WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batgirl #40 by Cecil Castellucci, Carmine Digiandomenico, Jordie Bellaire and Andworld Design, in stores now.
Sometimes, an old villain will be brought into a story just to be killed off. It's a way of showcasing just how dangerous the new situation is. Something similar happens in Batgirl #40 to one Batman villain, and in over sixty years of comics continuity no character has ever been attacked this brutally.
Vulture of the Terrible Trio was turned into a tool by the villainous Oracle, losing control of his body as a result.
The Terrible Trio
The original Vulture was a former member of the Terrible Trio, created by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff back in 1958. The Vulture is Armand Lydecker, a former inventor who'd acquired a large fortune over the years. Along with his compatriots Gunther Hadwick (Shark) and Warren Lawford (Fox), the three became criminals in Gotham City.
Their entire modus operendi was to challenge Batman and Robin. The Trio eventually split up when Hadwick turned on them, leading the team to recruit Great White Shark to replace him briefly. The group has been introduced in the modern era with new characters behind the masks, including a woman as the new Vulture.
The new versions of Vulture and Fox have both appeared in the most recent issues of Batgirl, in which a new robotic Oracle is targeting Burnside after being corrupted by Lex Luthor. She's burned the neighborhood down to ashes as she moves around the city preparing for a confrontation with Batgirl.
Based on the data left behind from Barbara's time as Oracle, the new A.I. villain has proven to be a dangerous threat to Gotham City. Designed to replace Barbara Gordon, Oracle seeks out the missing data core that will complete her evolution. Forcibly bringing Vulture along as she follows a beacon to the data, she decides Vulture can still be of use to her in the most horrifying way possible.
Sentry Bird
Once she arrives at the source of the beacon, Oracle orders Vulture to keep an eye out for Batgirl. To ensure her help, Oracle essentially infects Vulture with a part of her tech, directly into her skull. It's not pretty, but Oracle believes Vulture will stop feeling pain once she's adjusted to it.
The eye creates a connection with Oracle, so she can see what Vulture sees. The whole time, Vulture is blind and incapable of moving, but still conscious and aware. It's a hellish punishment for someone who barely counts as a D-list Batman villain, trapping her in her own body with no way of escape.
Vulture can only stand there as Burnside burns around her. If the fires were to reach her (which they easily could at this point, considering how much of the district has been caught in the inferno) she'd be caught in the flames and killed -- unable to escape but fully aware and capable of feeling pain the whole time. That's the sort of fate we wouldn't wish on someone as evil as the Joker, and it's just been doled out to a minor bad guy who made the mistake of teaming up with the wrong villain. It's also indicative of the sort of thing that this Oracle is apparently comfortable doing to achieve her goals.
If anything, it makes the threat of this Oracle all the more potent: if this is what she does to her allies, what is she willing to do to her enemies?