It’s time to pay the price.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Laura Braga
Colors: J. Nanjan
Letterer: Wes Abbott
What They Say:
It’s the penultimate chapter! In a turn of events, Raven leads the army of supernatural creatures against Killer Frost and the Nazis! But has Raven now turned on Constantine and Zatanna, and will her army fight against Abigel Kholland’s forest creatures?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
DC Comics Bombshells hits its penultimate issue for this run of the series and it’s a very busy one. While this ending arc doesn’t feel rushed it does feel like there are a lot of things unanswered at this point that has me very curious to see what the next series is going to be like from Marguerite Bennett. This installment has Laura Braga back on art duties and that means it’s a great looking issue from start to finish with some solid layouts that keeps the action flowing but also lots of great character designs. I continue to love the way she works the Bombshell era hair designs for the cast across the board so that combined with the costuming and the expressions they wear means we get a very engaging read when it comes to the way everyone acts and reacts.
Reworking Faora into the Doomsday of this era the last time around was a lot of fun as it blended three different things into what she’s become. It fit for the era and the kinds of things that Faora had been orchestrating, though the end result feels a bit weak as there isn’t quite the slugfest one would hope for, ala the original Doomsday material, but what we get is fun in its own way. The events have provided a rally call for many different generations and types of players that have been seeded throughout the run as a whole and seeing it come together like this to face off against Faora clicks very well. The weak link for me is more about Swamp Thing than anything else as it relies more on implied or understood elements of the character than what we know. I would have loved more time exploring this character in all its details, particularly since it becomes such a key player in everything.
What this part of the arc works on that does flow well is that it ties back to the beginning of it with Kara and Lex on the train and the knife she was given. With Faora held for the moment within Swamp Thing they have to deal with her but Kara knows just how much of herself she would lose, as would others, if she kills Faora. It’s a little drawn out in some regards but it’s a good affirmation of the hero and person that she is and the support that she has from her friends and family to do what’s right, which is a repudiation of Lex’s intent. A sacrifice of some sort is necessary on some level to deal with Faora and it works well particularly as it kind of “clears the board” a bit of some of the supporting cast. It may not resonate as strongly as it should with those characters but it does come through because of Kara and her emotions.
In Summary:
The end is almost here and sacrifices must be made. While this is the penultimate issue of this run this is the end of this particular arc as the next issue is supposedly an epilogue piece to put things into place for what’s to come. Bennett juggles a lot of things here once again and while it does get busy she keeps the focus right with the emotional component on Kara to help reaffirm who she is. Laura Braga has a lot of characters in motion and some flashback pieces as well but it’s a great read with the flow of it and keeping everything connected as it is. It’s a great end to this particular segment as it deals with magic, science, and more to wrap it all up.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 9th, 2017
MSRP: $0.99
