The battle of St. Hadrian
This issue features new writers because King and Seeley had to plan their new series (Batman and Nightwing respectively) for Rebirth and unfortunately Grayson and the readers have to suffer for it as this is a train-wreck in the making. Last issue set the tone for the series arriving at its big climax but it seems the new writers are instead in a big hurry. So many things happened here that it feels this issue would have been better if it was separated in 2 issues or if it only focused on the story parts that advanced the plot and not all the fights that happened. The art also leaves a lot to be desired.
Not everything was bad; Dick's dialogue is still great, as well as his interactions with Tiger and there were some great story developments. However, the way some characters were used, some plot incosistencies, some bad art, and the fact that this issue was fight after fight with none gettingthe spotlight it deserves, relly dooms this issue. But what happened?
So, Dick warned Helena that the Syndicate are really after her as she orders the girls to go to a safe place she is taken care of in a very quick and brutal way by most of the Syndicate members when finally our heroes arrive and save what's left of Helena and order Dr Netz to take her somewhere else and cure her before engaging in a big fight
Meanwhile, the skull girls are preparing to help defend the school when Agent 0 arrives and convinces them that Dick, Tiger and the Agent 8 (the blonde agent everybody thinks is dead) are the real threat and need to be eliminated and gives the girls some weapons before heading to the Spyral HQ to confront Dr Netz
Again Dick and Tiger seem to be doing ok against the Syndicate (despite their continuous insistence that their outmatched) when suddenly the fight is interrupted by a big explosion in one of the school's buildings, it was Alia (agent 8) who blew it fighting the skull girls and this causes a great shock to Tiger, so Dick calls the Midnighter to fight the Syndicate while he tries to help the girls and Tiger fights against his former teammate/lover.
Finally we end the issue with the reunion of Agent 0 and Dr Netz who greet each other before fighting over who should become the vessel of their father when Dr Daedalus himself makes his entrance