Batgirl #13 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Simone really steps on the gas here, throwing a lot at Barbara this issue, even if she's only really aware of part of it.

Throughout the Knightfall arc, Simone has kept us guessing about Charise, whether she was the framed survivor of a brutal attack on her family or a brilliant criminal who knew how to beat the system.  The twist, as we learn this issue, is that she was both.  In any other city, a rich socialite dating a sociopath who forces her to watch as he skins her family is probably a bit of a stretch.  But, hey, it's Gotham.  As Simone shows us, Charise didn't go to Arkham Asylum as a victim of a failed legal system.  She went there willingly, to learn how to become the sociopath that her boyfriend was and then to use those lessons and her resources to wage a war on crime.  It's a particularly Gotham story, a dark mirror of Batman's origin, and Simone really sells it.  Charise's beef with the Bat-family is that it's had its chance and it's failed to do anything to make Gotham a better place.  Using her father's crooked business practices and her new killing skills, Charise promises to do better.  In so promising, Simone establishes Knightfall as Barbara's first real enemy, someone who rises above the other hastily drawn villains Simone has used over the course of this series to test Barbara.  Overcoming Charise's resources is going to be a challenge for Barbara, but, as we know, she loves a good challenge.

Simone also draws Barbara into the upcoming "Death of the Family" arc with possibly the Joker (or at least someone acting on his behalf) seemingly promising to commit the same violence against her as he did against Barbara.  It comes just as we continue to watch James, Jr. play with Barbara without her knowing, giving her roommate a cat named after a cat that she had when she was younger.  These two revelations happening at the same time make you see the difficult road Barbara has ahead of her, one made all the rockier as we watch, in the end, Knightfall's minions free Mirror, Gretel, and Grotesque, part of the army that Charise promised to send after Barbara.  It's not going to be a fun few weeks for our girl...