The Circle Theory Of Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 (Spoilers)

08 Jul 2026, 11:03 by https://www.facebook.com/richard.james.johnston · BC

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Bad Seeds, barbara gordon, batgirl, Circle, oracle, Vandal Savage

The Circle Theory Of Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 (Spoilers)

The Circle Theory Of Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan (Spoilers)

Published Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:03:31 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 traps Barbara in Supermax as flashbacks and clues hint she is missing something crucial.
A Joker trap from Barbara’s past may connect to her prison nightmare, as memory and survival blur inside Supermax.
The Grim Reaper figure may be more than a hallucination, with a carved circle suggesting a hidden watcher in the prison.
Barbara Gordon: Breakout theory links the mystery ally to Batman: Full Circle and the Chill family’s buried history.

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 is published today. With Barbara Gordon imprisoned for aiding and abetting the known terrorist Batman and his radical group of operatives working in Gotham. We know her as Oracle and Batgirl; Gotham knows her as the daughter of former Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon. The current Police Commissioner is longstanding villain Vandal Savage, an immortal caveman who has done rather well for himself over the millennia, and there's not an enemy that he can't outlive. Now he is running a fascist police operation across Gotham, working with Gotham mayor Poison Ivy, and using the Supermax island prison to keep his enemies and have them conveniently bumped off. But there is someone else. And Barbara Gordon seems to have been fixed by a skeletal figure in her jail cell. Or is it a hallucination?

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan is published today, part of DC Next Wave and leading up to the Bad Seeds event. It is an issue of flashback, hallucination and intrigue. Reviews I have seen are from folk who are disappointed; they think it is too ephemeral, that nothing of note happens, and that it is a waste of their time and money. But what if they, like Barbara Gordon, weren't looking properly?

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #3 by Mariko Tamaki and Amancay Nahuelpan

Hanah Anhala was hiding in plain sight. HA HA HA. It was trap set by the Joker for the Batfamily, years ago.

And it is those events that Barbara Gordon recalls now, as a prisoner in SuperMax. But why?

Because she has the specs, she has the scope, she knows this place inside out but there is something she is missing.

And a hallucination of a Grim Reaper that keeps following her.

But what is he not a hallucination? Just because no one else can see him?

Or maybe it is her brain interpreting events, trying to remind her of what she is actually seeing around her. Whether the Grim Reaper, whether the Joker hiding in plain sight…

A carved circle on the prison wall. With apparently no reason to exist like that. What Circle, that looks like a Grim Reaper could be hiding in plain sight? And watching Barbara Gordon from a hidden camera? And who may even know who Barbara Gordon is? Okay, here's where I go on a walkabout that may be proven entirely wrong. They usually are. Because I did consider the secret order of Amazons, The Circle, who tried to prevent Wonder Woman's birth. Or the Ninth Circle, the criminal organisation founded by Green Arrow's ancestor, Robin Queen. But this one seems to be more on the nose.