Comic Recap/Thoughts: Batgirl and The Birds of Prey Volume No. 1: Who is Oracle?, Part 2

Welcome to part two of my recap of Batgirl and The Birds of Prey Volume No. 1: Who is Oracle. If you still need to read part 1, click (here). I bet you are wondering what these badass ladies are getting up to. Today I am covering issues #4-6. Make it to the end and you'll get to see my favorite cover of this volume, as well as the line I liked best.

Who is Oracle? Part Four: Waiting for This Moment: We flash all the way back to 1860, Sicily, Huntress is narrating for us. She is explaining the birth of the Italian Mafia. Her super-great-great grandfather, Gino Bertinelli and the Cassamento (Santo's Surname) family became known as the "Mafia" but based on the old Italian-Arabic slang for "protector against the powerful." Like most men though, power went to their heads. In the 1930's, Salvator Bertinelli immigrated to Gotham and the Bertinelli family became the top family. Helena's parents, Frank and Maria, had two kids and things were good. Until they weren't. She is not proud of her family's history, but Helena is in Gotham to kill Santo Cassamento for murdering her whole family.

Back in Gotham, we see Huntress on a dock, ready to go kill Santo. She is still narrating, she thinks teaming up with the bat and the bird was a mistake. They made her lose focus. She has found the warehouse where the snakes took Santos. Before she can kill Santos, the snakes find her. They all fight for a hot second, but the snakes get the better of Huntress pretty quickly.

Lucky for Huntress, Batgirl and Canary show up and end the fight pretty quickly. The snakes run off, Santos and Fenice are also gone. Huntress is of course pissed. Batgirl offers help and calls Huntress by her name. Another thing she doesn't take super well. They convince Helena to go back to the Watchtower. She is not happy that the fake Oracle has a file on her. Helena wants to tell her side of the story.

Black Canary being cute before a fight.

We flashback again to a young Helena eating dinner with her family. She is reminiscing about her mom's perfect sauce and how her last memory of her family is smelling that sauce right before the door is kicked down. Her father and brother were killed in front of her, she pretended to be dead and watched them drag her mother out to be killed.

Batgirl and Canary are now much more understanding of Huntress and her desire to kill all the mob bosses. An alarm starts going off and Batgirl thinks that she has tracked down the fake Oracle. Huntress tells them it is time for them to go take care of this faker. BG and BC are both pretty happy she is back on their team. In her narration, Huntress admits that Batgirl and Black Canary aren't too bad, maybe it is time to give having a family another chance.

Another Helena flashback, at Gotham Cemetery, her whole family is being buried. Her aunt and uncle take her in. Her uncle trains her and we see a montage of her growing up, learning to fight and realizing that she needs to be the protector that her family never was.

They arrive at Gotham Tower to find a robot rogues gallery. Batgirl uses an EMP to take the power out but it is only good for about 90 seconds. Once time is up, all the robots come back to life. There is some fun robot fighting, before the ladies take a ride up to the 30th floor. There are a ton of computers, as well as a lot of Batgirl paraphernalia. Fake Oracle seems to be a big fan of Batgirl.

Who is Oracle? Part Five: Into the Light: Our three ladies are getting creeped out by what appears to be a stalker more than a hacker. Before they can dig deeper into the who, Oracle walks into the room. He is not surprised to see them and kind of has a real nerd moment.

Batgirl lays into him for using the name Oracle for evil. They all threaten him but he seems to just think it is cool. They are all checking out Oracle’s impressive collection of stuff. He tells us his name is Gus Yale, aka Oracle, aka Batgirl's biggest fan, actually a big fan of the Birds of Prey in general. Gus thinks Batgirl is the best crime-fighter of all time. Batgirl asks about Batman, assuming Gus knows who he is, but Gus thinks Batman is a fraud. That he is at least six dudes. Batgirl just nods in agreement.

Huntress pulls her crossbow on Gus, but Batgirl tells her to stand down. He gives a weird compliment and uses her name, she does not like that. He tries to butter up Black Canary and she isn't feeling it either. Gus claims that he was trying to help them, that it was his way of auditioning for the team. Batgirl is pissed! She goes off on him and he tries to defend his actions. He says he did help her (Batgirl, Oracle at the time), a long time ago.

Time for a Gus flashback! He was a hacker trolling the dark web when Oracle asked him for help and he was happy to do so. When Oracle disappeared there were so many theories, but he never lost hope that Oracle would come back. He decided that he should become Oracle, so he found her system and figured the mob could fund his mission. After that, it didn't take too long to connect the dots and figure out that Barbara Gordon fit the Oracle profile and that Batgirl showed up again at the same time Barbara Gordon regained her ability to walk.

Flashback is interrupted by a computer ping. Fenice is on the move, now is the time to trap her. Gus begs to help them. Both Huntress and Black Canary vote against Gus helping them. Batgirl asks for a moment. Once she comes back, she points out that while she doesn't fully trust him or his story, they do need his help. She has also decided she is going to stay with him. Huntress does not love the idea. Batgirl is confident in them and that she can help from there. Huntress and Black Canary reluctantly leave. Batgirl again asks Gus why he chose a life of crime. He doesn't answer, just gets real big fan eyes.

At another one of Fenice's warehouses, Huntress and Black Canary arrive ready to kick butt. They break in and start setting up smoke bombs. They are ready to spring a trap for Fenice. Huntress is surprised to see her show up with Santo in tow. While they are waiting Batgirl sees that Gus has in fact been funneling most of the mob money into charities. He is impressed that she figured that out while still planning a takedown. Batgirl informs the ladies that the new Oracle is "good people."

Huntress is more concerned with killing the mob bosses. The smoke bombs go off and Huntress finally gets a good look at Fenice, it is her mother. (I guessed this a couple issues back, but tried real hard not to spoil it.)

Who is Oracle? Finale: Arise: Huntress is frozen in disbelief. Canary chases after Fenice and Santos. Batgirl scans Fenice with a drone and confirms that she is in fact Maria Bertinelli. Gus is surprised that they didn't already know this. Huntress shakes off the shock and jumps into the chase. Batgirl is once again mad at Gus. He was just trying to get the team back together and didn't want to throw Huntress off her game. (Guy has an answer for everything.)

Fenice (Maria?) and Santos slip into the Majestic Theater (no longer majestic, also the place that Bruce was right before his parents were killed). Unfortunately, the snakes are also there. Batgirl decides she needs to go join this fight, she also gives Gus the reins. Dude seems nervous for the first time.

Huntress is chasing her mom, but when she sees all three snakes fighting Canary, she pauses for a moment. She decides to stay and help Canary (never doubted her). Batgirl busts onto the scene and they get away from the snakes. Maria and Santos are in the projection booth, trapped. Our girls make it to the main theater only to find a lot of former mafia. They all think Gus betrayed them, but he just called in backup. All these guys want to take down Fenice. All the snakes show up again. Time for a big fight. A big fight happens. Gus also tells them that the police are on the way.

Jim Gordon busts in with at least two cops in tow. He is there to arrest...everyone. The cops and the mobsters work together to take down some of the snakes. Huntress breaks off to go confront her mom. Maria is about to shoot Huntress, until she tells Maria her daughter is alive. Maria says that her daughter died years ago. Helena shows her that she didn't die, by taking off her mask. They both cry and I imagine we are about to get another flashback.

Flashback! Santo (Shit, I think I have been calling him Santos this whole time? Not fixing it) Anyway, Santo and Maria fell in love. She loved Frank too, but he was a work only kind of guy, who would never have divorced her. They planned to kill Frank, but Santo's men took it too far and killed Pino and Helena too (so she thought). She tried to kill Santo and herself but was unable to do either. So she reinvented herself and built up a fortune, becoming like a phoenix, to get her revenge.

Helena doesn't understand why Santo is still alive then. Maria agrees and thinks it should be Helena's revenge. Santo promises he never meant to hurt Helena or Pino. Huntress raises her crossbow at him. On ground level Black Canary and Batgirl can see that things have turned not in their favor. Canary cries, clearing the theater and also wreaking the drone. They get up there to try and talk Helena down. They want her to stay on the good side. Gordon and his cops are making their way up there too. (Got to add a time crunch.)

Helena decides to not kill him. She gives him and her mother over to Gordon. Her mom begs her not to leave, she doesn't want to lose her again. Helena walks away telling her that she already lost her a long time ago. All the snakes and mafia people get arrested. Up on the roof, our three ladies are bonding for a moment. They still have one more housekeeping thing to take care of.

There are many reasons the Birds of Prey should just turn Gus in, but he did help them. He promises not to tell anyone about them. Batgirl is willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and their team is better with an Oracle. He loses his mind a little bit, but then settles down. They welcome him to the Birds of Prey. Then all leave him to get some sleep.

Once they are gone, Gus gets a reminder to take his meds. Then he gets a message that probably doesn't mean good news for him or the Birds of Prey.

A few thoughts. I think this Black Canary might be my favorite version of her. She is like a fun aunt and most of her lines made me at least smile. I am also a fan of this Huntress. She is very similar to Huntress from the movie Birds of Prey but less awkward. This new Oracle sure is shady, but his superfandom is pretty funny and the way he is drawn makes me laugh quite a bit. I'll be interested to see how this new team shakes out.

Julie and Shawna Benson are sisters and are the writers for this entire series. You can check out their website (here) to see what other awesome stuff they are working on. The art for this volume was done by Claire Roe (Twitter Link) and Roge Antonio (Twitter Link). I really like their style. I found it clean and bright. Also as mentioned Gus's faces...so good. All of the A (main) covers were done by Yanick Paquette (Twitter Link) and all the B (variant) covers were done by Kamome Shirahama (Twitter Link). It was tough to pick a favorite cover but I think the honor goes to the main cover of issue #2. It is a great action shot and you even get Gordon being a badass too.

Now for my favorite part of these posts. My favorite line. Now there were many to choose from, because like I said, Dinah was on her A game in this volume, so was everyone really. I am going to give it to Dinah though, because I snorted at this one. Always wear clean undies guys...always.

Next Week: Detective Comics Volume No. 1: The Rise of the Batmen, Part 1

                    Detective Comics Volume No. 1: The Rise of the Batmen, Part 2

Last Week: Batgirl Volume No. 1: Beyond Burnside, Part 1
                   Batgirl Volume No. 1: Beyond Burnside, Part 2



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