Batgirl #28: Motivations

Batgirl returns to find the police over the body of the original Grotesque and it looks like she has murdered him. The police aren’t buying her story and she makes a run for it. We find out that Detective Douglas is the new Grotesque (not surprised) and that he is working for Wyrm. Wyrm is a villain that Batgirl helped Nightwing fight over in his series. The new Grotesque seems to be motivated by the loss of a woman whom he hallucinates about.

Barbara returns home to find Commissioner Gordon waiting up for her. He is angry that she was out all night. She must take it easy or her implant will give out before she can get a new one and she runs the risk of permanently damaging her body to the point where a new implant wouldn’t work. The two talk out what they are feeling. Barbara always feels driven by her father to not give up and be the best. This is part of the reason why when she was crippled that she didn’t want any help and shoved people away. She did not want to disappoint her father. Commission Gordon admits he pushed her so hard because he felt like what happened to her was his fault.

After talking to her dad, she finds out that many of the rich citizens of Gotham have moved their art to the museum. It is too risky keeping it in their homes where Grotesque might murder them. There will be an opening gala, which her father is attending. She looks at Douglas’ files that she swiped and sees Wyrm’s fingerprints all over them. She finds a lot of art items on sale on an online black market website. She realizes that the items in the museum are fake and that Grotesque must destroy them so that nobody will figure that out. That means everyone at the museum gala, including her father, are in deadly danger.