Hands down, the highlight of this issue was the glimpses of the dream Calculator's putting Oracle through to get at her secrets. The way that pieces of Babs' life were woven into these seemingly idyllic fantasies - - like the Calculator showing up dressed like The Killing Joke's Joker - - had a creepily askew quality that reminded me of the similar dream sequence in Saga of the Swamp Thing in a good way. Kudos to Guy Major for establishing such an identifiable difference in the color schemes of that and the real world. I was also impressed with some really stand-out splash pages throughout, like Manbat cornering Batgirl int the sewer and her subsequent sky dive.
The Bad
Since there's two artists credited in this issue and I'm not familiar enough with their styles to tell them apart, I'm not sure who did it... but there are a few parts where the faces are a little under-rendered (and the inker has to work in some more detail to make up for it) or the anatomy gets a little awkward. I'm particularly thinking of the close-up where Catwoman's straining to hold Batigrl up with her whip. It also seemed like there was too much of a leap in the plot that got Batgirl and the Caculator's suddenly jumping out of the plan. I'm all for skipping unnecessary details, but that seemed to miss a step.
The Verdict - 3.5/5
This was definitely an improvement over the previous issue, with a good mix of action, suspense and even some horror. It's interesting see how the Batgirl legacy's being handled now in a way that Batman's legacy traditional has, with the various "cowl bearers" working together under new a context. It's a character-defining issue for both Stephanie Brown and Barbara Gordon, although there were some parts of the art that were a little patchy.
