Batwing #13

Possibly the first ever DC cover to have the title character being vomited on by the antagonist.

A cult calling themselves the Finders and followers of Father Lost are conducting ritual sacrifice to gain the power of some unnamed Goddess. Unless Father Lost is the Goddess to whom they're sacrificing people. But that doesn't sound right. Although Father Time is currently female over in Frankenstein, so maybe it makes a lot more comic book sense than I'm giving it credit for. Also, is King Shadow responsible for this mess too? Is Father Lost part of his plan to unite Africa?

The ritual sacrifice is interrupted by a woman named Dawn that can make magical blades appear in her hands. She's too late to save any of the victims but maybe she's in time to stop any of the cult members from gaining any power from the ritual.

I believe there was a Quraci Terrorist that had this power in the Preboot Suicide Squad. Fuck, there have probably been a dozen people with this power in Marvel and DC alone. Not that I'm taking anything away from her. Just making up speculative history because I'm too lazy to Google the name of one guy from Qurac's Jihad team.

The police interrupt Dawn's stopping of the Finders' ritual to stop the Finders' ritual. All but one of The Finders kill themselves before the police can shoot them. Dawn escapes to tell what she's found out about Father Lost to Rene's grave. Rene was the woman who, along with Matu Ba, ran the School for Children Kidnapped by Warlords and Made To Do Unspeakably Violent Things Where Batwing had been enrolled in his early years. Seems Dawn is another child to come from this sanctuary. Or she's Rene's daughter. Or Rene's lover.

Meanwhile, Batwing is chasing down a General that's gone mad with Father Lost lust and has stolen a jet. He means to crash it into downtown Tinasha which for unexplained reasons Batwing can't allow. It might have something to do with his Batman Incorporated pledge about saving innocents and all that. The only way Batwing can stop the jet with his limited abilities and his flying suit is to steer the plane away from the city. The jet still ends up crashing and killing the general inside. But I don't think this counts as Batwing having killed this man since this man was already trying to kill himself. Batwing merely made sure the man's crash sight wasn't filled with other people.

Later at police headquarters, David learns about the ritual killings happening across Tinasha.

Two girls? Maybe she has a Headscarf of Mirror Image?

David attempts to interrogate the single surviving cultist locked up in the Tinasha Police Department jail cells. His mode of interrogation is projecting a hologram to make it appear as if they've been transported to somewhere in the savannah. The hologram also makes him appear as Batwing. But the technique fails somewhat spectacularly.

I guess disciples of Father Lost can't be made to feel lost.

The Finder morphs into Father Lost to gloat. Luckily for David, before Father Lost can completely take over his mind, David's friend on the force, Kia, knocks out the prisoner that had somehow channeled Father Lost. So instead of David becoming one of Father Lost's children, he retains his own mind but now knows Father Lost's plans. Good job, Father Lost! It's nice to see even mystical African super villains spill their evil beans just every other super villain in the universe.

Later at the next big ritual, Dawn has managed to infiltrate this one before the blood starts flowing. She rescues a victim that knows of her and then battles the cult members while the freed victim saves the others. But she'll never be able to defeat so many evil cultists! She needs a larger adventuring party than one! Perhaps an NPC named Nightwing Batwing will come to the rescue!

Too bad it wasn't Superman. That would have been a surprise!

Batwing #13 Rating: No change. This is a perfect example of a mediocre comic book issue. Except would that make it a perfect issue instead of a mediocre one? Also, I would rather read the story depicted on the cover than the story that actually happened. Batwing succumbs to the unwanted advances of emetophiliac Father Lost!