Reilly2040's Blog

The DCU Blog has been ablaze with news all week after the announcement of Brightest Day, the post-Blackest Night direction for the DCU, which will see a 26 issue fortnightly series, and a variety of titles under the Brightest Day banner.

One returning title that I’m very happy to see is Birds of Prey, and even better it has Gail Simone returning as writers, with Ed Benes as the artist.

The original run of Birds of Prey was an exceptionally good book, as Gail turned Black Canary into an A-list character and gave much needed focus and character development to Huntress and Oracle.  It became one of DC’s best-loved team books, and brought something different to the market by focusing on a mostly-female superhero team.  Gail’s dialogue between the characters was what really brought the book to life though.

Sadly, times changed.  Presumably a victim of her own success, with Black Canary now a popular character, she was brought back into the JLA as chairwoman, removing one of Birds of Prey’s lead characters.  Gail ended up moving onto Wonder Woman, and the Birds of Prey book eventually ended up axed by DC.  Something I thought was a real shame as it was a home to popular characters, and as I say, stood out as somewhere that DC’s female characters could really shine.

Of course, things have moved on again since Black Canary was in JLA, and I think its fair to say that the move didn’t really do her character any favours, with her automatically playing second fiddle to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and then the eventual Green Arrow/Black Canary book that never really seemed to take off (for the record I was never opposed to the marriage itself, but the book has never seemed to really click).

So the announcement that Birds of Prey is coming back, with the core cast of Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk reunited is brilliant news.  I really can’t wait to see how Gail approaches the happenings in the characters lives since the first series ended (and could we please have Helena reinstate the updated version of her current costume.  It looked so much more practical).

Of course, causing debate are the two silhouetted figures, with most people figuring its Hawk and Dove, with Hawk being a resurrected Hank Hall.  I never really followed Hawk and Dove before, but I’ve enjoyed their appearances in Blackest Night, so Birds of Prey would seem like the ideal book for them to capitalise on that exposure.  I’ve got no clue about Hank Hall’s Hawk and how he might interact with the Birds, but you have to assume the fact that as a Black Lantern he killed Dove’s sister might cause some tension.

Bit of a low-key comics week for me this week, although I noticed how I picked up more Marvel than DC titles for the first time in a while (3 Marvel vs 2 DC). Sadly Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks #1 which I was really looking forward to, didn’t seem to make it to my local comic shop.

The biggest issue this week for me was probably Ms Marvel #37. It represents a huge gamble by Marvel, and I must admit, I’m quite surprised and unsure of this direction. The final issue of the End of Ms Marvel arc sees Carol, who’s powers have been increasingly unreliable, forced to push herself to her limit against her opponent. Doing so however pushes her powers over the edge, and unable to control the energy, she explodes and dies.

While I’m not a regular reader of the Ms Marvel title (just picking up the odd issues that look interesting), I’m finding this move a big gamble by Marvel. With Carol dead, Moonstone will become the title character of this book. Carol had only really recently been brought back to the fore-front of the Marvel Universe as Ms Marvel, so to replace her at a point where she’s just regained popularity seems a strange move. Granted we don’t know quite where they’re going with this plot (other than Moonstone taking over the book), but I can’t help but think this has the potential to backfire badly. The next issue stands to lose the Carol fans unless there’s a big twist ahead (while Carol exploded, we’ve seen energy-based heroes come back after dissipating before).

Of course, its also likely that that this is exactly the kind of thing they’re planning, and by using Moonstone and Dark Reign as a focus point in this way, they’ll attract a lot of attention to the title before Carol comes back.   Heck, I’m blogging about it, and I won’t be the only one

On the DC side of things, I picked up Oracle: The Cure #1, and Wonder Woman #30. Again, I’m unsure where DC are going with Barbara Gordon and Oracle at the moment, so that means I’m approaching this series with a degree of trepidation, however its a solid first issue. With only three issues in this mini, I would have perhaps expected a faster pace in the first issue and a bit more happening, but nonetheless its always fun to see the Oracle/Calculator rivalry. I’ve mentioned before how much I love just the concept of Oracle, and so the Calculator as the villain’s equivalent has always been something I’ve really enjoyed. Here we see them both attempting to track down the remains of the Anti-Life Equation from the internet. While Barbara’s motives aren’t clear (possibly she’s after it to make sure no one else gets it), the Calculator’s seem to be tied in with his daughter being in hospital. I’ll definitely be picking up the remaining two issues of this series to see where it goes (indeed, this is probably the only Battle for the Cowl tie-in I’m picking up).

Wonder Woman #30 continues the Rise of the Olympian storyline. While I freely admit I’ve just been buying Wonder Woman for this story, which sounded interesting, I’m very much enjoying it. Unsurprisingly Gail Simone brings her usual excellent grasp of the characters as she turns Wonder Woman’s world upside down. In this issue, the focus is very much on Wonder Woman’s rage at what the society have done by unleashing Genocide, and her fury is brilliantly captured as she tears through the Society’s headquarters (the highlight of the issue for me was probably the image of Faust putting on his coat the minute he saw Diana approaching on the security cameras ). While not appearing in this issue, I’ve been enjoying Gail’s handling of Diana, Donna and Cassie in this story. Its nice to see the three of them together.

My Marvel purchases are rounded off with War Machine #4 and Captain America #48. War Machine’s a series I’ve been enjoying a lot, although it has to be said, some of its been a bit daft so far, with Jim’s new ability to rebuild himself from nearby machinary (the half-tank War Machine was so over-the-top it worked, but I think I’d like to see this ability used in moderation throughout the run).  There’s heavy Dark Reign influence here as well, with Ares forcing Jim to examine his motivations for his recent actions in probably the most effective scenes of this series so far.  While it would’ve been easy to just through in Ares as an obligatory Dark Reign tie-in, Greg Pak really makes great use of him, as we see him break through to Jim in a way none of his friends have been able to since Jim became a cyborg.  Jim’s conversation with Bethany where he says he’s ready to become human again works well, as it contrasts nicely with his denial of his humanity throughout the opening issues.

Captain America continues to be one of the best comics on the market.  The finale of the recent storyline sees Bucky, Black Widow and Namor teaming up to rescue the body of the original Human Torch, who’s been turned into a bioweapon by an insane scientist, determined to reduce Earth’s population.  Again, like War Machine, its the character moments that probably best define this issue, with Bucky determined to try and face some of the actions he committed while the Winter Soldier.   Saying that, I’ll be glad to see him back and continuing to establish himself as Cap in future issues.  I’m really loving the pairing of Bucky and Black Widow in this title as well.  These two characters work well together, and I similarly love the way Ed Brubaker has weaved in events from World War II throughout his run.  Its really given the title a sense of its history and helped give it a unique voice.

So, with the upcoming Battle of the Cowl solicits, and in particular the Oracle mini-series, cancelling of Birds of Prey, and DC dodging the question of who’ll be Batgirl after Battle for the Cowl, its led to a lot of speculation that Barbara will be regaining the use of her legs, and reclaiming the Batgirl identity from Cassandra.

Now, while I’m not keen on this potential development (after all, it could be one big misdirection), I got to thinking about the character of Oracle.   

I’ve always been a big fan of the character, and especially the idea of Oracle.  The idea of a character who’s a central knowledge base for DC’s main heroes.  If they’re stuck and need information, then they contact Oracle.   And also as a mythical bane of the non-super villains, striking them through cyberspace.  Its been a great concept and worked really well (and may continue to do so if the Batgirl stuff is misdirection).  Granted, this is partly due to the great use of Barbara in the role, showing her continuing the good fight, but in a new way.

However, I was thinking.  Let’s assume for a moment that the above does come to pass.  Barbara becomes Batgirl once again.  But what about Oracle?  A concept like that is too good to waste.  But its also an opportunity to decouple the identity from the Bat-franchise.

But who could be the new Oracle?  Well, I was thinking (wait for it)…

Ted Koord.

We know Ted’s back from the dead.  Now, granted there’s an element of confusion, with convention hints pointing at him being a Black Lantern, but the events of Booster Gold (and comments by writer Geoff Johns) indicate he’s clearly alive after all the time travel mucking about of the Blue and Gold arc.   However, let’s just assume that regardless of the route, he’s back.

Ted’s good friends with Barbara, and helped her out during the Birds of Prey series.  Countdown to Infinite Crisis put a lot of emphasis on Ted’s detective skills and really brought out that element of his character.  Something that could serve him well as an information broker for the hero community.   Ted also has contacts and friends across the entire community from his days on JLI, so he could provide a broader-ranged Oracle, unlike Barbara who often only showed up in Birds of Prey and the Bat-titles (although Grant Morrison did use her during his JLA run).   By this I’m meaning, Ted’s Oracle wouldn’t necessarily be in a regular book.  Rather a resource other writers could use as and when they wanted.  And finally, Jamie is currently the Blue Beetle, and that’s a great character I don’t think should be torpedoed by Ted’s return.

Of course, the problem with this is that you’re breaking up the Blue and Gold team.   With Booster serving as the DC’s resident time travelling superhero, it wouldn’t really make sense to have them as a permanent team.  Rather, we’d have to settle for Booster dropping in on Ted time-to-time for chats and team-ups.

Ted could also form quite a different Oracle. Whereas Barbara relied heavily on cyber-sleuthing, Ted could be more of a traditional detective when it comes to his information gathering. There’s not a lot of point having an Oracle that’d be a carbon copy of Barbara in the role.

Anyway, that was just a mad idea I had. It’ll be interesting to see what happens during Battle for the Cowl to Barbara and the Batgirl and Oracle identities, but with DC’s move to focus on the more recognisable interpretations of characters, then I think Barbara becoming Batgirl again is going to happen.

Of course, with that being my mad theory for who could be a new Oracle, the next question would be what would happen to Cassandra if she’s not Batgirl anymore.