DC Comics: Bombshells #1

DC Bombshells (Single Issues)

by Marguerite Bennett, Ant Lucia (Cover Art), Marguerite Sauvage (Penciller)

It's World War II and Batwoman's battling crime on the home front. But events in her life are about to quickly change, and she may be leaving Gotham behind for a bigger cause.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Dc Comics, Fiction, Comic Book, Fantasy

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2015

Reviews

[Anna Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

FOREWARNING: I am feeling lazy as hell today, so this review is mostly gifs. If that bothers you, click away. Too damn bad in other words. :p

It's a nice start, but I wasn't super impressed with it. I do like the first part of the story, with Kate Kane as a female baseball player and it still had her in a relationship with Maggie! Honestly, it kind of reminded me of A League of Their Own...in a GOOD way!



Also, kudos to DC for not changing/omitting her sexuality just because of the time period this comic is set in. But the second part with Wonder Woman was mostly boring, nothing that hasn't been done twenty-million times in every Wonder Woman origin story ever. They could have done anything! EPIC FAIL.



I liked that Kara and Kortni (I'm not sure who Kortni, aka Stargirl, even is to be honest) were in Russia, so on an entirely different side of the War effort. The interest in flying planes was cool too. But I agree with other readers that at times it's difficult to tell the two girls apart, because they have nearly identical looks.





Overall, I liked the cliffhanger ending and it was an interesting start. I had this so hyped in my mind and was so excited for it, that I guess I set myself up for a let-down. At this point in my comics reading-life, I just feel like DC is freaking taunting me. All these amazing ideas with subpar execution...ugh! I can barely stand it!!!

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a brilliant concept!

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

KATE KANE AND MAGGIE SAWYER OTP!!!!!!
Love that they kept Kate Kane's sexuality despite the setting and just threw all of that out of the window. They're living together and being domestic!! Probably gonna go on missions together!!!

I think the second part of this with Diana Prince/Wonder Woman's story was a bit cliche. We've been there, done that, with the whole Steve Trevor plot. Even the movie is not doing that. This could have gone another way.

The third part with Kara and Kourtni was really interesting with the Soviet setting. Interesting to see where that goes.

I like that the running theme through all 3 stories is just female relationships, romantic or friendship or sisters!

[Bobbie Bomber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just really love the art work it's gorgeous.

[CS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

What a fun first issue, a reinventing of some of DC's best superheroines! Can't wait for issue 2!

[Danielle A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just want to buy them all already!

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the (spectacular) cover of DC Bombshells isn't enough to tempt you, the premise should be enough reason to give it a shot. I mean, Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman fighting in World War II? Take my money and give it to me. I actually saw girls cosplay as the DC Bombshell girls at Motor City Comic Con before I knew who they were. I met a few very nice women who explained it to me and highly recommended the series. I bought a single edition there, and though I've since acquired the first volume I decided to review the single edition because why not?

The first issue of this series sets ups the origin stories of Kate Kane, Diana Prince, and Kara. I immediately know very little about the origins of any of these characters, but I enjoyed how it was done. Ten thousand points to DC for their portrayal of Kate and Maggie's relationship. It is beautiful and authentic, and it's the 40s. It's just wonderful. I have heard complaints that Diana's origin story isn't original, but that's not one of mine. I love that Wonder Woman was like, "There's an evil tyrant? Tell me about him so I can beat his ass." Kara's plotline was the most intriguing to me, however. I loved how she's on the Russian side in this series and a pilot to boot. I can't wait to see where her storyline goes. I would be underselling this comic if I didn't mention how amazing the artwork is. It is truly beautiful. It has a very vintage, art-deco feel to it. It was also very tasteful, especially with Kate and Maggie's interactions.

Overall, I was really impressed with the first issue of DC Bombshells. I can't wait to read the rest of them. Highly recommended!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this! I finally gave in and paid for the first single issue, and I'm so very glad I did. I can't wait until this comes out in trade!

DC Bombshells gives massive love to the huge role that women played during World War II. Working in factories, running companies, playing baseball. All the things that, until this point, were jobs for men. It made my heart happy to see Batwoman, circa World War II, running around in her baseball uniform. Kate Kane is as kick-ass as ever, and she looks gorgeous while doing it too. What's stunning to me though, is that I didn't feel like this was fan service to men. Instead, these illustrations are just plain gorgeous overall. Sure, Kate and Maggie are gorgeous. But they are also clothed. Thank you!

Shout out to the fact that this first issue proudly features Kate and Maggie's lesbian relationship. I was given a clearly loving relationship, on the brink of change. What to do when one half of the couple wants more than the other can give?

I guess I'll have to wait for issue #2 to find out.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is gorgeous but I'm not going to lie, this book is seriously confusing if you don't come in with previous acquaintance with all the characters. I was able to work out some of the plotlines from context, but there's a lot going on and very little explanation.

[Lila (Hardcover Haven) · Rating 4 out of 5]

TOO SHORT! (fyi: that means i loved it!)

[Gary Feather]

Wow! Cool idea.

So far this looks like a cool idea for an alternative universe superhero story. I've heard that it's a good series set during WWII with female superheroes. Sounds cool to me.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUCK IT UP KATE KANE

[Nilab · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was everything i hoped it to be. definitely a must read for anyone who likes the female heroes and villains of dc (and people who like seeing nazis get punched a lot)

[Zian B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understand one of the ladies is Batwoman but I’m not entirely sure who the other woman is...Still a beautiful comic and very interesting concept so I’ll continue reading.

[Annemarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars
The art is very good, and I'm interested to see what the series is going to do. I like that it focuses on the girls, as I don't know much about Batwoman so far.

[The Sapphic Nerd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was thrilled to hear they'd be doing a Bombshells series because I love the character designs, and the premise sounded like it could work, but I have mixed feelings about this issue.

I love that the first third of the issue focuses on Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer. I love that they're an LGBTQ couple. What I don't like is the tension between them. Kate wants more in life and Maggie feels like she's not enough, and she also seems to be jealous of Renee Montoya. Errrrr... I can sort of understand Kate wanting more, because she was an adventurer before she ended up making her home in one place. What I have more trouble with is Maggie's insecurity/jealousy. From what I've seen of them as a couple so far (I haven't read the last volume of Batwoman so maybe things change), Maggie tends to be more reasonable and doesn't care about who Kate's been with before. So why would she now?

Another thing I'm not into is Kate's skirt. It's not a "lesbian" thing. She wears dresses when she feels like it and that's fine. I really like the Ant Lucia cover art and character design, too. But the interior art by Marguerite Sauvage looks awkward sometimes. The first page has Kate's skirt flying up all the way and showing her... panties? This happens twice. It just... *makes a scrunchy face* Considering Kate's pretty practical and is fully clothed in her original crime-fighting uniform, it's odd she'd wear a skirt that short to fight in in the Bombshell universe. And then Maggie gets to wear pants to work? Sigh.

The middle section is about Wonder Woman meeting Steve Trevor after the Amazons crashed all the fighter planes flying over their island. It's... not very interesting. At all. Okay, it was a pain to read through. That's coming from a Wonder Woman fan.

The third section is about Supergirl and Stargirl. I'm not quite sure what's going on with them or what they're up to... It's also a little hard to tell them apart sometimes. Where they're left at the end of the issue is kind of interesting though.

Overall, it's okay. I'm disappointed, but maybe my expectations were too high. Or maybe I had my head set on the art redeeming any flaws in the writing. Seeing as how I'm not crazy about the art (it's alright), there wasn't much to distract myself with. We'll see how the next issue turns out.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic was so awesome because it brings up issues that go further then just female superheroes not being recognized, but also shows how much woman ran the country while the boys were off fighting in War World II. It also has some moments that reminded me of the movie A League of Their Own, even copying some of the moments in the movie with Batwoman, but I believe this was not to jack story from the movie, but to pay tribute to the movie to show how much woman helped during the war effort, and how much sexism they had to face.

One would think with the name Bombshells (but really this a play on words because the women in factories actually built bombshells) and the fact that it is pin up style costumes that this would be another fan services to men, but it actually is not. The comics fan base is has a 47% of girls and we are finally getting comic books for us. This comic is the perfect start in this direction.

I do have two issues with the story though. Batwoman's girlfriend is a detective, and I don't believe a woman would have been able to reach such high ranking during World War II, but I could be wrong and just uneducated about this issue, and also Supergirl's story is a little bland, but otherwise love this comic.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first DC Superhero comic I have read and enjoyed. I was expecting more period art, something like the amazing work of Alex Raymond so was a bit disappointed to see the bright colours of a modern comic. But it was still enjoyable. As short as individual comics are they still divided this up into three separate stories. The first about two queer woman stuck at home in Gotham when the war goes on, and feeling like they should be doing more. The second was wonder woman rescuing Steve Trevor (a story that's been told a few times in the past already) but it was still pretty interesting, and wonder woman looked beautiful which helped. The third was two "twins" fighting with the Russians. It felt more like folklore than superhero stories. None of these had supvervillans for them to fight, unnecessary action sequences, just interesting character driven stories. I hope they can keep it up for the rest of the series.

[Robert Bussie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this comic, because I like the Bombshell art of Ant Lucia. I was hoping that the story would be placed in the early 1940's, instead of a modern story with the characters in bombshell pin-up clothing from that era. I was not disappointed by the writing or interior art style. The muted colors without the typical stark black shadows found in modern era comics adds to the story.

I am going to get the second issue. The one thing I did not like about the comic and the reason it did not get 5 stars is the book introduced to many characters in a short number of pages. I would have liked to have spent more time with one or two of the main characters and then have the second issue add another character. There were two many cliff hangers for the first issue.

[Writerlibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The review at Panels was accurate. These three first issues of DC Comics : Bombshells are fun, well written and beautifully drawn. This issue introduces Batwoman (Kate Kane)and her girlfriend Maggie Sawyer (Gotham police commissioner) . Set in the 1940, it has baseball, WW2. These are short set up issues. The graphic is beautiful, the story is well set up. I can't wait to see where Kate and Maggie are going.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember that incredible art from awhile back? Hell yeah, you do. That DC Bombshell art coming in a full comic that surprisingly seems well thought out, placing women in context of World War II involvement, with lgbt representation, with a full female team kicking ass. Hello and thank you! This title reminds me a little a lot of Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps, but I'm find it hard to complain. How on Earth am I going to track down more of this series? ;;

[Brandy Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so excited for the rest of this series.

Issue one center around Batwoman, aka Kate Kane, fighting crime in Gotham City. This comic incorporates a few of my favorite things: lady superheroes, the All American Girl Baseball League, and World War 2. The art is spectacular. I cannot wait for the next issue, and the issues after that.

[Julianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the art style quite a bit (pinup girls style is gorgeous in my option <3 ) but I don't know how much I really enjoyed the story. It kinda left me thinking "eh alright". I don't know if I'll go out of my way to pick up the second volume right away but if I happen to see it in my library at some point I may continue on with the series.

[Geppis Baltimore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really interesting plot. Bare bones, it's DC heroines fighting in World War 2, but we like how they use otherwise under utilized characters such as Stargirl and Mera. This is a great introduction to the series and we can't wait for more! Recommended for fans of historical fiction and girl power.

[Nicole Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The DC Bombshells series is an imaginative alternate comic-reality where the main heroines of the DC Universe exist during WWII. Written by Marguerite Bennett with adherence to the best parts of the characters, while allowing them to shine in new ways. With heart and sincerity, humor and earnestness - this series pulled me through issue after issue.

[Richard Lambour · Rating 1 out of 5]

DC heroines re-imagined during the World War 2 era. Picked it up because it has great reviews, but did not like it at all. Too campy, too many anachronisms, clumsy treatment of history (ex-cosmonauts in 1941?), and very uneven art ranging from great to poor. DC has published much better stories about their female heroes than these.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how I feel about it yet. I don't think I was able to really get into it. Not much info was given right away to really grab me. I guess I'll read the next issues anyway to see if it goes anywhere.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I really like the setting of 1940s America giving Bombshells a sort of A League of Their Own meets DC superheroes vibe, and this first issue is a decent entry to the series, I wanted so much more from it. I guess I'll just have to read more then!

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is nice. Woman in charge, kicking butt. And the time setting is making it extra charming. (I would like somewhat more realism. Like their hair is almost sparkling, but hey it is all female main characters - awesomeness).

[Liberty K · Rating 4 out of 5]

How gorgeous is the art?