To be honest, things seem to be running rather smoothly with Babs organizing everything. For a score, I'll give this comic an 8 out of 10. If you're a fan of any one of the characters I listed above, or if like me you miss the Birds of Prey comic, then this comic is well worth a read.

Spotlight on Batman, Day 6.

Huh, only one more day and my Batman spotlight comes to a close. That seemed kind of fast... Oh well, I guess I should start deciding what I want to spotlight next. Oh Batman, you so crazy!

Spotlight on Batman, Day 5.

Jeez, Bats can be a real ass sometimes!

Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #1(of 3)

Overall- OOOOK... I'm not even going to pretend I understood what the hell just went on in this comic book! Instead, I'll review what I did understand(not much)and try to muddle through the rest.

Oracle has decided to move back to Gotham City from Platinum Flats. She moves onto an old building and does some rewiring in order to get herself some extra juice to run her computers. Babs meets with her father, Commissioner Gordon for dinner, but she is obviously VERY distracted, and the Commish finally decides to cut the dinner short, since Babs' mind is else where. Meanwhile, the Calculator is checking on his daughter, Wendy, the girl from the Teen Titans who was mauled near to death by that big dog(whose name is escaping me right now). Wendy was transfered from San Fran to Gotham and Calculator promises revenge, as all villains do. We also discover that both Babs and Calculator are trying to find any traces of the Anti-Life Equation that may still be floating around in cyberspace. That was about all I understood...

From there, Calculator has a a guy from a jewelry store cut some crystals into exact mathematical shapes. He is also adamant that the crystals are not to touch each other. One of the hackers Babs has looking for info on the Anti-Life Equation meets with Calculator in one of those online worlds and they share information about what they've discovered about the Equation. The online avatar of Calculator creates crystals in the online world with the info he gets from the hacker and has the hacker's avatar combine the crystals. Upon combining the crystals, the hacker screams and her head explodes, much to Babs' horror, since she has a webcam feed into the home of the hacker...

What the hell??? This comic started off well enough, and then it just went kind of crazy. I'm sorry, but I REALLY didn't understand literally half of this issue... The first half, I was totally down with. The second half though... Totally over my head! The Calculator can make people's heads explode via the Internet? Why? How does that help his comatose daughter? Why were both Calculator and Babs trying to rediscover the Anti-Life Equation? Didn't it cause enough trouble already? After reading this comic I thought MY head was going to explode! Well, I won't be too harsh yet, since this was only the first of three issues. The story may still come together and make sense... Hopefully. For a score, since I only understood half the comic, I'll go right down the middle and give his issue a 5 out of 10. Maybe after I read part 2, this will all make sense...

Valentine's Day, night 3: Nightwing gets around!

Let's see, first up is Nightwing and Starfire,then we have Nightwing with Barbara Gordon,followed by Nightwing and Huntress in a sewer pipe... How romantic...And finally Nightwing with Catwoman. Dammit Dick, Catwoman is supposed to be Batman's woman!

These pictures are just the tip of the iceberg! Hell, I could post pictures of Nightwing making out with women everyday until Valentine's Day if I wanted to!