The pieces are falling into place.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: David Hahn
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Miri Marvel has heard of the dangerous powers Black Adam is displaying, and she’s come to investigate!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Bombshells: United has been moving through this arc fairly well with just the usual kind of drawn out elements that I expect and that largely work well to connect us to the cast more. Marguerite Bennett has tapped into some good emotional material here involving Jason and the way he factors into things and that’s lead into Kate’s uncertainty about her own path. This issue brings David Hahn on for the art duties for the first time and it’s the kind of material that doesn’t fit too well for me. While some of the elements of what makes a Bombshell book the kind of book it is are here, it doesn’t feel like it comes together well enough to the usual standards. There’s a lack of detail and dynamic elements to the layouts combined with weaker character designs that just doesn’t grab me like most of the other artists on the run.
In terms of story, we do largely keep to the two-track approach that ends up crossing over by the end of it. Miri’s arrival to find and help her friend Kate has not gone well with Black Adam taking her down and now making the expected threats of taking away her powers and giving them to his queen that he intends to revive. It works well within the story, particularly since in his view Miri’s just a child compared to what the power of Shazam has been in before and what it deserves, so he’s just correcting things in his own mind after centuries of being twisted in so many different ways. Miri handles all of this well enough without really going into any grand speeches, which is a plus, but I just like how Black Adam is essentially towering over this and in full control.
Events down below are taking a darker turn, however, as Kate and Renee realize that they have to get up there to help Miri. The problem is that it’s going to expose them more and Jason as well because it’s obvious that this is all trap by Black Adam. The worst part for Kate is that she’s feeling very torn between her past and her future and that’s made worse when she starts to see similarities between Jason and the minotaur that gives hint at a dark and potentially mindless future. There’s a decent little bit of action to this that gets underway but it’s undercut quickly because of what Black Adam has set in motion, making it easy to deal with those coming at him in order to get to the Lazarus Put as his plan comes together. Patience has been his thing but one gets the feeling that it won’t last much longer.
In Summary:
Events are picking up nicely with some forward momentum after the important and necessary downtime that we’ve had recently. The book gives us some good material for Talia and Black Adam when they face off briefly but the real win for me was Kate’s inner dialogue about being torn between two worlds and the fear that Jason may be in a dark place again combined with his choice words toward her that came out of the blue. The book reads well and was certainly fun but the artwork just didn’t cut it for me this time and made it less of an engaging and appealing experience overall as it didn’t have that Bombshells signature feeling that most of the other artists have captured over the course of their work on it.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 5th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99