Birds of Prey: Between Dark and Dawn/Gail Simone

Birds of Prey: Between Dark and Dawn by Gail Simone (Birds of Prey reboot, vol 3); graphic novel; 176 pages

The third collection in this series opens with the suicides of three teens, each dressed as a deceased superhero. All three had recently returned from trips to Oregon, so Oracle dispatches Huntress to investigate (not completely solo: the metahuman Vixen is already undercover). Huntress uncovers a cult full of brainwashed teens, and when Oracle tries to hack in, she's hijacked by none other than Brainiac.

I felt like the Birds really came into their own with this story. They're starting to mesh as a team, and to overcome their differences. We got to see a little more of Huntress' personality in this book (previously, she'd been showing up, kicking butt, and vanishing again), which was also refreshing. There were two one-shots tacked onto the end of this story, including one in which Oracle chooses to move her base of operations out of Gotham, following the destruction of her clocktower. The frustrating thing is that the loss of the clocktower--a pivotal moment for Oracle and, I guess, the series--takes place in another series (I want to say it was in a Batman arc, but I don't recall exactly). We get a brief flashback in Birds, but the event itself is glossed over. I generally like the shared DC universe, but it would be nice if at least some of the major life-events for Oracle happened in her own title.