Batgirl Vol 3 12

"Batgirl Rising: The Flood, Part Four"
Batgirl #12
July 14, 2010
Written by	Bryan Q. Miller
Cover by	Stanley "Artgerm" Lau
Pencilled by	Lee Garbett, Pere Perez
Inked by	Walden Wong, Pere Perez
Colored by	Guy Major
Lettering by	John J. Hill
Edited by	Harvey Richards, Michael Siglain
Previous Issue	Batgirl #11
Next Issue	Batgirl #13

Steph: "It isn't easy, you know. Starting new. More than willing to give you some pointers, if you want. Granted, it usually ends with me accidentally explodin' stuff, but I digress."

It’s the end of Batgirl’s first year as a member of the Bat-family, and the stakes couldn’t be higher! Stephanie Brown must risk her life to break into the Calculator’s secret lair in an attempt to save Oracle and all of Gotham City from his techno-plague. And finally, the Calculator’s daughter accepts her true destiny.

Summary of Stephness: Steph is plummeting downwards in the sky, heading towards Calculator's main base. She is contemplative about her past and her desire to help Barbara Gordon (“This isn’t about trying to prove anything to anyone, not anymore…this is about me having hope…about me saving the one person who’s ever given a reap crap about me.”).

In the mind of the Calculator, Oracle is seen entering a memory from his childhood. In the sequence, a child-Calculator is in a cage, and it becomes apparent that his mother locked him in there and wouldn’t let him out until he solved a choice Rubix Cube several times. Oracle feels deep pity for the young Calculator until the grown version of him attacks her in the present.

Meanwhile, Steph has made it to the main base of the Calculator. She makes jokes to Wendy via communicator (“Your dad must be getting sloppy in his old age.” “What makes you say that?” “Because I’m all kind of NOT dead right now?”) And Wendy expresses her sadness to Stephanie by telling how her and her brother Marvin ran away from their evil father to join the Teen Titans. As Wendy confides in her, Steph happens upon Marvin’s zombified body.

Back in the Calculator’s mind, both he and Oracle are transported to another memory of his; this time of his children’s birth, and the death of his wife. He becomes a distraught wreck, and Oracle is able to escape. She goes looking on one of his many computers for a way to disconnect their minds when she turns around and another one of his past memories is there. This time it is a scene of Calculator beating Kid Eternity, trying to get him to turn into his deceased son Marvin. The present Calculator decides to cancel the entire operation, thus leading to both his and Barbara’s deaths.

Elsewhere, Steph finally arrives at the center of the lair, only to set off an alarm (“How many times can we destroy the city in one lifetime, Steph?!?”) Despite this, she makes it to the main system that is controlling all the cyber-zombies of Gotham, and attempts to disable it; unfortunately a large cyber-monster attacks her. Wendy crashes her plane into the lair, disarming the monster.

Oracle is pleased that Steph came to her rescue (“I knew I could count on you to not listen to me, Batgirl…I was wrong when I said I didn’t need help.”) all the while Wendy comes into contact with her father; Calculator and uses his main computer to put him into ‘Standby Mode,’ disabling him for good.

Back at Gotham University, Steph approaches Wendy sitting alone. Wendy confides in Stephanie, explaining that she doesn’t want to be defined by her past any longer. Steph is sympathetic, and replies that “it isn’t easy, you know. Starting new.” And she adds that she’ll be there if she needs anything.

Later, on patrol, Steph goes against a villain who calls himself the ‘Blimpmaster,’ she makes jokes at his expense and hears snickering via communicator. Steph knows Oracle doesn’t laugh at her jokes, and comes to find that it is instead Wendy, who will be filling-in for Barbara when she isn’t around under the name “Proxy,” Steph is excited about this and thinks that “this is gonna be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”

Elsewhere, in a prison cell, Johnny C is seen cutting out newspaper clippings of Batgirl, his infatuation with her still intact, and obviously plotting something.

Behind the Scenes: On July 3, 2019, the artist Jay Anacleto created a retailer exclusive variant cover for the zombie miniseries DCeased isue #3 which is an homage to the cover for this issue:

https://www.7ate9comics.com/products/dceased-3-anacleto-variant-cover-options

On his instagram, Anacleto posted: "My variant cover of DCeased #3, exclusive @unknowncomicbooks Colors by @rainmb An homage of Artgerm’s fantastic Batgirl #12 cover."

https://www.instagram.com/p/By8ZiwXBz7O/

Other Formats/Collected In:
Digital Comic Book
Batgirl: The Flood TPB

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