Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Aneke
Colors: Wendy Broome
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Tenebrus rising! It’s a good old stand-off between the Tenebrae, Nazis and Suicide Squad! As tension rises in the submarine, fighting hundreds of feet underwater means anyone and everyone could drown at any minute!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Suicide Squad arc comes to a very quick close here, frustratingly so in some ways, because it’s been such a blast. Bennett has a lot of fun with these characters and there’s so much to explore that I’m already hoping for a spinoff (duh) or another run with them in the near future. This installment also makes out nicely once again with Aneke on the art duties as she definitely has some fun in capturing these characters and bringing them to life as they go through the escape portion of the story and everything else goes south on the submarine.
Batgirl’s reunion with Luc the last time around was a big moment that played well and seeing the two of them here in the escape portion continues that as they’re just thrilled to be together and going on about all the things they’re going to do even as their chances for survival diminish. It’s definitely cute in all the right ways and fits with the usual banter. A lot of what we get here is just everyone coming back together and pushing back against the Tenebrae that are now flooding the submarine but it also puts Luc into a useful position to help them escape. The character interactions are simple but even the small moment with Frankie and Croc is priceless as is the banter between Enchantress and Ravager about their future plans. It’s an easy escape all told but one that works well within the context of how this series works.
The other half of the book focuses on Nygma and Tenebrus, which should work better than it does but it just feels like it doesn’t land quite as well as it should. Tenebrus is certainly on a push to bring more to his side with all the dead and is intent on taking out Nygma for his transgressions, but it takes an odd shift I don’t quite get with how Tenebrus himself ends up being put out to pasture because of his own apparent transgressions against his dark lord. That turns into the final page reveal of Rhakontys taking his place in her creepy/sexy way and saving Nygma because you can’t quite off characters like this too easily even in a series like this. I’m curious to see where this intends to go but the way we got there just felt uncertain.
In Summary:
Bombshells brings the Suicide Squad arc to a close and has me hopeful for another in the future because these “other guys” are just a lot of fun in what they do. Bennett has their voices down well with plenty to expand upon and Aneke made it a lot of fun to watch unfold with all that it did with the escape and some of the closer moments between the characters during the final parts of their journey. The series has a lot going for it and these smaller detours add to the series as a whole and often bring in some fun little pieces along the way, this one being no exception.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $0.99