Well, that escalated quickly.
Creative Staff:
Story: Marguerite Bennett
Art: Laura Braga
Colors: Wendy Broome
What They Say:
Kate Kane goes on her first undercover mission for the Bombshells. She’s in Berlin to meet with countess Selina DiGatti—aka The Catwoman.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though I had liked aspects of the previous Bombshells installment, something about Harley just didn’t click for me as a character. So I was glad to move onto something else with this book, though the contents didn’t match up the solicitation information in the slightest. The focus on the Wonder Woman character in this book is definitely welcome as I’ve enjoyed the resurgence that she’s gotten in the last few years. This interpretation isn’t too far off in terms of origin or even character style and approach, but Bennett is giving her some different mannerisms and dialogue that helps her to feel not of this world in the right way. And combined with Braga’s artwork here, both in costume and facial design, she’s really becoming a distinctive personality.
This installment places us in Greece during a bit of a lull in 1940. Diana has gotten her newly designed costume that plays up the stars, something that connects to her journey with Trevor before and certainly tightens the bond between the two, and it also gets the obvious bombshell design from the fronts of so many of the planes. Diana certainly sees it as a sign of respect and it plays well in a couple of ways, especially visually, as that’s one of the hallmarks of the whole concept. Embracing it, but with stronger character material, is what sells it. And while you could go all simple and cheap with how Diana could be portrayed, we get something far more nuanced and interesting. In fact, this book is almost all dialogue.
With Diana spending time with Trevor as he continues to recover, she’s interested in a lot of things but he’s mostly only able to talk about the problems that he sees and is experiencing. He does kind of dance around some of her views of things, especially the putting on a pedestal of various American symbols, but he also gets honest about how people are so she knows what she’s dealing with. There’s an extended bit of dialogue about what it is that people do, or say they’d do, in situations of war. Diana can grasp that easily enough because she knows the realities of it all, but it’s a proper smackdown to the “I would have” angle. But we do see the weight of it on Trevor, especially since he’s not combat ready and participating yet, being more “nursed” by Diana than anything else and all that entails. Her standing up for what’s right is what usually gets her in trouble and that’s no exception here, as her talk of “I would have” dovetails into the arrival of Nazi prisoners of war that the soldiers want to kill. That’s not going to end well no matter what.
In Summary:
Bombshell’s has been pleasantly dialogue heavy and focused from the start and I’m glad that it continues as it really brings these characters to life. This issue is a real slowdown in many ways but it allows us to get into both Diana and Trevor’s heads so we can figure out their approaches and mindsets. And we get a tease of something darker on the horizon from him that goes back to when the two first met. Bennett’s scripting is spot on and I love the little nuance to Diana’s dialogue that lets her feel like she really is from someplace very different. Braga’s return to the book is hugely welcome as I love her take on Diana in this costume and especially the design of the face and hair that hits the period really well while still being distinctive all around. A very, very good book.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: October 10th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
I’ve not been following the comics, but I’ve been loving these covers.