Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2
“Black Out”
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Cover Artist: Karl Kerschl
When Barbara Gordon: Breakout was announced, I had hopes it would be Gotham Central for prison. If not that highbrow, then at least something like Prison Break.
I didn’t remotely expect a weird, horror-tinged drug trip.
Where is My Mind?
I’m going to do the best I can to recap, review, and score this book, but I should probably warn you up front: I really have no clue what was going on half the time.
Inmate #682281, aka Barbara Gordon, awakens in the infirmary after a dream of being attacked by the Joker in her cell. She’s got a serious knock to the head, two broken ribs, lacerations, a fractured wrist, and bruised vocal cords—and no clue how it happened.
After the guards leave, another inmate who calls herself “Sparrow” steps from the shadows and tells Barbara she isn’t safe there. Well, duh, she’s in prison for working with Batman, of course, she’s not safe. Sparrow gives Babs some pain meds and helps her back to her cell, but not before the injured woman has another hallucination and passes out.
In Gotham, Officer James Gordon has a chance encounter with Barbara’s beau, Nightwing. Jim says he had to think as a father, no matter what her wishes were, and he sent her help.
Sparrow keeps checking on Babs and giving her meds. It’s not clear how much time passes. Barbara doesn’t seem like she’s getting better, and she might actually be getting stalked by Death?
Comfortably Numb
Like I said earlier, it’s genuinely hard to tell what’s going on in this issue.
I get wanting to convey how off-balance Barbara is, but the way this issue is structured leaves me feeling like I’m the one all drugged up.
It was good to see that Jim Gordon is going to be involved in this series, but the way he appeared here felt a little forced. I’ve watched enough cop shows to know that officers almost never patrol without a partner, especially in a place like Gotham. So why was Jim on his own here, other than because the plot needed him to have a timely chat with Nightwing? Furthermore, what’s Nightwing doing in Gotham now when he wasn’t even there the night Babs was arrested?
I know we’re supposed to think Sparrow is the person Jim sent in to help. The transition between scenes couldn’t have made it more obvious if there were musical cues. But she’s also apparently working for Die, daughter of Two-Face, who had it in for Barbara the moment she walked in the door. So which one is it? Or is she playing both sides?
Oh, and her shadow looks like Death’s cloak, so she might be a reaper or something of the sort, too. Your guess is as good as mine.
I’ve only talked about Barbara in relation to other characters so far, and there’s a reason for that. She has absolutely no agency of her own in this issue. From waking in the infirmary and being questioned by the guards, to getting led around and fed drugs by Sparrow, nothing she does is her own decision. Half the time she doesn’t even know what she’s doing, and she sees the Joker everywhere. I get he’s the cause of her greatest trauma and all, but good grief, am I sick of the clown.
This whole series is just weirdly put together so far. The first issue did the heavy lifting of establishing the prison setting and introducing a cast of guards and inmates, then this issue ignores the vast majority of it in exchange for multiple scenes with a new inmate character and a lot of drug-induced hallucinations. Oh, and we finish the issue with Death itself floating into Barbara’s cell and reaching for her.
My head hurts just writing all of this out.
White Rabbit
Feeding us some high-grade psychedelics this month are writer Mariko Tamaki, artist Amancay Nahuelpan, and colorist Tamra Bonvillain.
Tamaki clearly has a story she wants to tell here, and I applaud her for structuring the issue in a way intended to make us feel off-balance along with Barbara. I just don’t think she pulled it off. Everything here feels so disjointed, so random, that I had a hard time investing in any of what was going on. Even the scene with Jim Gordon and Nightwing felt off—it felt like two guys just having a chat, not two men concerned about the woman they both love most in the world.
Nahuelpan’s artwork is the thing that really saves this issue. If you’re going to have a disjointed drug-trip story, the visuals better at least be interesting. And they are. His take on the Joker is both classic and horrifying all at once, which is exactly how I’d expect Babs to see him. The Death imagery is also incredibly effective here, especially Sparrow's shadow, which resembles Death's tattered cloak. I may have no clue who or what the “helpful” inmate really is, but at least she looks cool.
Bonvillain’s colors work hand-in-hand with the art here and really add to the hallucinogenic feel of much of this issue. The prison itself is rendered in darker tones, but all of Barbara’s dreams and images have a much brighter, almost neon palette to them. The Joker is almost ghoulish, and Death stands out with its black and gray shades.
Don’t Fear the Reaper
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 is a case of tonal whiplash, going from the first issue’s prison setting to something more psychedelic and horror-tinged. The story does too good a job keeping us off-balance along with Barbara, and becomes too hard to follow. The saving grace is the artwork and colors, which conveys the confusion and horror of what our heroine is facing. Hopefully future issues will find a bit more of balance between atmosphere and clarity.