Title: The Oracle Code

Author: Marieke Nijkamp and Manuel Preitano

Publisher: DC 2020

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 208

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Monthly Theme - April

After a gunshot leaves her paralyzed, Barbara Gordon enters the Arkham Center for Independence, where Gotham's teens undergo physical and mental rehabilitation. Now using a wheelchair, Barbara must adapt to a new normal, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is dangerously amiss. Within these walls, strange sounds escape at night; patients go missing; and Barbara begins to put together pieces of what she believes to be a larger puzzle.

But is this suspicion simply a result of her trauma? Fellow patients try to connect with Barbara, but she pushes them away, and she'd rather spend time with ghost stories than participate in her daily exercises. Even Barbara's own judgment is in question.

In The Oracle Code, universal truths cannot be escaped, and Barbara Gordon must battle the phantoms of her past before they swarm her future.

I’m not usually one for capes or even for DC Comics, but this one peaked my interest. I really enjoyed this origin story for Barbara Gordon. We get a great coming-on-age angle. We get a bit of mystery. We get friendship. And this fits neatly into the larger DC universe. I don’t think I will be picking up more capes comics anytime soon, but this was a good afternoon’s reading material.

Next up on the TBR pile: