Writer – Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Kyle Higgins, Ray Fawkes
Artist – Joe Quinones
Colours – Kelsey Shannon
Letters – Steve Wands

It had to happen at some point, it was simply just a matter of time but after a long run of exceptional issues, there had to be one that was not going to be as good and it was this particular book. Now, it is not to say that the book was all that bad or anything, it was simply not as exciting or as interesting as the previous twenty or so, hard as that may sound. This issue finds Red Robin, Batgirl and Red Hood investigating a building that might have a link to the Mad Hatter, which it does, which ties back to the original mystery of just who it was that had framed Jim Gordon way back when this all began. The book is filled with action and the story is somewhat interesting but it just does not grab the reader like any of the previous issues did and it is hard to nail down exactly why. The artwork by Joe Quinones is technically good but when stacked against the artists that have been on the book previous to this, his work is a little underwhelming and seems slightly out of place and yet even that is not the reason why this issue was simply not as good. This is one of the rare issues where Batman does not make an appearance as well and really, it did not warrant his being there so to shoehorn him in would have been a mistake which the writers thankfully avoided. It was great to see Spoiler return, as brief as it was and it was also nice to see Harper Row return and to finally see the writers decide to do something of note with her. Now whether that ‘something’ is going to be any good remains to be seen but hopefully, it will be. When it comes right down to it, the issue is an overall win and the only negative that can be found was that it was just not as hectic or intriguing as the stories that readers normally receive in the book. Good but not great.

3 out of 5