A journey of discovery.
Creative Staff:
Story: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art: Ming Doyle
Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Wonder Woman has volunteered to take Kara someplace she NEEDS to be.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Gotham City Garage was firing on all cylinders for me with the last couple of issues with its focus on Natasha and events at the Garage, allowing Kelly and Lanzing to really make her an interesting character in a short time in the context of this world. This installment takes us to one of the pairings that have gone off into the world and we’re getting a new artist for it with Ming Doyle joining in. Doyle’s artwork is something that doesn’t feel like it’s the most ideally suited for the series, at least in my view of how it should look, but it’s worth it just for the Paradise Island pages alone and the full digital spread we get of it without any dialogue. Just gorgeous.
While the teams that have gone out are searching for allies and preparing for what’s to come, this one focuses on Kara and Diana. Kara’s struggling with everything that she’s learned to be sure but she’s had some time to adapt, which means she has to be the rock for Barbara at this point. Barbara’s realization that much of what she believed was programmed into her by her father in regards to her sister, and that Kara had the same done to her, has both of them questioning who they are. While I like that this is something for them to grapple with as they come into their own I really like that Kara makes it clear that in the end the two of them will always be sisters and will always be there for each other. The bond may have been created years ago but they’re the ones that forged it into a real thing as they grew into adults and are now out of the Garden.
Where the bulk of the issues focuses on things is the road trip with Kara and Diana where Kara really is fangirling in a big way over it, especially after learning that Diana has been watching her for a while because of what she can do. The trip is to a forest where Kara will have to really understand herself more (hence the Poison Ivy cover, which is what we get at the very end here) but the main focus is for Diana to give us a version of her background. Noting that the comics of her life are basically a cover story, she talks a bit about fighting in the war and what was lost there and how her people opted to change their plans to become more involved in the world of man, to do more good as emissaries. That lead to a catastrophe before it could even get underway and left Diana on her own and paying a self-inflicted penance. The story for it is intriguing but it too feels like a cover to some degree, a walking around the edge of how everything went bad in the world without really making it clear why. Which is frustrating, fifteen issues into this run.
In Summary:
With its narrow focus on Kara and Diana with a dash of Barbara, Gotham City Garage has a very solid installment here. I really like the Kara and Barbara material at the start as it spills over into later material but also ties into what happened during the previous two issues nicely. The focus on Kara and Diana here lets Kara be as young as she is and just run with it as she meets her idol and has to grapple with the reality behind what she thinks she knows. I’m not sure how smoothly it goes in introducing what went down here as it feels a little loose and not altogether cohesive for me but it’s leading into an area that I’m excited about with Poison Ivy making her appearance at long last. Ming Doyle turns in a solid issue with nothing that’s problematic here, it’s just that I’m not feeling his style for the series at all. But, as is the case with the digital-first books, wait a couple of issues and we’ll have someone else. And I like that variety – and discovery.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 13th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
