The rebellion takes a surprising twist!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Laura Braga
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Aquawoman must fight for the throne of Atlantis against Nereus, who has seized Arthur. What will Aquawoman do when she has to choose between her beloved and her birthright?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With its focus on Mera in the last few issues, Bombshells has utterly delighted. In a lot of ways, Mera has been the biggest surprise for me in this series as I had little real memory of her within the mainline universe back when I was reading years and years ago outside of some minor involvements. With this series, she’s been given a wonderful place that Bennett has brought to life with a lot of conflicts and drama in all the right ways, and we as readers have been very lucky to have some great talents illustrating and coloring it, such as we get here with Braga and Nanjan again. There’s a lot to like visually with this book and Braga delivers with Mera regularly – and ups the ante by making Hila even more engaging.
We got a lot of background the last time around of how things went down in Atlantis and why Mera left as she did and that has lead her back with Arthur and Hagen, among others willing to fight, in order to secure the kingdom from Nereus and his darkness. It’s amusing to see her largely welcomed by the citizenry, having suffered through some terrible defeats, and Mera notes that she’s been cheered both coming and going from Atlantis. It’s coloring her view to be sure and it works well so that she’s not caught up in it or attempts to try and truly rally everyone to her side. Keeping it cautious works best and seeing the way Hagen and Arthur are advising definitely helps. You do get a good sense of trepidation out of her, however, with just how oddly all of this is going.
What really drew me to this issue is the time we get with Hila, who has recognized (or calculated) the cost and risk of what Nereus has done and is now changing her role in things. You see it as part of a bigger plan here, potentially, but also just some really big issues between sisters. Watching her reclaim the throne proper and setting the stage to ensure it can never be taken from her, Braga gets to deliver a fantastic fight sequence between the two. The flow of it is great overall, though it adheres somewhat to traditional fighting even though underwater, and just seeing Hila going the direction she does and being as forceful as she is works beautifully. She had a smaller role overall in the previous issue but she takes on a whole new life and size here and Laura Braga really lets her shine in a fantastic way.
In Summary:
The politics of Atlantis is something that always fascinated me going back to the 1990 miniseries The Atlantis Chronicles. Seeing how it unfolds within this storyline and setting has been great since it deals with changes as it should and must and that alters the dynamic of what’s to come. Mera’s more of a passive player here but that’s almost required as we get Hila really taking control of her path and destiny and doing her best to ensure nobody gets in her way. The longstanding sisterly issues are a big part of it but it’s grown beyond that, though it’s fully within the DNA of the problem. This is a big, fun, issue that delivers across the board once again.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 17th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
