Let’s take a look at some of the new product that’s available via Organized Play events. Today I’m reviewing the Batgirl OP Kit from October 2016.

What are these pieces, you might ask? How do I get them? I’m fairly certain most people reading this know how to acquire these special kits, but for those that do not, your LGS (local game store) probably runs Heroclix events. Every month, Wizkids develops 3 new figures to send to stores that hold events to draw players in and have a chance to win some of these unique pieces that you can’t get anywhere else (okay, maybe you can buy them on the secondary market). They’re basically an incentive to get out there and play and help support your LGS.

October 2016 Batgirl OP Kit

wkD16-013 Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) – 75 Points – Babs here is a short 5-clicks long and has somewhat lower combat values. She starts off with 10 movement with a special power, 10 attack with Energy Explosion, 17 defense with Combat Reflexes, and 3 damage with another special power. After two clicks, she goes into Leap/Climb, Smoke Cloud, Willpower, and keeps that special damage power for two additional clicks before ditching it on her last click. She’s got 5 range with two targets and like all pieces in this kit she has the Batman Ally team ability. Before we judge her, let’s look at those special powers. Her movement essentially puts her on the Batcycle as it grants her Running Shot, the Carry ability, and Ignores Characters for movement. That’s pretty great. Barbara can get your Bat-folk where they need to be and doesn’t care about characters along the way. Her special damage is what really makes her shine though; she can use Perplex, and if she targets another friendly character she grants them Empower or Enhancement for the turn. That’s what I’m talking about! I dig pieces that are super strong in the support department, and this special damage power helps her overcome he rather lackluster numbers/power combinations.

Bottom Line: There’s a lot of pitfalls to this dial, and although that Perplex is mighty nice, I just don’t really see playing her outside of a theme team that doesn’t have a dedicated Taxi. 75 points is a lot for a support piece that can kind of deal damage. Score: 3/5

wkD16-014 Black Bat – 75 Points – Cassandra is pretty much the opposite of Barbara in that she’s a melee monster. Unlike our last piece, Black Bat has an improvement (she ignores characters for movement) and a trait. And oh man what a lovely trait it is; she can use Flurry, Leap/Climb, and Super Senses. Traited Flurry… I’m in love. Anything with traited Flurry is worth picking up in my eyes. And it’s not like her dial is bad either. She comes in with 8 Charge, 11 Precision Strike, 17 Willpower, and 2 Battle Fury. Again, Batman Ally team ability is present, and she has a somewhat meaningless 3 range with a single target. Also just like Babs, Cassandra only has 5 clicks for 75 points. But hang on, let’s go back to her first click. Charge, Flurry, 11 attack with Precision Strike and 2 damage with Battle Fury? Good god, this piece is nasty at dealing with agile targets. Neutralizing both Super Senses and Shape Change is really big and a steal at her point value. Her second click is identical to her first (which won’t matter because Willpower will keep her on top click), and once she hits click three, she swaps to Sidestep, goes up to an 18 defense, gains Close Combat Expert, and a special attack that lets her use Smoke Cloud as a free action, but only to place 1 hindering marker. Man, what a great piece!

Bottom Line: 75 points is an absolute steal for the pure aggression you get on her. 5 clicks is a bit short, but if you hate Super Senses/Shape Change, she’s your girl. Score: 5/5

wkD16-015 Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) – 50 Points – Shaving 25 points off of the other two pieces, Stephanie is your general Batman Family/Birds of Prey support piece that can hold her own (sort of), and that’s what you’re paying for. Just like the other two bats, she rocks 5 clicks of life and has the Batman Ally team ability. She has 4 range with a single target which will only be used out of necessity. Her top dial has 9 Charge, 10 Quake, 17 Toughness, and 2 Probability Control… which is the reason you play her. Basically, Stephanie is 50 point Prob piece with offensive keywords. She keeps Prob for 3 clicks, and kind of dances around with powers, swapping between Toughness and Combat Reflexes, and she ditches Charge for Sidestep on clicks 3 and 4. On her last two clicks, she picks up Smoke Cloud and on click 5, she does have a neat movement power. It’s effectively a stop click that happens once per game and if she’s the only piece on your force, you turn her back to click #1. Ok, that’s kinda cool. It’s gimmicky, but cool. I can see her staying in the back field and purposely staying out of harms way so your opponent has to KO her twice, but her stats are so meh that I don’t think they’ll really mind having to deal with her a second time. She’s got the other half of Spider-Gwen; an actual stop click on her last click, but the effect isn’t very good.

Bottom Line: You’re really only playing Stephanie for her Probability control, and even then I just can’t really see running her. She’s a bit too expensive for what she brings to the table. Score: 3/5

The Batgirl OP kit isn’t terrible, but it certainly doesn’t live up to say the Sinister Six kit, or even the Justice League kit. I’m kind of sad that the only piece I really want won’t work with my Batgirl ID card that continues to gather dust. I’ll probably pick up Barbara for that purpose alone as the Perplex would be a nice effect for a single-turn call-in. Think one of these pieces is better/worse than what I rated them at? Let me know why in the comments below!

I’m going to try and make OP kit reviews bonus articles during the middle of the week rather than take the slot of a full article on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Tomorrow I’ll be presenting a brand new type of article. It’s a variation on Team Builds, and I think you guys will really dig it. Take care!