Oracle – Cure for What, Exactly?

I’ll be honest here: I’m having a difficult time understanding the point, purpose and plot of the Oracle: the Cure mini-series. With only one issue to go, I wonder if all will be revealed, or if this is just going to be one more of those “what the hell was that all about?” DC miniseries that seem to be the publisher’s specialty these days. I mean, I have completed two out of the three books that comprise this story, and I still don’t know what the titular cure is supposed to be for. From what I can tell, she seems to be searching for a cure for Calculator‘s daughter Wendy, who was chewed up and spit out by a robot dog. Modern medicine can do some pretty amazing stuff, and Barbara Gordon is very resourceful, but I don’t think there’s a pill that’s going to do the trick here.

I suppose the “Cure” could be a reference to Calculator’s search for a solution using the anti-life equation – why the research and development for his magic medicine seems to require killing real people via their Second Life avatars is beyond me, although if we’re being perfectly honest, we’ve all wished we could do that at one time or another.

The covers for Oracle: the Cure issues 1 and 2 fit nicely into DC’s Breast Awareness Month theme that they seem to have going on. I don’t quite understand how aging 15 years while being confined to a wheelchair has had the effect of transforming Babs from the cute girl next door to a centerfold model is beyond me, but if that’s the cure, she’s gonna making millions.

It’s kind of misleading of DC to package this miniseries under the “Battle for the Cowl” banner, since – well, she’s clearly not battling for the cowl! She’s in another country, she’s not fighting to take up the Batman mantle, and if she did it would be a cruel joke: “Who was that masked redhead paraplegic?”. There are some very goofy ideas coming out of DC these days, but I’d like to think they would draw the line at some point.

Groovy Superhero

2 thoughts on “Oracle – Cure for What, Exactly?

  1. I have to say I’m rather enjoying the series, despite online reviews being mixed at best. Some have speculated that the cure will give Barbara the power to walk again to regain her Batgirl persona. Others belive that’s a red herring, and that the cure will in fact be Wendy’s cure. Either way, I’m intrigued to see how it turns out.

    Besides, it’s only three issues priced at $2.99, so even if the series is a dud, there’s little damage done to the reader. And the artwork is gorgeous.

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