It’s an okay issue that reads fast and comes with a cool, poster-worthy cover. But it’s also an issue where I found myself saying “Yeah, this is definitely going to read better as a trade paperback.”
The reason for this is that this issue ends in a major cliffhanger and you’re going to have to wait 2 months to find out what happens next. September is ZERO MONTH at DC and we’ll get the origin of Batgirl when the title returns a few weeks from now. The TPB crowd is going to have a much more enjoyable read without the wait and it’ll be easier to keep track of all these characters. James Jr. is up to no good, Batwoman is showing up for some reason, the cop gave her life story in the last issue but I can’t quite recall what all happened there, Knightfall is wanting to kill everybody, there are 3 henchmen who get back stories in this issue (except they never explain how the one chick got her wings. How do you skip over that?), and Commissioner Gordon is about to jump into the mix as well.
There’s lots of color, lots of action, and lots of tough-as-nails ladies. Those who have enjoyed this arc so far should enjoy this but you might be disappointed in how quickly you’ll finish it. I think you can definitely finish this issue in under 10 minutes. The art is as pretty and vibrant as usual (a shot of a grapple hitting someone in the face looked off, but otherwise things were fine) and the addition of Batwoman seems to have inspired Adrian Syaf to take more chances with page layouts like those we see in Batwoman’s own title.
When it comes right down to it all that happened was that the girls fought among themselves, then they fought the bad guys for a bit, and then the issue ended in an abrupt cliffhanger. Like I said, there’s a lot of action and it sets up a few things to come, but it’s a stepping stone between issue #11 and #13 rather than being a notable chapter all its own.
SCORE: 6.5/10
