In this review of Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3, Barbara finds herself trying to identify who is a true friend and who is a foe.
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 main cover by Karl Kerschl (DC Comics)
BARBARA GORDON: BREAKOUT #3
Written by MARIKO TAMAKI
Art by AMANCAY NAHUELPAN
Main Cover: KARL KERSCHL
Variant Covers: TERRY & RACHEL DODSON, CHRIS WILDGOOSE, JEFF SPOKES
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 7/8/26
This review contains spoilers
Does Barbabra’s Angel of Death await?
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 opens up with a flashback to Babs Batgirl (Babsgirl?), Nightwing, Huntress, and Cass Batgirl (Cassgirl?) tracking the Joker. Huntress and Cass are ready to move in but Nightwing is noticing that Babs is questioning something. Babs thinks she is missing something but Nightwing tells her that she’s not and to just trust her gut.
In the present, Barbabra wakes up from her drug induced coma for a morning roll call in the prison. She can’t tell if she slept or not and is still in a lot of pain and is still disoriented. Babs is recalling the prison blueprints in her head and is questioning if she’s missing something with it and what makes this prison so different and unique.
As Babs is thinking an inmate comes over to her and the shadow of Death is behind and the pills immediately knock her out and she passes out again.
In the flashback, the team is in an abandoned building looking for Joker. Batgirl tells everyone to stop because she has found a clue.
In the present, as she comes to, Babs notices a circle on the wall which could be a big piece to her investigation but she still is confused by it. She then has another vision of Death and starts to run away but the Reaper grabs her and says that they know she’s Batgirl and knocks her into an electric fence, shocking her.
Back to the past as Batgirl figures out just barely that Joker has laid a trap for the team and they escape the exploding building in the nick of time. As she is remembering that, the issue ends with a man behind computer screens secretly watching Barbaba in the prison. Is it the Calculator?
Analysis
Let’s start with the cover. I would grade this cover an A. The cover is by Karl Kerschl and its Babs beating up a fellow prisoner as Batgirl, Nightwing, and Cass leap into battle in the background. I think I would give the cover an A+ if you took out the prison Babs part and just left it with the three heroes. That is a trio that I personally haven’t a whole lot in comics. Sure they have teamed in various Batfamily events but just seeing them together, even if it was in the background, was cool.
I really liked the flashback. Babs taking a team and leading it into the field. I don’t know why Huntress was there. Rule of three writing thing by Tamaki? I think the flashback could have worked just as fine with either both or one of Dick and Cass and still pack that punch that Batgirl is going to blame herself for almost getting them killed.
As for the ending, I assume it’s the Calculator? It just looked like a regular man with a regular haircut behind computer screens. We only saw shadow and I remember around Infinite Crisis Era, DC was positioning Calculator as the super villain’s version of Oracle. So it could make sense that he keeps tabs on her. We shall see where the breakout leads us next because we have that and the Grim Reaper walking around and Babs getting drugged every two seconds. Our girl is going through it.
