Welcome to the resistance!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Mirka Andolfo
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Batwoman, Catwoman, Zatanna, Harley and Ivy begin to link up to work together as a rebellion, sending coordinated attacks across Germany and leading massive uprisings of refugees and citizens.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the Ghost Stories arc closed behind us, Bombshells moves into its next three-part arc with War Stories. As mentioned before, the arcs don’t seem to really mean too much overall but you can at least group some of the stories and connectivity together. This installment brings back Mirka Andolfo on the art, which means we get more of her excellent work with characters that I love – Batwoman, Catwoman, Zatanna, Harley and Ivy. These are all characters that I enjoy in general, some more than others, and getting their stories starting to cross paths here is certainly a whole lot of fun. Throw a little Raven in the mix as well and things get wonderfully complicated – and that’s before a whole host of others arrive on the scene.
With this installment and so many characters running around, it does get fairly busy and a lot of them do get lost in the crowd as it progresses since Bennett wants to narrow the focus a bit. The opening half is great though as all these sides come together underneath Berlin with similar goals but different approaches. The interactions after the scuffle is fun, with Raven being apologetic, Constantine getting flustered and Zatanna looking perturbed. There’s silliness mixed into it with Harley to be sure, and Ivy being quite affectionate with her, and even some good praise coming through as some of those that have been in the fight without powers for some time are connecting for the first time. There are a lot of small moments that just blend really well as the “camera” moves through the groups that breakout and as the dialogue flows across it, something that Andolfo just nails with the spread that’s given to it.
Where things narrow down is with Batwoman and Huntress as Kate really doesn’t like the young Helena getting involved in all of this. With the recent Stargirl loss and her own past, which is delved into here, she’s intent on trying to save what she sees is a child. Helena’s story is one that works well as she expresses what it’s been like to suffer in Germany and not be in lockstep with everyone else, and it is a suffering of its own kind. Kate tries to push back on this and goes into her time in the Spanish Civil War that was touched upon before and expands it with a boy they were fighting with, or playing games with as she puts it, which brings Jason Todd into the mix in a creative way. Bennett captures another facet of why Kate is like she is and tying that to the pain she shares with Renee just adds to their relationship more and why it’s difficult in the here and now to deal with.
In Summary:
We’ve had large casts of characters before, especially in the last nine-part arc with the battle of London, but what they work with here feels different. More complex and interesting because of the various connections that they have, the different approaches and style of dealing not only with the war effort but each other. Though it breaks down to just a few characters by the second half of it, there are a lot of good expansions brought in and exploration of the period and different ways and things people had to do to survive. Bennett continues to craft the book well to make it feel powerful and personal while Andolfo once again just dazzles with the design work, the facial expressions, and the layouts that makes it all feel so very smooth and engaging to read. Great stuf.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 3rd, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
