CMYK Reviews

The third issue in the series, this is the weakest in the series. Issue #2 was exciting and set up a tremendous question of how, exactly, Barbara Gordon was going to deal with being imprisoned in Supermax. #3 takes a look at that situation, and suggests: what if we just don’t make any progress on advancing that story?

We begin with a flashback where Gordon is joined on the roof of Hanah Anhala Memorial Hospital by Nightwing, Huntress, and Cassandra Cain where they plan on finding out who is working with The Joker. Batgirl is stuck on being unable to place the name Hanah Anhala.

Meanwhile, in real time, Sparrow, who we met last issue, continues giving pills to Barbara which don’t alleviate her pain after being beaten. This causes Gordon to hallucinate that Sparrow is Death, ending with Sparrow possibly throwing Gordon into an electric fence while revealing she knows her identity as Batgirl, and Gordon that Sparrow is Anhala (or, at least, indicative of a trap like the Anhala name was previously).

There is a nice parallel here that Gordon realizes Anhala is indicative of a trap two separate times, and both realizations come dangerously late.

The issue ends with a man watching a blond woman stand over a fallen Gordon via closed circuit camera.

It’s not entirely fair to say that nothing happened in this issue, but I do think it’s fair to say that an underwhelming amount happened in the third issue of a five-issue miniseries. Sparrow is a suspicious character from her introduction, but issue #3 does nothing to really ramp up the tension of the series. It’s not bad but on a limited time table, I think more needs to happen per issue, and spending an issue almost entirely on saying that this suspicious character is suspicious does nothing to push the plot forward. It’s a red herring, but instead of driving the action forward, the focus becomes that the red herring is an oblique puzzle with no answer given and no meaningful clues presented for the reader.

While the writing takes a step back, the art fits the tone of the story perfectly. There are multiple splash pages that shine. The coloring is tremendous and evocative of the danger of this corrupt prison in contrast to the richer hues of the flashback scene.

I was very enthusiastic for this series through the first two issues. I still liked this issue – overall, the series remains tense and it is an intriguing plot. I remain hopeful for it going forward, and this was solid enough, but this stumble in plotting sets it and the overall plot back.

Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Colors: Tamra Bonvillain
DC Comics