New legends are born.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Stephen Mooney
What They Say:
Her secret revealed to her squadron leader, Kara (Supergirl) is taken before General Arkayn to have her fate decided. The life of her sister Kortni (Stargirl) hangs in the balance.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Bombshells series has definitely been a treat so far and even after what one might consider a too-familiar origin for Wonder Woman initially, it turned it around in a great way the last time around. With this installment we shift back to the Soviet Union for the story and we also get a change in artist once again, which isn’t a surprise with these weekly series. This installment has Stephen Mooney stepping up to the plate and after the expectations set by Sauvage and Braga he manages to do so quite well. Especially since a good chunk of the book focuses on a particular kind of fairytale storytelling that lets him great creative in its overall design.
With Kara and Kortni having been outed during the event with the Night Witches, everything has gone from bad to worse for them. With the abilities Kara is showing there’s instant and understandable fear, particularly as she gets called out as being a possible Nazi experiment that’s been smuggled into the country. What we do get well reinforced is Kara’s intent to protect her sister and even those of the Night Witches that are now trying to stop her. There’s some good chaos at the start here amid the airfield and that lets Kara really show what she can do, particularly with the whole faster than a speeding bullet riff, and it makes for some great visuals. But it also reinforces that she’s definitely not like everyone else, which is not something you want to be in that time and age. Unfortunately for Kara she has a weakness in the form of Kortni, something that the others take advantage of.
And therein is where the book really has its fun. When it shifts to Moscow and digs into the military trying to figure out what she is there’s this differing approach that’s being examined. One side you can see eagerly wants to cut her open and figure out what makes her tick. While the other, under the female General Fyodora (who looks an awful lot like Ursa from Superman II), wants to use her as a symbol to inspire their forces and fight back in bold and new ways against the Nazis. You know which side is going to win out but watching the good cop/bad cop kind of routine at play with these largely innocent and naive peasant girls that are just thrilled to be in the military is really fun to watch. Kara does take a chance in showing off a bit – too much in some ways – but the foundations are laid down for how they’ll serve the Motherland.
In Summary:
This series continues to fire on all cylinders as it present the various characters slowly but surely coming together amid the larger backdrop of World War II. You can easily see how there can be multiple books running in this era and under these designs that can connect and build out under this main series. This installment focuses on Kara for the bulk of it but we also get the start of Stargirl as well with Kortni being wrapped up in it all. Bennett again does a solid job of bringing the various pieces together and making the characters interesting and fun to read and listen to as the move through the obstacles they face. Stephen Mooney is a solid addition to the potential rotation on this series and while his design work isn’t quite the same or as strong as Sauvage and Braga what he does bring here fits perfectly and has plenty of room to really feel like a very integral part of it, to shape a large part of the design if he is in the rotation. This installment works really well with some interesting characters that are about to hit the world stage in a very big way.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 22nd, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
