A complicated relationship and history.
Creative Staff:
Story: Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing
Art: Lynne Yoshii
Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Barda rides out in search of rebel news radio station The Frequency, where she hopes to enlist Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in bringing down the Garden.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The further along this series progresses the more I’m getting into it, which is a fairly normal occurence when you get down to it. Kelly and Lanzing are getting to expand the scope of their story and fill in some of the blanks that I would have preferred filled in much earlier in the run so that it felt like a more fully realized world, but it’s coming in piece so that we can get the range of characters introduced though the events. This issue brings Lynne Yoshii back for the art duties and her work fits pretty well here with the characters she has to deal with. It’s a solid looking installment with some good backgrounds and some layouts that avoid the usual simpler pages we might usually see and that help to give the flow of the story and the large amount of dialogue some breathing room.
With some good focus given to Kara and her situation recently with Barda, this one lets Barda’s story stand out a bit as she heads out to The Frequency, the radio station of the Freescape that’s run by Lois Lane with help from a legless Jimmy Olsen. Barda’s intent on getting help from her to rally all of those in the Freescape for what’s to come but there are are some real issues between the two women going back a ways as Lois felt abandoned by Barda and the others and has some choice words for her. It’s the kind of thing where what she says really is true when she cuts down on Barda for playing at revolutionary, but also misses the real difficulty in putting actions together that truly have meaning. The complicated mess of it all is that in the end both of them are right, and not just from their point of view, but the situation is a whole lot more than that.
The book does some good stuff here with Jimmy making the right kind of plea to Lois later and looking at his own background with her that helped to shape why he’s aligned so firmly with her after all of this time. What I also really liked is getting more of Barda’s story with how the Freescape came to be due to the big burn that eviscerated much of the world, revealing how Scott Free, her husband, sacrificed so much to save as much as he could, resulting in it being called the Freescape – something I had wondered if it would be done in that way. Both characters come across well and Yoshii does a great job in bringing them to life. Barda’s still a rough looking character that doesn’t click for me in this form but Lois really hit a sweet spot here with her look, even with the copious amount of light tattoos that define her look.
In Summary:
As I continue to catch up on this series I’m finding myself more and more invested in it. I’ve been reading a number of digital-first books since they started producing them and more often than not they do need to take some time to get their groove, Bombshells excepted. Gotham City Garage is more firmly establishing itself here and is leaving me enjoying it more and more with each issue and wanting to see more of this world and its characters with how they’re being re-imagined into it. Definitely a good issue for more background on the world and how people survived out in the Freescape while setting for more of what’s to come.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 27th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
