Bombshells United #8 – Marguerite Bennett, Writer; Mirka Andolfo, Artist; J. Nanjan, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 9/10
Corrina: More Fascinating Mythology For This World
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!
Ray: Marguerite Bennett delivers her second exceptional Batwoman comic of the week, as the Kate Kane of the Bombshells-verse is pulled into an epic underground adventure with her ex Renee Montoya. The last issue saw the two face off against ruthless Spanish dictator Black Adam. Now Kate is branded with a weird scar that seems to give her some sort of psychic link to Black Adam, and the two of them find themselves in a surreal labyrinth that seems to defy the laws of nature. This spliced with flashbacks to Kate’s early years as the Batwoman, complete with some funny feminist humor and a genuinely touching first meeting with Maggie Sawyer. Whether it’s the sweet, stable love life of the Bombshells-verse Batwoman or the complex and troubled romances of the DCU one, Bennett writers her like no one else.
But this issue isn’t just about relationships, far from it. Where there’s a labyrinth, there’s a minotaur. This mysterious monster, with a name out of one of the most iconic stories from Morrison’s Batman run, makes for an imposing figure, but it’s actually a victim itself of the dark figures using the labyrinth for their own purposes. But a new heroic (or so we think) figure emerges in Talia Al Ghul, here reinvented as a Middle-Eastern guardian of the Lazarus Pits. Talia’s been getting some pretty terrible treatment ever since Batman Inc, so a version that casts her as a more heroic figure is very welcome. There’s a lot of big reveals in this issue, as the Bombshells-verse continues to be DC’s most intriguing and inventive long-form alternate universe in years.
Corrina: Long form universe is right! Each issue, Bennett adds more and more layers to her world, until I suspect it will become as peopled with its own unique heroes as the regular DC Universe.
In a way, it’s far better than the regular DC universe because it has a single creator to keep all plot threads and characterization consistent. A different writer might have forgotten how bonded Kate and Maggie are, especially with Renee Montoya added to the story but Bennett never forgets, giving us the wonderful flashback of Maggie and Kate, as seen above.
There’s also the lovely surprise of Talia Al Ghul’s appearance, this time not as some co-dependent daughter of a villain but a guardian of secrets in her own right and, I hope, a hero. The regular DC stories has been vicious to Talia But here, she has a chance to be more.
And that kind of reworking is exactly why I read Bombshells.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
