Nightwing #73

SON OF THE JOKER!Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, is tied to a pole, waiting. She was injured, captured and brought there by Dick Grayson, a man she knows since she was a girl and he was a kid. Robin. Nightwing. How is it even possible? But she knows the answer: the Joker was able to take a memory crystal, a device used by the Court of Owls to rewrite memories. Dick was victim of its effects before, almost making him believe he was raised as one of the Court's Talons. Now, the Joker overwrote all his memories again, and Dick believes he was raised by the clown prince of crime himself. Richard Grayson thinks he lived as the Joker's sidekick, a faithful son for the Joker to mold in his own image.  And this version of Dick is thrown inside the arena to fight with her: Barbara is able to free herself up, and fight fair. She does what she can to try and let Dick regain consciousness of his real self. Not Ric or the Talon, and especially not the false Joker sidekick. Dick Grayson, her friend, the first Robin, the best Robin, founder of the Teen Titans and then hero as Nightwing. As the fight goes on and Barbara is able to pull a big shot on Dick, the man seems to start regaining knowledge of his former self. But it's just a bluff: Dick it's still under the Joker's control. As Barbara hears Joker talking about a plan to destroy the Alfred Pennyworth Children Hospital, she flees to get there.  She does not know that Punchline is already there, and that she stole a communicator from Batgirl herself: using it while modulating her voice, she makes Tim Drake believe Barbara is at the hospital, in danger as the Joker planted explosives all over. Meanwhile, the Joker wants Dick to make an even bigger splash: three kills with one stone. And the perfect opportunity to do it is coming their way: as Jason and Tim head out to save Barbara, Dick intercepts them, telling them he was cured from his memory condition but that now Barbara is the one the Joker manipulated into a psychopath. The hospital is a trap she set for them, and they must stop her at all costs before she kills someone.