Bombshells United #11 – Marguerite Bennett, Writer; Stephen Byrne, Artist
Ratings:
Ray – 9/10
Corrina: Black Adam’s Delusions
Ray: This Black Adam-focused arc of Bombshells United may be the series’ finest hour, delivering both epic superhero action and some surprisingly heady themes of life, death, and fate. When we last left off, Black Adam had arrived in the sanctuary of the pit to resurrect his bride, Isis – the last of three lives that can be resurrected by the pit, after Jason and the mysterious minotaur Heretic. While Talia, Batwoman, and Renee battle to keep the madman at bay, Jason and the depowered Miri are in the background, trying to find a way to help. This young take on Jason is a blast – just the right mix of childhood innocence and the guile and edge we see in older Jason Todd. His complete lack of fear in the face of Black Adam’s rampage, and his sweet friendship developing with Miri are both a lot of fun. Cheetah attempts a sacrifice to end the threat, but in the end, Adam is successful and is able to bring Isis’ body to the pit and restore her to life.
And that is where this issue gets really interesting because everything we saw of Isis up until this point indicated that she was a kind, socially conscious woman who wanted her husband to be a good and generous ruler. And now she’s returning to find him a power-mad thief and maniac threatening children. And she is repulsed, calling him Pharaoh reborn. There’s a similarity to the story arc she got in 52, of course, but she has more initiative here and actually winds up leading the battle against her former love. Meanwhile, Jason channels another young Robin and winds up finding kinship with the monstrous Heretic, seeing a victim rather than a beast, and the three resurrected get ready to make an impossible choice. It would be very disappointed if Jason and Isis were gone from the series almost as soon as they arrived, but if that’s the choice Bennett makes, they’ll have made a great impact while they were here.
Corrina: The use of a Lazarus Pit has always had evil consequences. Much of the regular DC Jason’s issues can be traced back to his resurrection via the Pit, though he eventually found some balance.
That does not appear to be in the cards for this Jason or for Isis, who returns from the dead only to see all she fought for is gone. That part of the book, especially Jason and Isis’ conversation, is fascinating. The rest of the book, however, relies too much on Jason explaining things to Miri Marvel, which tends to interfere with the pacing and makes Jason sound much older than his actual age.
But then the issue focuses on Jason and the Minotaur, who he calls a brother of sorts (Damian?), and it becomes heartbreaking and poignant. It’s going to be a serious blow to Kate to lose Jason again if that happens, but it should also present possibilities for her character going forward.
Overall, a strong arc.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
