Moloch unleashed!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Mirka Andolfo
Colors: Wendy Broome
What They Say:
The Batgirls’ adventure concludes as they face down the deadly Nazi robot known as Moloch.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The concluding installment to this part of the arc is one that’s welcome and not. It’s welcome in that as much as I like the adventure, I want to get on to other things and I really do like that each issue mostly shifts up the narrative to a different group. I’m not happy about it ending because, like most of the characters in this series, there’s potential for a lot of fun stories to be told here. Frankly, you could give me seven different series a week within this world in this format and I’d soak it up with glee. A series focused on the Batgirls and Batboys, especially focusing on the Important Message as presented here, would be a heck of a lot of fun and more of what we need. The superhero moral compass, which should never be absolute, has slid so far in some dark directions for far too long that proper reminders like this are welcome.
This installment is mostly about bringing it all to a conclusion and in classic form that means a lot of heads getting knocked and simple, fun brawling material. The reveal that we get that Headmistress Webb isn’t aligned with the Nazi’s per se but rather just views what she’s doing as right to protect the country and keep it free from those “others” is standard xenophobia material and anyone attuned to how the real world is working right now will naturally fall along either side here. Webb’s connection is a little different because she’s related to Kate Kane and that makes it difficult, but every family has an offshoot that is different than the rest. The girls discovery of what Webb is up to definitely scares them and to them feels like it’s very much against what they believe the country is all about. And they’re right, because it was founded on being open to the dreams of all and they’re definitely very diverse in terms of their origins and ethnicities.
The action component for the book is solid as Andolfo really nails the dynamics of them as they fight and flit about, made all the more fun because of Broome’s coloring style that gives the digital side far more pop than the print side can manage. My only minor gripe is that it feels a little too old school amid the action with the simpler backgrounds, but it’s a weekly periodical and I’m not going to really go hard on that. Especially since the book does balance it out with the end pages and their narration about what’s being done to correct what Webb did. We get a really well done montage with diverse locations and people with some great designs and look about it as it reminds us, which we really all do need more often, of what it means to be American – and human.
In Summary:
The final battle with Moloch isn’t really a big thing in a way because it feels like it pales compared to the narration and dialogue side of the storyline. It’s been a part of it for the three issue arc to be sure, but here it just puts it center stage as many characters have done over the decades. And I can see that grinding the gears of some, but within the context of not just the setting and what these characters are dealing with and also the real world context into which it plays, it’s very welcome. The world of superheroes is open to a lot of variety and ways to explore things and I’ve missed seeing more of these kinds of tales. I’m not looking for a message of the week every issue or every book, but something to swing the pendulum back the other way just a little is a big plus in my book.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 11th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
