Some things you just can’t make quips over.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Ming Doyle
Colors: Doug Garbark
What They Say:
The Batwoman joins the war effort with her high tech bats and baseball explosives, and gets a little help from a swing band and its lead guitarist-The Huntress!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As Bombshells moves further along with the combat arc, one more installment to go after this one, it’s clear that it’s not going to go with anything truly big. Which is fine as I’m quite enjoying this spread out multistoried tale that we’re getting with intriguing connections made from time to time. All while introducing new characters. What wins me over a bit more with this installment though is that amid the conversations that are had, Kate makes it clear that as much fun as she’s having in a sense in being on the front lines and pushing back, she knows there’s some truly dark stuff going on and can’t quite get past that when it comes to dealing even with the good German’s she’s coming across. There’s an anger that’s in there amid all of this that could be an interesting string to tug on a bit more down the line.
For this issue, we’re back in Berlin in 1940 where Kate’s all dressed up and enjoying taking it to Hitler’s war machine, even if it’s just for a parade. Taking out a number of tanks and causing trouble is what she’s all about and it’s definitely making an impact. The opening pages are a real treat to read with how we get her inner monologue as a letter of sorts to Maggie, talking about how she felt so many times with her and how special it is while also making it clear that there are some really stellar fireworks here. Of course, she’s creating those fireworks with her destruction, but the core is there in that we’re getting a really good sense of just how deeply and passionately these two are connected. It’s a very good element that helps her be really humanized amid everything else.
The really fun turn that it takes is that while she makes her escape she stumbles upon a secret swing music event going on. Teenagers will be teenagers and no matter how banned the music is, it’ll find a way. The cute part is that it’s being headlined by a young Helena, aka the Huntress, who gets a great costume design here to connect with how we usually know her. She actually has a neat story at play here in that she’s part of the German youth resistance, though that comes back to Kate’s not wanting to really get mired down in all of that now. Kate does help her escape after they all encounter the tenebrae invading the secret club, which just raises the awareness of what kind of dark things Hitler’s starting to run with here. It certainly paints a scarier picture overall of what they’re facing, since the whole Nazi side was certainly bad enough as is.
In Summary:
The good with this book continues to be the premise overall and Bennett’s very fun and well nuanced writing that captures each of these characters with a distinct tone. This issue does some good stuff with bringing Helena into the picture and hopefully she’s not just a one-off here. Similarly, I just love the whole vibe going on between Kate, Selina and Lex as it’s just something kind of surreal. The downside with this issue, and I really hate to say it, is Doyle’s art. I’ve enjoyed his work elsewhere but it feels very ill suited here. Particularly when you get certain shots of Helena that makes her look like a woman forty years or more older than she is. It just lacks the softer tones that has made it engaging before and the style of his characters faces simply doesn’t work for me here. The overall layouts are good and I like the pacing of it all, but the character artwork just doesn’t scream Bombshells to me.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 13th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
