Make Gotham Golden once more!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Pasquale Qualano
Colors: Wendy Broome
What They Say:
The Batgirls find themselves outlaws in Gotham as Mayor Harvey Dent shows his true face. Lois Lane and the GCPD team up to save Gotham before it destroys itself from within! Batgirls part 2 of 3.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the advantages of comics, much like science fiction a lot of the time, is that it can provide a reflection of reality with its own twists. Sometimes it’s more blunt than it should be, which Bombshells is this time around, but at the same time anyone that can see these kinds of reflections is going to pick it up easily. The second installment of the Batgirls story focusing on the homefront of the war has arrived and it also marks the arrival of a new artist on the team with Pasquale Qualano from Italy. Having perused his Deviantart material and Twitter feed as well as devouring this issue, well, I’m more than excited to see more of his work in the rotation to help give everyone on the team time to produce their best work. He definitely captures the dynamic, the characters, and the tone of the series well.
With the first bit of Batgirl fun the last time around in seeing how they’re really getting into their roles and their ranks expanding nicely, this one shifts the focus to mayor Harvey Dent. Dent has flipped the script on his personality and is now talking about making Gotham golden once again, bringing them back to the good days, and raving quite a bit of xenophobia. With a recurring subplot of immigration in the book with refugees escaping from the war and a whole lot of American men overseas fighting the war, there is a natural tinderbox of fear going on here. And Dent is exploiting it, though it’s doubly concerning for many because the campaign he ran on was anything but. This has some of the Batgirls going on about how power and position changes people, and it’s true, but there’s naturally a bit more to it here.
The Batgirls have some good stuff here, a little preachy in the eyes of some I’m sure such as the opening (important) piece from Alysia, but they’re taking a strident stand against Dent in all of this. But with the wheels of power behind him the PR narrative isn’t good for them. So it’s fun to see how they do manage to find an old school way of getting their voice out as well, even if it is far too convenient. The book works things well enough to give the girls a chance to step forward and course correct a bit while also dealing with things in a more traditional action-oriented form. That in turn leads us to the villain of the arc with Cobblepot and a wonderfully delicious cliffhanger page with Killer Frost as she ices up the girls. It’s a fun moment that introduces more into the world and again has me tapping my foot waiting for someone to greenlight a second Bombshells book already.
In Summary:
DC Comics Bombshells continues to deliver a whole lot of fun week after week with a wide-ranging cast of characters and situations. The middle part of this side arc works to dig into some of the problems on the home front and it hits it all pretty well – and bluntly with a bat. Bennett knows there’s no need to tiptoe around these things and what she presents here is a far too common piece of the past and present. This issue also brings us Qualano’s first issue of artwork and he hits it out of the park throughout. The characters look great, I love his angles and placement for our view into the world, and Wendy Broome works deftly with his work to bring it to life in the coloring department. A very engaging issue all around that has me excited to see what the finale is like.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 8th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
