Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: batgirl, DC Next Level, joker, killing joke

An Official Return To The Killing Joke In Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2

An Official Return to Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke in Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2

We previously noticed that something bad was going to happen to Barbara Gordon in Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan, published by DC Comics tomorrow, putting her in Vandal Savage's Gotham Supermax penitentiary infirmary. This is how Barbara Gordon: Breakout #1 ended…

And this image in the teaser trailer we ran for Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 suggested that death was coming for her.

But as she lies, chained up in her hospital bed, she revisits that moment. And someone else comes to mind…

Was it really The Joker in his Killing Joke attire? Note that her glasses and hair are different; she is flashing back to that moment when the Joker came for her in Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, using her to get at Jim Gordon and drive him insane. It did not work. But that is exactly how she appeared then, and this page is a direct homage.

When Alan Moore wrote The Killing Joke for Brian Bolland, its status in DC Comics continuity was never meant to be as fixed as it became. It gave us a story that referenced Bat-Girl, Batwoman, Ace the Bat-Hound and Bat-Mite – characters that did not then exist in continuity, after DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths rewrote the universe.

And the final page of The Killing Joke can be interpreted as depicting the Joker's death at the hands of Batman. As Alan would write in Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow,

The Killing Joke portrayed Barbara Gordon as a retired superhero/librarian/politician in her forties, looking after her ageing father. And who is then shot through the spine by the Joker, in an attempt to send her father, Jim Gordon, insane – just as the Joker believed happened with himself and Batman. In the three-and-a-half decades since original publication, there has been considerable criticism of the themes of the original story, of turning Barbara Gordon into a walking (or not) plot device, an object to be used purely as a means to continue the plot to provoke Batman to action, to defeat the bad guy. Which, to be fair, is just as the Joker sees her. However, the comic didn't provide any resolution to her condition, and she was cast aside as the plot device that she was. She was principle in Gail Simone's famous Women In Refrigerators essay, as a character used and abused solely to provide the male character with motivation.

But it was the crippling of Barbara (and I use that word deliberately and specifically, aware ofg its offensive nature, but it was the narrative intent, literally and figuratively) by the Joker that saw the character transformed into Oracle, the anything-but-helpless disabled crusader working with the rest of the Birds Of Prey team, becoming a symbol of empowerment. A character that Gail Simone herself would write on an ongoing basis in the Birds Of Prey comic.

That went away to some degree with the New 52 DC Comics Relaunch, a change in continuity for the DC Universe, with the return of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, again written by Gail Simone. With Barbara Gordon having been rejuvenated and her condition healed, but – and DC were insistent upon this – with the events of the Killing Joke still in her history and uppermost in the character's mind.

But when Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr recreated Batgirl for DC Comics, it was in a spirit very much against the Killing Joke. Indeed, when a variant cover depicting the events of The Killing Joke was commissioned (even heightened) by the DC marketing department, its presence was vehemently objected to by the editorial and creative team and was scotched.

This Batgirl was not that Batgirl. And in Batgirl #49, as the book came to a close before the DC Comics Rebirth event, and the creative team went elsewhere, a change was made. It was revealed that a number of Batgirl's memories were fake. Implanted for nefarious purposes by The Fugue. And now in the process of being withdrawn, removed, remembered. And one of them?

The Killing Joke. Was it all a fake memory, all this time? Not the only one as well… Babs Tarr tweeted "We undid some things…" Then Batgirl Rebirth came along and took that possibility away again.

Also Heroes In Crisis #4. Including one scene featuring Batgirl, a confessional nine-panel grid, with Barbara Gordon, rather than saying anything, simply showing the scars of the assault that once paralysed her.

And in Batgirl #47, by Cecil Castellucci, Robbi Rodriguez and Tamra Bonvillain, part of The Joker War, with the Joker making a return visit to Barbara Gordon's apartment, sans her father and a different mission on his mind. But doing his best to remind her of his previous trip. Losing the use of her legs and sprawled across the floor, with polaroid camera images fantasised around her.

Not that they are actually there. But symbols of the panic and fear which the Joker surrounds her with, but also something for her to fight against. Which she totally does.

But the Joker continues to taunt her and tease her over what once happened…

…and not just for her either.

So obviously it can't stand like this. And Barbara is more than capable of dealing with this man. And in doing so, she gets her very own Killing Joke moment.

Which should be quite familiar…

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan, is published tomorrow by DC Comics.

• BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #2
  (W) Mariko Tamaki (A) Amancay Nahuelpan (CA) Karl Kerschl
  BATGIRL BEHIND BARS! Barbara Gordon is alone, imprisoned, and outnumbered by the very criminals she put away. Without her team, she's going to have to fight to survive on her own. Someone at Supermax has her in their crosshairs. Barbara is being hunted, but she's about to learn that in prison, there's nowhere to hide… Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Amancay Nahuelpan continue to put Barbara through her paces as DC's most surprising Next Level series continues! $3.99 6/10/2026
• BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #3
  (W) Mariko Tamaki (A) Amancay Nahuelpan (CA) Karl Kerschl
  DOES THE KEY TO BARBARA'S SURVIVAL LIE IN THE PAST? Barbara Gordon is just trying to survive in Supermax. Every day brings new danger…and more questions. Can she trust her new friend Sparrow? Has she clocked the real threats closing in on her? And why does she get the sneaking suspicion that there's more to this prison than meets the eye? To answer these questions, Barbara will need to rely on the skills she learned as Batgirl and her own past to ensure she has a future… $3.99 7/8/2026
• BARBARA GORDON BREAKOUT #4
  (W) Mariko Tamaki (A) Amancay Nahuelpan (CA) Karl Kerschl
  WITH NOWHERE TO RUN, WHO CAN BARBARA TRUST? Barbara entered Supermax alone, with no one by her side–so who is the mysterious ally that's come to her defense, and what is their connection to her family? And even with someone watching her back, will she be able to protect the killer's next target? Find out as Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan's DC Next Level smash hit continues! $3.99 8/12/2026

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