Meanwhile, in Gotham…
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Mirka Andolfo
Colors: Wendy Broome
What They Say:
While Batwoman is in Europe, a group of young admirers agree that someone has to keep an eye on Gotham while she’s gone. So get ready to meet The Batgirls!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
DC Comics Bombshells series has continued to delight and I really enjoyed the previous issue that closed out the Combat arc of the series. With that one focusing on the where everyone is montage kind of approach, especially in that there are quite a few characters in play now, it was a good way to touch base with everyone and see where they are with it all. The book does move awkwardly between stories with the way it makes leaps without fully providing closure, but it’s attempting to do a lot with a limited structure to tell it in while also feeling “old-timey” in a way that’s appealing. It’s asking the readers to make the logical leaps with it – at a time when we’d most likely rather have it all play out. Still, there’s so much to like that it’s easy to give it a pass on that.
With this issue, we kick off the Allies arc which is like the others in that it’s going to run for nine installments. If the limited pre-solicits are right, we’re getting a three part arc focusing on these characters and that will be a whole lot of fun. The opening salvo takes us back to Gotham where we get to see just how badly people are being treated that have fled the horrors of Europe. This comes in the form of the Smoak family as they try to take character of some relatives, though it comes by crossing some of the simple laws that are valid during peacetime. Combine the desire to protect family and those fleeing the horrors with xenophobic types and that of scummy landlords and it’s a volatile situation. So what does that situation need to de-escalate things?
Well, not the Batgirls. We saw the start of this previously before Kate left to join the war effort under Waller, but the team has been doing a lot of positive things overall even if it generally involves violence and butt-kicking. There’s a wonderful take to be had here with costume design and color design as well, combined with some great nods such as the old-timey Batmobile and other small elements. The book provides for some really fun action sequences in very old school classic Batman style and it even tosses a little backstory within it with the cop that’s chasing after them and his tie to one of them that’s actually quite nice. It gives Harper’s motivation a bit more while also getting her to understand the other side a bit. Though it takes a bit for us to get the main trio together – and out of costume at that, it sets the stage for more coming up by adding Alysia Yeoh to the mix. With her being a regular person in the mainline universe, adding a younger version of her here to the trio to expand the Batgirls team is ideal, the kind of welcome creative use of an existing slate of characters in a positive way.
In Summary:
The team of Kathy, Nell and Harper is pretty strong here, though only two of them are central to the fighting early on, and the addition of Alysia is pretty welcome in giving it even more diversity that one would expect from young kids in the city exposed to so many blocks that are very, very diverse even if segregated on their own. A lot of what we get here is setup for what’s to come in the next two installments as it tells a tale from home amid the war and I’m excited to see how wacky and crazy it can get. I love the use of characters here, including the Smoak family, and the costume design is fantastic. While I love everything Bennett is doing with this book, the real excitement for me this time around was hitting the credits page and seeing Mirka Andolfo’s name there. I knew I’d be getting a visual treat and I was not disappointed in the slightest. Her take on the characters as a whole is great and there’s just such a sense of fun about her presentation of the girls as a whole is fantastic. While I can’t quite say I’m ready for a Batgirls spinoff, I’m ready for Andolfo to get her own ongoing from DC Comics, whether in the Bombshells universe or elsewhere. Books like this are the reason why.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 25th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
