Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1 Review
Barbara Gordon has no cowl, no cape, and no computers. She has been stripped of both her hero identities, Batgirl and Oracle, and locked away in a state-of-the-art prison. She is alone with no rescue on the way. That’s the setup of Barbara Gordon: Breakout by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher. This book feels like the freshest take on Barbara in a very long time. Taking one of the most capable members of the Bat family and dropping her into a prison full of people who hate her makes for an incredible story.
The extralegal activities of Gotham’s vigilantes have never been more dangerous. After Barbara Gordon is arrested for aiding the Bat-Family, she is shipped off to Supermax, GCPD Commissioner Vandal Savage’s pet-project prison for all who oppose him. She will find herself alone, surrounded by dangerous criminals and equally dangerous guards, in a place where nothing is what it seems. The true danger is just beginning…
The issue itself does a lot to set up the series by building out its supporting cast and setting it all up in one issue. Tamaki excels at building up the danger of the prison as the place where Vandal Savage sends all his enemies. Police and prosecutors are being put away for being against Vandal Savage’s rise to power. It is framed like a political prison whose inmates are more of a statement to the world at large than just normal prisoners. It’s a really interesting place to put Barbara Gordon, who is now known to be working with Batman. And that puts a bat-sized target on her for everyone in the prison.
There is a larger mystery going on at the Supermax, with prisoners being killed in their cells. All of which seems to be motivated by who they are and what they stand for. It’s the mission that Barbara has assigned herself to solve while she is incarcerated. While she is trying to do that, she’s also faced with Die, who believes she is the daughter of Two-Face. There is a lot to lay out in the first issue to set up the series and a lot of work has gone into making it not too overwhelming. Ariana Maher’s lettering guides the story with ease, delivering a lot of information without ever being overwhelming. And that is all helped out by Amancay Nahuelpan’s art.
There are pages in Barbara Gordon: Breakout of mugshots with all sorts of people that Nahuelpan illustrates. These are the setups for characters in the prison system: some are there for being crooked cops, others are there as innocents. It’s an inventive way to build out the prison presence by having these one-page spreads of mugshots to introduce characters. Nahuelpan also does an incredible job of laying out the prison itself and designing it as cold and harsh, while still looming over everything in the series as a mysterious place.
I have never been Barbara’s biggest fan because she has always been caught between Batgirl and Oracle. But I love this story for taking all of that away from her in Barbara Gordon: Breakout, to leave her with only her most valuable asset, Barbara Gordon.
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