Does a cat have true colors?
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Richard Ortiz
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
Catwoman’s loyalties are revealed at last as the forces at work in Zambesi meet on the field of battle!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Bombshells is continuing its larger arc here but has shifted into a new three-part sub-arc with “What’s Past is Prologue.” I’m still not too sure about the smaller arcs within the larger arc approach as there hasn’t been enough definition for some of them, but the overall Zambesi storyline has been good. This installment has Bennett working with returning artist Richard Ortiz, a recent arrival to the team rotation that worked out quite well with their layouts and overall designs as they brought their style to it while still adhering to the overall vision of what the Bombshells franchise looks at. With this book the focus shifts to Catwoman a bit, something that’s been a bit of a mixed bag since she entered the series quite a while ago.
Before it gets into the Selina material, however, the first half of the book brings us up to speed on what Shiera has discovered and expands upon it. Her returning mid-battle to fill in Vixen about it works well as we see how she handles the knowledge of Thangar while showing us the past queen some ten centuries ago that distrusted this newly arrived god and what it offered. There’s some appeal in seeing how they figured out aspects of what was being offered and discovered ways to control it to some degree, but also that it was beyond their ability to destroy truly, which is why they ended up burying it instead. As Vixen notes, it was human ingenuity that allowed them to deal with it and move beyond it to control their own destiny and that paints a good picture for the people of Zambesi and the lineage as a whole.
The back half is what sets up Selina’s story and its larger ties as she sneaks off for a little quiet time, disturbed by what Adai has done and what’s involved with her and how it impacts Selina. She’s always played all sides for her own gain so it’s not too much of a surprise to see her put on a Nazi armband in order to put things into play with what she claims is a larger plot by Alexander Luthor. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen but it does make things a bit of a mess here for the Bombshells with what they have to face. Yet, for me, the best was seeing Kate coming across Selina just as she does this and confront her. With Selina having saved her before, Kate uses this as a chance to save her and does it in a kind of forceful way. Ortiz delivers these pages beautifully – especially with the backgrounds and Nanjan’s color work – and you can just feel the power of the scene really well, all while knowing it’s going to play out badly for our heroes.
In Summary:
Bombshells continues to have a lot of things at play within any given story and as part of the work as a whole and I like what this particular issue does. While breaking it into two halves rather than an A-plot and B-plot, each gets the time they deserve to be explored and what they represent without the whiplash effect of moving between them within a page. Bennett catches us up on the overall Zambesi history well and then digs into the complicated person that is Selina. And Ortiz handles the very different ideas well, with some wonderful layouts for the flashback of Zambesi before doing some larger panel layouts for what’s going on between Kate and Selina so that they loom large yet surprisingly and strongly personal. Very good stuff all around once again that has me excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 18th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
