In this comic review of Barbara Gordon: Breakout #4, as Babs struggle with the likes of Die and Sparrow, a new ally arrives to help. Is it enough?
Barbara Gordon: Breakout #4 main cover by Karl Kerschl (DC Comics)
BARBARA GORDON: BREAKOUT #4
Written by MARIKO TAMAKI
Art by AMANCAY NAHUELPAN
Main Cover: KARL KERSCHL
Variant Covers: DUSTIN NGUYEN, DAVE JOHNSON, GERALD PAREL, KLAUS JANSON, and FRANK MILLER
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 8/12/26
This review contains spoilers
Barbara meets Officer Myrna Shelton who is a fellow inmate. She asks why she is behind bars in the Supermax and Shelton tells a story of how she saved a defenseless kid from being harassed by Vandal Savage’s squad of goons. Shelton holds her own but they wear her down and give her a scar on her hand. Shelton says she owes her dad a lot but that’s a story for another time. Tease!
Babs and Myrna find out that the next member of the Supermax will be former city council member Vanessa Woods. Afterwards, Barbara is heading back to her cell when she hears a scream. She tried to run to help but one of the workers throws her back in her cell and prepares to beat her. Babs fights the thug while the person continues to scream while Die walks in and the screaming stops.
Barbara and Shelton think that it was Woods that was screaming and plan to recruit a guard on their side. They can’t find Woods and wonder if she’s dead. As they are discussing that, they find the murdered body of Barbara’s old friend Sparrow in the laundry bin. The issue ends with Barbara realizing she has no idea what is going on in this prison.
Analysis
Not much happens in this issue. Maybe that was intentional to make the end of the issue that much more shocking. Babs finally has some help in the prison and she continues to be beaten down by guards and Die continues to threaten her. So it is pretty par for the course and Babs think she is starting to get a routine in the prison. But then that is all turned upside down by finding Sparrow’s dead body. Sparrow seemed to be against Babs because she kept drugging her but now she’s dead. Will Barbara be blamed? It is too easy to assume Die killed her. It is a new mystery to solve in this crazy prison.
It seems that every issue that Barbara has been beaten or tortured and it is a good piece of continuity that we see the effects that those beatings have on her. She’s bandaged from her head to her toes. Not only that but she is the only inmate who is bandaged. Is she getting extra special treatment from the Savage thugs because of her dad or because she wont comply and will fight back.
The Vandal Savage Supermax holds many secrets and I am looking forward to see Barabra Gordon investigate the death of Sparrow in the next few issues.
