DC Comics: Bombshells #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Marguerite Bennett
Art By: Marguerite Sauvage
Digital Price: $0.99
Release Date: July 25, 2015

A League of Her Own

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

You remember those really awesome and incredibly sexy statues that DC was putting out featuring your favorite female characters done up like 40's bombshell pinups?  Yeah, well I guess they were so successful that DC decided to have them featured in their very own Digital First comic.  It's World War II and with most of America's men on the front line, it looks like it's up to the women of America to keep the country running and for some of them, the streets safe as well.  Let's check out this digital book and see if these bombshells are as live as we want them to be or if they're simply duds.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with one of those classic newsreels we've all seen in the movies whenever we have a hankering for a 1940's period piece film....... Which since I just watched Pearl Harbor for the first time this week, I'm totally in the mood.  It's all about that brilliant Bat Woman that's been making the rounds throughout the streets of Gotham and also around the baseline as she not only takes up the role of the city's protector, but also as the Women's League MVP.  This is kind of odd because while we understand that she's s vigilante and has to keep her identity safe because......... well, because that's just what superhero's do, it seems that all of the women baseball players keep their identities safe too and I'm not sure what that's about.  The announcer makes a brief statement about how not everyone is happy about women playing baseball, but for them to have to wear masks...... or at least have makeup acting as masks in order to play baseball just comes off really weird.

The first bit of super heroics that we see is Bat Woman taking out Joe Chill before he can kill the Wayne family and even thought they are never named, it's obviously them, so I guess Bat Woman just deprived the world of a Batman, but I'm cool with it because I'm really tired of seeing Bruce become an orphan.......... not that I'm bored with Batman's origin, it's just that it hits me deeply every time that I see it and to actually get to a place where I don't have to see pearls drop to the ground and a young boy crying over his fallen parents.......... Well, it's just kind of nice and makes me happy that at least in some worlds, Bruce doesn't have to go through that pain.  After that brief rescue, we then have Bat Woman spying some robbers in the stands of the baseball field as she's playing a game and after handily taking them out, she takes off before the police show up because I guess even in a World War II world where her heroics are revered, the cops still have to go after the vigilantes of their cities.  

In the end, we find out that Bat Woman is indeed Kate Kane in this world and that her lover Maggie Sawyer is the reason that Bat Woman is never caught by the cops.  I feel really bad for Maggie here because even though she just wants Kate and her to move away and start a puppy rescue, Kate is restless and after saving her family's company, going on safari and fighting in the Spanish Civil War with Hemmingway, it seems that being the Bat Woman is the only thing that gives her any sense of purpose........... and Maggie would really like her to be the one that does that.  As the book closes, it looks like Maggie is getting further away from where she wants to be when Commander Amanda Waller lands a gyrocopter on Kate's roof and wants to recruit Kate to help her end the war.

That's it for this issue of DC Comics: Bombshells and since it's just a short digital book, there isn't much going on here except for it sharing with you the bare minimum or maximum of what it could.  That's one thing that I really dislike about Digital First comics is the size.  Right when you're getting into it, it's over, but I guess that's just the nature of the beast though.  While I would have liked to understand how Bat Woman goes from being a vigilante to a baseball player in this book, I did love the inclusion of it because it really worked towards creating the period that it's trying to convey.  The part that I was really disappointed with because of the length of the issue was the entire relationship between Kate and Maggie because I would have liked to understand it better, especially with the lesbian aspect to it because as we all know, times were different during World War II and I want to understand the struggle that they have to go through in order to love one another.  With this being a kind of anthology book until what looks like Amanda Waller recruits her entire team,  I think that Kate and Maggie's relationship will be put on the back burner if it's even ever brought up again.  Which is too bad.  The art though was really enjoyable and for all the faults that I have with this book, I love the era in which it's set and really look forward to seeing more from this series.

Bits and Pieces:

Do to the short length of Digital First books, most will probably wait until it's collected to buy this and that might really be the way to go because right as I was getting into the book it was over.  Even though the dramatic elements of the story were cut short in order to introduce this Bat Woman to readers and because it needed to get the big picture of the series started, with excellent art and a great re-design, I had a wonderful time with this issue.  So whether you decide to pick this up as a digital or as a collected work, just make sure you do because it's rather quite wonderful.

7/10