Birds of Prey #113

So this was Sean McKeever's first foray into Oracle's world, and it worked fairly well. It helps that Nicola Scott was back as the artist, because the artwork was lovely. This was however, a bit of a break from the light-hearted romps of yore, as what was assumed to be a fairly minor case turns really bad, really quickly.

First off, Oracle is down a couple of Birds, what with Dinah jumping ship for the Justice League, and Barda being murdered and all. She's got Huntress tracking down our old friend Tabby Brennan, the 17 year old girl who had been kidnapped and then rescued by the Birds, who turned out to be something of a nutcase...what with murdering her own father and a couple of federal agents. Her Dad was a crime lord, and she wanted to rule in his place. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the crime bosses are laughing in her face. This upsets young Tabby, so she steals a truckload full of arms.

You'd think that this would be a fairly routine sort of mission, but things go bad in a hurry. Tabby runs Huntress off of the road, but Huntress manages to hop on the back of the truck and discovers that it ain't guns that Tabby is stealing, but something altogether more sinister. Now they think that she's going to use what appears to be the chemicals on the truck as a suicide bomb.

The Birds are doing their level best to talk Tabby out of her plan, but she's not having it. To be honest however, her plan isn't to use the truck as a suicide bomb however, what is the point of blowing herself up? She wants to blow OTHER people up. So she attacks the building where the other snotty crime lords are busy chortling to themselves, and is revealed to be...

...well, a giant Transformer basically. A FEMALE Transformer, with all that glowing chemical purpley stuff under the metal. Tabby obviously has some powerful connections! Not bad for a 17 year old!

What does startle me slightly is that this new development has Oracle completely flummoxed. But...but Babs is NEVER flummoxed! She's never seen anything like this before, and apparently has no schematics. So while Oracle is uncharacteristically groping around for something to do, Misfit decides to teleport into the cab of the truck, which is still incorporated into the body of the Transformer thingie, and punches out Tabby!

"Darrrrrkkkkkkk Vennnngeannnccee!

Oh Misfit, you ARE just adorable. But a little on the impulsive side.

Now Barbara really starts to panic, and yells at Misfit for the love of God, not to touch anything. Misfit ribs her a little, but DOES mention that she has a good feeling about the large glowing button under the glass box. She lifts her finger towards the button, as Huntress is busy having a conniption on the other side of the windshield, and then...

....WHUUMMMM!! Sssssssssffffff.

Oh crap. Those are bad sounds.

Suddenly the Transformer thing is enveloped in a very large purple glowing cloud, just jampacked with all sorts of Kirby Krackle and bolts of energy. Huntress jumps for her life, while Misfit angts over what to do with Tabby. It's been established that Misfit can't teleport while carrying a passenger, so Oracle tells her to get the heck out of there.

Meanwhile, Zinda is in a helicopter above the glowing cloud, and Oracle tells her to fire at it...which does precisely nothing. The cloud does seem to be growing however, and they all are doing their level best to get away...when it just seems to wink out. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of the area with it, leaving a gaping crater in the middle of Metropolis.

At the post mortem, they are all sitting around, looking glum and trying to figure out why what appeared to be a simple job turned into such a snafu. As they argue amongst themselves a bit, who should show up but Superman. And, to put it mildly, he is NOT happy. In fact, he's pretty cranky, and starts telling Barbara that she should have known better, and that they screwed up pretty badly, and that he's going to be keeping an eye on them. Then, before they can even say anything he takes off.

That is just SO annoying!

Well, to be honest, he does have a point, and it IS Metropolis, and it is "his" city, and he's not happy that an area the size of a block is now vaporized. On the other hand, he wasn't there, and he doesn't have any idea of what exactly went wrong. He's been hanging around Batman too much or something.

And he makes Oracle cry. Bad Superman.