The Death of Oracle: Part Deux!
The Good
In the last issue of Birds of Prey we were introduced to Mortis, who has been hired by The Calculator to destroy the Birds of Prey. The villainess has the power to make her opponent realize their fears, deepest regrets and shame-- bringing all of them to the surface, paralyzing her opponent. In this issue we see her abilities in full effect when she takes hold of one of the members of the Bird's. When I found out about the story arc's title, and realized that The Calculator would be facing off against Oracle, I said to myself; "this is a perfect match." It's a battle between two of the smartest people in the DCU, facing off against one another.I am sometimes hesitant about new villains being introduced to comics, and lately I have felt that many of them that have been are boring or lacking interesting character attributes. I don't have that problem here. I find Mortis to be interesting, and the Calculator to be the perfect counter to Oracle. This issue is extremely well written, and I felt the pacing was perfect. Alternating between action sequences featuring the Birds and the Penguin were fantastic.
The scenes in this issue featuring the Penguin and his attempt to instruct "how to be charming" to one of the waitresses at his club was hilarious. I thought it was fantastic the way Guillem March captured the movement of Gail Simone's language through his art. Everything from the cover (which just pops out at you) to the pacing of the story, and the expression in the art is awesome.
