Writer: Chuck DixonPlot: Oracle holds off Blockbuster, Mouse, Giz, Stallion, the Electrocutioner, and a whole squad of armed goons, while a few other birds, including Black Canary, Nightwing, and Robin (with Alfred) race to save their redheaded friend.
Oh, the hype this arc received online! This issue was slightly better than the previous three parts of The Hunt For Oracle, but only because something sort of exciting actually happened! Babs took on a pile of baddies, and while that was neat to see, we knew Dinah would get there to save her, since she's been trying to pinpoint Oracle's location for the past two books. That made their first meeting lackluster. I mean, I'm not asking for them to appear side-by-side, kicking Roland's big-brained tail, but something more than "Let me help you out of the water" might've been better.
And I thought something - no, anything - was supposed to happen between Dick and Babs here, since that was partly the point of having this supposedly long-awaited crossover between Nightwing and Birds Of Prey. Not this time, apparently.
This arc could've been compressed into a two-issue deal, because the stuff in between had zero tension. And tension is what drives a hunt, not "Ha ha! I'm not in any danger at all, 'cause I'm thirty steps ahead of you! I'll just try to eat up panel-time across three issues, in an attempt to build up to a modest denouement!" That must be why I'm so disappointed with the outcome. It was never really a hunt to begin with, since Babs did nothing more than easily evade the whole time.
Giz, the dude with the squirrel, seemed much more capable than he was, last time around. All that headgear wasn't just window dressing, 'cause he found wires upon wires of masterful Oracle-traps. I hadn't expected the Electrocutioner to turn up, so that was a fun bonus.
Thanks to some highway road signs on page 9, which seem odd, since they're positioned perpendicularly to the road, we establish that from the opposite end of Bludhaven, it takes around half an hour to get to Gotham's docks.
One character who really grows this time around is Babs. The submarine setup and overhead gymnastics she displays prove that she's progressed to the point where she feels confident enough to physically involve herself in the action. Swimming underwater when your legs are deadweight is no easy task. And talk about upper body strength on those ceiling bars! She could knock me out easy! Obviously, this kind of action won't happen all the time in Birds Of Prey, but Babs needed to know for herself that she could still fry the bacon.
