The issue opens with this very cool page that transitions from Asia to Gotham City. Since it is supposed to be night time in Gotham I made it still light outside in Asia so you get that sense that we really are a world apart here.

Joe is really great about establishing the setting in his art and the house in panel one takes us back to the previous issue so we know exactly where we are by the time we get to panel two.

Panel five transitions to Gotham City. Joe had drawn in some really nice reflections in the window of the limo. I followed his lead and color held the line-art of the mobster to give the impression that he is "behind" the glass car window.

In the final panel we move inside the limo and since it is night and they are parked on the street near some street lights I have some light coming in the side windows to affect the characters.

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In scene two panel one we open with Helena (aka Huntress) walking up the steps to her apartment. It is night time and dark outside. This is a busy part of the city and Joe has drawn in street lights, head-lights, tail-lights, and windows on buildings that should be illuminated. All these little things add up to create the atmosphere of a real city.

As Helena enters her darkened apartment in panel two we see the silhouette of Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle). I made extra effort to apply a bit of light behind her to make her outline pop.

For panel three Helena is surprised and taking her battle stance. I needed to transition her from outside the door to inside the intimate confines of the apartment. I had noticed that several pages later Joe has drawn a single lamp illuminated in the apartment. I decide to use this off-panel lamp as my interior light source. The apartment is still mostly dark but the warm glow of this single lamp creates dramatic highlights and shadows adding to the drama created in Gail's story.

On the next page Joe starts to establish more details of the apartment as well as showing Gotham City buildings through the windows. Keeping the buildings, cars, and trees outside dark to contrast with the cozy interior of the apartment helps keep us focused on the interaction between Helena and Barbara.

Panel three shows Helena looking out the window, turning her back on Barbara (literally and figuratively). There is a nice opportunity here to place Helena's face mostly in shadow relying on a harsh side light to connect her with the rest of the scene happening in the apartment.. barely.

In the final panel as Barbara opens the apartment door I let the light from the streetlights outside once again take over and become the primary light source. In effect this helps guide us out the door with Barbara and follow her into the next scene where the action resumes.

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After a brief scene on the streets of Gotham, Gail transitions us to one of several medical rooms inside the JSA Brownstone. Usually when I color scenes in the brownstone I use warm comforting tones since it is the home of the JLA. In this instance it is not warm and comforting to Barbara, for her it is cold and intrusive. I used cooler blues and grays for the interiors and went with a harsher fluorescent tube look for the lighting.

We start of the scene with the harsh light coming from above and behind Dr.Midnite to give the impression of the reader being the patient looking up bewildered at the doctor.

As you can see this sort of lighting washes out the flesh and hair of the characters and gives a colder more sterile look to the scene. This pace feels alien to Barbara and now to us the reader. Since Barbara is sick I have also made her flesh paler and less saturated than normal.

In the second page of this scene we can really see the contrast between Dinah's flesh (aka Canary) and Barbara's paler flesh. We can see Barbara fighting the illness but she is betrayed by her appearance. I also added a very slight bit of extra shadow under her eyes to give them a more sunken appearance.

Dinah turns to face Barbara (opposite of the scene with Helena) and offers her comfort. All the while the cool lights from above work to obliterate the joy and warmth Dinah is trying to project.

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From the brightly lit medical facility inside the JSA Brownstone we jump to the darkly lit skies of Gotham City at night. Like a movie editor creating breaks between scenes I try to create a "visual edit" by going from extreme bright to extreme dark. This helps communicate to the reader that we have moved to another location in the story.

In the first panel of this scene we establish that something is happening on the street below by having the street lights glow up to the tops of the buildings, in effect lighting them in the reverse of what would happen during the daytime. This gives Huntress some focal point to be looking at as well as providing dramatic lighting for Huntress and her companion (read the book, this guy is funny).

As Huntress leaps from the building into the fray below our already established lighting works in concert with Joe's amazing artwork to create a spectacular visual. I really wanted this page to look as dynamic as Joe had drawn it. The folds in the cape become taut to give a subtle hint at bat-wings.

The mobsters are waiting below and I have illuminated the headlights on the limo to provide an interesting light source on the pages to follow where Huntress must deal with these mobsters.

This lighting provides a unique opportunity to create interesting highlights and shadows on the mobsters to give them a more shocking appearance.

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