Gotham City Garage, Vol. 1

Gotham City Garage

by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Brian Ching (Illustrator)

DC heroes and villains are reimagined as bikers in this new series inspired by the DC Collectibles statue line, GOTHAM CITY GARAGE VOL. 1!

 It's been decades since Governor Lex Luthor turned Gotham City into a modern utopia, saving his people from the devastation that made the rest of the continent a wasteland. But his city isn't paradise for everyone.

 If the Lexes Network misfires, and a citizen wakes up and steps out of line, the Bat and his minions are brutal in restoring the status quo. So when young Kara Gordon, whose ridealong tech has never functioned optimally, rushes headlong into the Freescape, she's shocked to find Gotham City Garage--where new friends might become family, if she lives long enough!

 A new world featuring the greatest characters from the DC Universe is born in GOTHAM CITY GARAGE VOL. 1!

 Collects GOTHAM CITY GARAGE #1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Dystopia

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another DC Elseworlds series based on a sculpture line. This has no business being any good, yet I was thoroughly entertained. DC's superheroines meet Mad Max. Lex Luthor controls humanity in the last refuge on earth. Meanwhile DC's superheroines maintain their freedom out in the wastelands while attempting to undermine Luthor's control and stay under Batman's radar.

PS - DC, bring back the Elseworlds moniker so we know right away this is out of continuity!

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute but not aimed for me. The art work is also not to my liking, really rough and makes the fights kind of ugly to be honest. I will say it's interesting to see Batman as the bad guy though. But I think this is more suited for like teen girls and such who will enjoy this a lot more than me.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this. It feels like a less complex version of Bitch Planet with AU versions of DC characters.

In a world where Lex Luthor has programmed Gotham (the whole world?) into compliance, Natasha Irons has created a place for rebels who are fighting back. In an interesting twist, it was Jim Gordon that found the Kryptonian and adopted her as his own. The series starts when Lex's men (including Batsy) come to take her in because she's not under Lex's control. She escapes and meets the women of the Gotham City Garage.

Big Barda *happy sigh*. I'm in love with her every time I see her. She's gorgeous and strong and fierce and amazing. There's also Natasha Irons, who appears very early on so already this book is representing black women better than DC Bombshells ever did. Harley pops up and I'm sad that she's once again tied to the Joker. I like her stories best when they have her realize she's so much better off without him. Babs pops up, as well and Jason Todd.

It's a great start. I like the art, the premise is interesting and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as single issues. This series is a lot of fun. Dystopian superhero biker gang awesomeness. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, especially the last two issues which were just freaking awesome.

[Mel (Epic Reading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s funny to me that statue concepts are spurring comics; but hey whatever works.
This is a fairly fun little series that includes my gal, Harley Quinn. So of course I have to own them all, read in trade and like them, just because. Lol.
Gotham City Garage isn’t bad, it’s just not brilliant. As a quick fun read I can recommend it. There is a fair bit of plot, including Batman working for Lex Luther, Catwoman playing all sides as she tends to and our lead gal SuperGirl just discovering her powers. It was great to see all these known characters in a different universe (which is mentioned a few times to make it clear this is not canon).
I actually am really intrigued by a few other unknown (to me) characters. Banshee is a gorgeous character in look and seems very quiet. I like her a lot and anyone with Bam in their name had to kick-ass right?
So, as with other off-shoots I will look up some new girl characters in the Batman universe and learn about them.
But let’s face it, at the end of the day I’m here for Harley. One entire comic in the middle is focused on her, and she played a large role in what the world has become which is cool. But otherwise her inclusion feels like it’s just meant to use her celebrity appeal to sell books. I’d say I’m annoyed, but I’m really not. I’ll take my girl in any form DC puts her in because I’m obsessed.
Therefore, 3 stars for some decent plot and Harley inclusion.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange, yet interesting twist on the characters that makes everything feel a little fresh and different. It reminds me a bit of injustice but not in a bad way. Batman as a villain is interesting, but not my favorite thing. The gritty setting is fun. Catwoman & co on motorcycles in the desert wasteland is kinda cool.

[Kb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not know I wanted a Mad Max biker gang of all my favorite DC characters, but apparently I did!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

really good elseworld story. love the art and the biker bar vibes.

[Jena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a ton of fun. A group of mostly female superheroes from DC live in the outskirts of a dystopian city and form a biker gang. Lex Luthor controls the world and Batman is his lapdog.

[Olivia Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not every comic book based on a statue line is created equal.

[Anna Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

If "Mad Max" and DC Comics had a dystopian baby it would sort of come close to Gotham City Garage. While I was hesitant at first because the premise is SO out there I really enjoy the content and, dare I say, the vibes. Honestly I loved all the little nods to other DC characters and concepts that weren't included in the arc and I just had a lot of fun, okay?

[SzaraReadsComics · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5
"Mad Max AU" with most of the main characters being badass DC ladies? I am so in.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotham City Garage is an on-going series republishing a digital first series. A DC collectibles statue line, set in a post-apocalyptic world, inspires the series. Gotham City Garage: Volume 1 collects the first six issues (twelve Digital First chapters) of the 2017 series.

In the not-so-far-flung future, Earth has become a post-apocalyptic, barren desert. There is a single city left standing, Gotham City, whom Lex Luthor renamed "The Garden" after taking over thirty-five years ago. Luthor has built a dome around Gotham to keep bandits, malcontents and rebels out, and rules with an iron fist, assisted by his right-hand, The Bat.

Kara Gordon, James Gordon's adoptive daughter and Gotham resident believes to be a normal teenager, until an accident forces her to flee and join a rebel faction who is planning to take Luthor down.

Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing penned the entire trade paperback, and for the most part, I am rather intrigued by the storyline. I was genuinely surprised at how much I liked the story, because it is based on a statue line – a toy, perhaps my expectations were so low that it surpassed my expectations.

It stars Kara Gordon, adopted daughter of James Gordon and sister to Barbara Gordon, she managed to escape The Garden (Gotham City) and taste the yellow sun for the first time. Slowly, she regains her Kryptonian powers as she joins the Gotham Garage crew in order to save her sister, take down Lex Luthor and his right-hand man – Batman. It is a very gynocentric story, but wonderfully written nevertheless.

Aneke (Gotham City Garage #3–4), Carmen Carnero (Gotham City Garage #5–6), Brian Ching, Lynne Yoshii, and Javier Pina (Gotham City Garage #1, 2, and 6 respectively) are the pencilers for the trade paperback. For the most part, their penciling style complements each other rather well, yet remains distinctive, which makes the flow of the trade paperback somewhat smooth – artistically speaking. I just wished I like their penciling style more, it is a tad too indie and messy for my taste.

All in all, Gotham City Garage: Volume 1 is a wonderful start to what would hopefully be an equally wonderful series.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I liked that a lot more than I thought I was going to in the beginning. At first it was a little too jarring. As I continued I began to care about the characters and what was taking place. I usually don't follow the "just give until page X or chapter X to get to like it" kind of person, so I was surprised. I try to give everything a sporting chance, but usually if I am a half or even a fourth of the way through and I am not feeling it, I tend to move on. (There are way too many books to wait for a book to "get good" at the tail end).
The feel of this graphic is definitely Mad max meets Batman/DC.
Strong female characters (the main reason I eventually took to it) and they are fairly dynamic for an introduction comic. Nice to see a largely female driven comic.
Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Verdict:
Artwork is utterly gorgeous. Plot is a little odd, but definitely unique with potential.


Spoilers...
I love the Barbara Gordon & Kara Gordon sister relationship!
Also love the following quote: "Each person must decided their own family, their own purpose, birth is not destiny." -Wonder Woman
Also, I hope they fix the whole "evil batman" thing. Not my favorite. But thankfully they fixed the Batgirl/Oracle/Barbara as evil thing. (For now?)
Oh and the Joker creation story is kind of weird, but a world where Batman is the bad-guy... do we really need a classic Joker?

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC Comics has a full deck of symbolic characters that are interesting but are often weighed down by their continuity. That's why their Elseworld titles work more often than not - they're able to shuffle those symbols, play them out differently, and explore their impact in different orientations.
That's what we get here - Supergirl and Barbara Gordon are sisters at the center of the story of a world where Batman and Luthor have locked down the world, and the rebels are all bikers (led by Natasha Irons, Harley Quinn, and Barda) who scrounge to survive, but live to ride. The story works because it focuses on the ethos of the free rider rather than the bikes themselves, which are important but not central to the story. I loved the interpretations of Catwoman, Nightwing, and others of the rebels, and even grew to like Kara's use in this setting. While I'm rarely a fan of Batman as a villain (especially when he's not the lead villain), it worked pretty well here. There are some action sequences that work really well, reminiscent of Mad Max, and the individual stories for Harley and Catwoman especially resonated. This makes for a strong single volume, but I can see it continuing as well, as they've created an Elseworlds here that leaves a lot of territory yet to be mined. The art is distinctive and never descends to the cheesecake shots that Bombshells occasionally felt obligated to. All in all, much better than I expected.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What's Gotham City Garage?" I asked the comic book store owner.

"I assume... it's about the garage in Gotham City?"

Not quite.

It's a pretty rare joy when you get to dive into a crazy surprise of a story with little to know before-hand knowledge, and I tried to relish it here.

After the success of the DC Bombshells series, which used collectible figures depicting DC heroins as calendar pin-up girls for a WWII-era saga of glam kick-ass goddesses, DC assigned this team a similar task--except this time, the heroines are badass biker chicks.

And, it turns out, they're a gang of survivalists living in a post-apocalyptic desert outside the "Garden," a domed prison where the despotic Lex Luthor rules over the last, mentally sedated remnants of humanity with his main enforcer, a trenchcoated Batman.

To say this was "inspired" by Mad Max would be like saying bank robbers are "concerned" about the location of paper currency. But that's forgiveable given this team's task, and they injected a strain of cyberpunk to create an interesting genre mix. A lot of the fun in a story like this is to see how the core canon elements are transcribed--just wait until you see this universe's version of the Joker.

I can't say this has the best-written dialogue or is devoid of cliches, but it's the kind of series you can't stop reading just to find out where they're going with it.

[Alex E · Rating 2 out of 5]

A post-apocalyptic wasteland with only one domed city under Lex Luther's rule. But no only does he have control of the city, he is controlling their minds.

So the description of this book is very accurate. It is very mad max-esque with the twist of using DC heroes and villains. Batman seems to be the main authority as far as security, so he is essentially the "villain" of the story, besides Lex. In the book, Kara aka Supergirl, breaks free of the dome, has the sunlight hit her, and she discovers her powers. However, a group of females on bikes help her out as she is being chased by Lex's and Batman's minions. From there its a journey of discovery of not only the environment, but also Kara's new powers.

I think I wasn't in the demographic for this book, because to me it seemed very one dimensional and obvious. It's very "by the numbers" and even the interesting bits, like Batman being the villain, are interesting for a little bit, then that goes away.

If the premise sounds interesting to you, I would say check it out because it is exactly that. But if you are on the fence, I would say skip it.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself enjoying this book far more than I thought I would. Set in a dystopian world were Lex Luthor rules as a God-King and a handful of our favorite DC ladies are part of a motorcycle gang that don't like him one bit. Also, Batman has sold his soul to Luthor and is a bad guy. Things are a little different in this book but it all works. The world the writers build is straight out of the Mad Max universe but it belongs to this series. From the gardens of Luthor land to the desert wasteland of the garage the artwork is spectacular in this book. And the writers deserve praise for staying true to the characters. In this book Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn is Harley. Even bad guy Batman is still Batman even if he sold his soul to Lex. This book was a pleasure to read and rewarding, can't wait for the second volume.

[Adriana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly didn't have very high hopes for a book that came about after the popularity of a line of motorcycle pin-up figures, but there is much to like in this alternate universe version of the DC Universe. Don't let the fact that it's titled after Batman's city misguide you, there are a ton of different DC characters to enjoy here; all of them kickass and most of them female.
The art does have a tendency to get overly pin-upy, but look past that and there is some pretty impressive line work and detailed mechanics.
Plot-wise, we get a cross between Mad Max and Minority Report that works surprisingly well.
It's a cool idea and the execution (at least on this first book) is living up to the promise it makes.

[h · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC’s heroines riding through an apocalyptic hellscape on motorcycles, fighting a dystopian regime... of course this was bumped up my TBR list. Gotham City Garage presents a fresh twist on some of our most beloved heroines’s backstories while throwing them into an epically brutal background. And frankly, I was a fan. The plot was somewhat derivative and a bit hard to follow at times, but overall it was an entertaining read. The art starts off with a certain gritty beauty to it, though it does suffer into the later issues. Overall, an enjoyable read, and I am excited to see where it goes from here.

[David Turko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a nice surprise. Imagine the 'DC' universe and 'Mad Max' colliding on motor bikes. What's great about this book is that it does a swap up on whose a 'good guy' and 'bad guy' in this book. Except for Catwoman, she's her usual chaotic neutral-self but that's why we love her. Everything is pretty much great. There were some problems with some of the art and a bit of the dialogue but nothing to really upset me from my reading. I'm really interested as to where this series is headed. Definitely keeping this series on my radar.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I really like the Bombshell series, but it has a few problems. Mostly it is trying to tell too many stories with each volume, breaking them up and leaving them for so long that you forget what's happening when they pick up again.

Please don't do that with Gotham City Garage, because that would break my heart. This was f@cking great. The story is pretty awesome, and I love how some of the characters you would expect to be heroes are, but guess what SOME AREN'T (cough cough Batman, Jim Gordon, sort-of Cyborg

[Eyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I ever actually read the blurb for this because I was fully expecting a motorbike racing story, which I suppose it kind of is? I wasn't ready for the full dystopian future, which I ended up absolutely loving. This volume was just so much fun! I love the way the characters' are interpreted and adapted into this story and I'm excited to see how the story goes in the second volume.

Definitely recommend if you like dystopia and DC, while I wouldn't say it goes further than other stories have and would, it's a really solid take on it with great art too.

[kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series definitely has potential. It reminds me of Mad Max, which is never a bad thing. I read this as single issues and they last two (#5 & 6) were by far the most interesting. I'm really interested to see where this series will go, though I still don't know enough about all the characters to really decide if I like it or not yet.

[Jeremy Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was like DC comics meets Mad Max. It was a fun elseworld story that is really really enjoyable. Kara Gordon is a awesome main character to drive through this motorcycle dystopian adventure. All the versions of loved characters in this new story are enjoyable and interesting. It has a tough girl-power vibe and that was fun to see too.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

DC superheroines as bikers in a Mad Max wasteland, going up against a dystopian city ruled by Lex Luthor. Evil Batman is Evil. Read this in digital issues, found the story choppy but readable, and the art rather inconsistent.

[A Few Good · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved the dystopian setting and the recast of DC characters as the Bat becomes the Luthors' scalpel. Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Supergirl as Bikers battling the unrelenting Bat!!! Can't wait for more.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was unexpected.

I had zero idea what this was...zero...I thought it was probably about Batman's personal mechanic.

Nope, it's a Judge Dredd Elseworld story, like Bombshells based on toys, which I found to be an interesting scifi read (slight Dredd clone).

[Iris Nevers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved how Supergirl was the main character in this elseworld tale. I really apprecitated the Batman and the law aspect and all the little hints towards bikes and things like that in just the first issue. The Kara and Barbara sisters aspect was really cool and all around just a nice touch.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this! Loving the concept, characters, clothing, and everything. Especially enjoyed issue 5 with Babs and Kara. The colours and backgrounds were giving me total Blade Runner vibes. This is definitely up there with DC Bombshells for me. Cannot wait for volume two!