Gotham Prison Blues — Reviewing ‘Barbara Gordon: Breakout’ #1

Gotham City is even more dangerous than ever, as the Vandal Savage led police force has begun rounding up everyone. These detainees include everyone from prosecutors to cops to citizens, and even the vigilantes who have pledged their lives to protect their city.

With things becoming increasingly dangerous in the new Supermax prison, a member of the bat family makes a great sacrifice to protect those who need it the most. Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1 throws the title character into an impossible mission courtesy of Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher.

Hot damn this was good.

Not that I expected any less. This creative team is a bunch of storytelling badasses who center their tale on one of the most badass members of the family. Barbara gets to shine at times as both Oracle and Batgirl, but here she gets to just be a boss as her full combined self. Kicking ass and taking names, because she already knows them, at the same time.

I greatly enjoyed Tamaki’s last time in Gotham when she was leading Detective Comics. She gave a big update to Arkham (which is still in effect today) and really juggled the bat family perfectly. We get some glimpses of others here but it’s Barbara that takes the spotlight, as she should. Ms. Gordon takes on the burden of wanting to help those stuck in the prison, where some people are being murdered after being imprisoned for trumped up “crimes” by Commissioner Vandal Savage.

Seeing Barbara not only out and about again but utilizing brain and brawn is always nice. We love to see her getting to be Oracle, but her getting to be her true self, no mask or persona, is worth it all. There isn’t really anyone else that could do what she’s doing in this situation. Tamaki sets up some juicy beats with the mystery and what happens in the final moments.

I always love to see more work for Nahuelpan. He deploys an art style that feels so soft and inviting while rough and unnerving at the same time. This gives everything on the page such vivid and stark depth, detail, and thriving life. It really fits this story since the realities of prison are harsh, but Barabara’s bit of light upon the darkness hopes to break through.

“Hope springs eternal,” or something like that.

With the colors, Bonvillain grabs onto the directional reins and delivers another top-notch coloring job. She mixes and matches the scale and vibrancy of the colors for each specific space or moment. Flashy bright lights in many spots are replaced by darker heavier tones in night and harder moments. There aren’t a lot of colorful things happening at the heart of this story, yet the choices for how to light things and build around Barbara again speak to the hope she still brings.

A big portion of the story is driven by the internal captions from Barbara. They have a very written in a smuggled diary feeling to them in how Maher presents the boxes. She drops in some Batgirl blue with her symbol really working. The dialogue and SFX swim in unique vibrant waters as they flow through the panels and pages with ease, delivering the emotional impact alongside the textual elements that befit the story and moment.

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1 is now available from DC Comics.