BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #2: Made of Steel.

Death comes for us all eventually, and for Barbara, it almost came sooner than expected. After being attacked by a mysterious assailant, she is left helpless and relying on a stranger. Meanwhile, someone or something is picking off the prisoners one by one, and it is only a matter of time before they return to Barbara’s cell to finish the job!

This review is brought to you by Nerd Initiative’s Megan and Matt!

Creative Team

Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain, Ariana Maher, and Karl Kerschl.

Writing

Matt: This issue was more driven by artwork, but that isn’t a bad thing at all. Mariko shows us a Barbara Gordon in a manner we haven’t seen since The Joker shot her. She is helpless and disoriented, and most of all defenseless, which had me feeling stressed out for her the entire issue. Despite knowing there is no way they would do anything to Gordon, the way Mariko shows how vulnerable Barbara is offers up this fight-or-flight response from the reader impressively. There are callbacks to her past and an air of mystery behind who Sparrow is that has this issue really standing out to me this week overall.

Megan: In Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2, we see Barbara in the most vulnerable position we’ve seen her yet. She’s injured, she’s in pain, and she’s being constantly fed painkillers. She can’t keep her head on straight or her hallucinations apart from her reality. This is the worst possible place she can be because at the same time, she’s being hunted. Whoever it is, or whatever it is, it’s zeroing in on Barbara while taking out the other prisoners on its way.

Mariko Tamaki continues to impress with this run in the second issue, proving that the first issue wasn’t just a strong start, but high-quality work that we can expect from this run. In this issue, it’s much more art-driven, which adds to the overall mystery of the comic. Barbara is completely in the dark, as the reader is, so the mystery grows with the same speed as how much more compelling the story gets.

Art

Matt: As I mentioned, this issue is more art-driven, and the team nailed it perfectly. Amancay and Tamra are able to translate how disoriented Barbara is into the panels in creative ways. There’s a page where we see a distorted Batgirl carrying Gordon, and I love how they drew it as though we were looking through a funhouse mirror and how trippy the colors were, especially the purples along the walls. In the earlier panels, they opt to show little X-Rays of her various injuries that show us how beat up Gordon is. This issue felt very horror-inspired, which helps build the mystique of what is happening at this prison and who is the Skeletor wannabe lurking in the shadows?

Megan: With the comic being more art-based, the artists really put their talents on full display. With the perfect juxtaposition of normal aspects of Barbara’s story and the hallucinations she experiences, you get a beautiful mixture of normalcy and otherworldly looks. Adding to the vastly different pictures we get that Barbara is experiencing, Tamra Bonvillain uses a great amount of vibrancy to make this comic feel larger than life. Ariana Maher handles the lettering and does a perfect job of having the contrast between the out-loud conversations and Barbara’s inner dialogue.

Final Thoughts

Matt: 10/10 Barbara Gordon Breakout #2 leans into a horror vibe with this issue and lets the artwork do more of the showing rather than telling. There is a ton of mystery being built up in this issue, and we see Barbara in a very vulnerable state for the first time in a long time. If you weren’t sold before, I think this second issue cements this run into my monthly pulls.

Megan: 10/10. There was so much to enjoy about this issue! The creative team is firing on all cylinders, and the readers are benefiting heavily from it.

Overall Grade: 10/10

How are you liking this series? Let me know in the comments