A pleasant dip into the past.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Pasquale Qualano
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Who is Hawkgirl and how did she end up as Vixen as her vizier in North Africa? Find out here!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Zambesi arc continues to be an interesting one overall, though it’s becoming one that I think will read better when you can go through it in full instead of chapters. Most of this run has been strong on the week to week basis so it definitely feels odd to say that. This issue has Bennett digging into Barbara’s past a bit more once again and she’s joined by Pasquale Qualano on the art duties. I definitely enjoyed his work previously on the book but this issue just has him taking it to a whole other level with some fantastic design elements that are really wonderfully done within the framework of the series. Not a lot of books can get as “shojo-y” as this one can at times without it feeling forced so I definitely love the way he brings it to life and with how J. Nanjan takes it up a few more notches with the color work. The close-up of Barbara and Mari is just stunning.
As Barbara takes on the role of Cheetah more now thanks to the mechanical gods and her own subservience to Paula Von Gunther, her win over Mari is definitely sweet for her since she also gets the Bombshells in the mix. We see clearly how much power she has at the moment and threatening Blondie certainly makes it worse for Mari. There’s something powerful and haunting as Cheetah shackles them and forces them on a trek through the jungle to where she can really establish them as prisoners. There are a few goals here to be sure but getting Shiera to make things for her and Von Gunther is definitely a big one for her, something that obviously sets Shiera off. This doesn’t get explored too much but it’s a welcome facet to things in seeing Cheetah wanting to make use of those that she’s captured in a more general sense.
What this book wants to spend a good chunk of its time on, however, is more of Cheetah’s past. We’ve gotten a good bit of this previously so it’s starting to feel like a lot of background material, but it digs well into what kind of mindset she had as a child and her attraction to ancient cultures and how things done then by average people seem almost mystical by today’s perception. Seeing her recruited to go into Zambesi previously and her encounter with Mari is particularly delicious as Qualano simply illustrates the hell out of it with great designs and flow. There’s the obvious beauty of the characters but it’s the locales, the color design work, and the framing of the scenes with various distances and close-ups alongside full page spreads that just makes this hauntingly beautiful.
In Summary:
While I’ll admit that I’m not exactly tired of Barbara at this point I’m definitely wanting to see things expand more and focus on other characters, new and old alike. She is the villain du jour and Bennett is giving her the time owed to establish her well and I can totally appreciate it and love it. But the other Bombshells are being pushed further to the background and even Vixen is reduced a bit. There are some really great pages to be had throughout this that just reinforces why this series and its style works so well. Yeah, it’s cheesecake, but it’s so well done and combined with such a rich and fun story and great characters that it’s simply a facet of it, not the draw of it. Great stuff all around.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 14th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
