By Dustin Cabeal

Having never read any of the Bombshell titles and only enjoying the T-Shirts, I had no expectations going into this series. Frankly, I was curious because of the different little universes that DC’s been able to make, maintain and build a fan base. Injustice has always had rave reviews from readers and critics and Bombshells must be doing something to have gotten to thirty plus issues on the main series and warranted a spin off.

The story seems to continue whatever story was started in the main series. Meaning I was pretty much in the dark about what had happened before, what the character development was like and what importance any of the events meant to the overall series. I understood what was going on, in that The Wonder Woman, Donna Troy and three other annoying characters were leading a charge against a train full of Japanese and Asian Americans being sent to detainment camps. The women are obviously against it and for good reason of course.

The story has a lot of talking. They talk about the plan, about Wonder Woman, about why it’s wrong to lock up American citizens. It’s when it gets to that last one that the comic doesn’t stop talking about it. It’s a short book, but it feels as if the only thing that’s spoken about is how the camps are wrong and it should never happen on American soil. Obviously, this is an alternate time line. It’s not that I disagree, in fact, I wholeheartedly agree, but when it’s hammered into the story so much it becomes preachy. It’s not trying to inspire conversation or even find a way to present this side of things to make people on the other side of the political fence understand. It’s unfortunate that it either didn’t have the time between the flying birds and introductions to present this better. Perhaps we could have used five fewer introductions of the same two characters. If that was some kind of joke, I didn’t get it because I didn’t forget the two characters and yet as the reader, we’re treated as if we did.

The art is good; it has a graphite pencil look to it with thick and rough looking line work. Also, a lot of the details are colored in this way giving it a very consistent look overall. To give another example, it's a lot like the Fleischer Studios Superman animation. The colorful backgrounds play to this as well giving it an animated look overall. The coloring itself is strong, favoring red, blue and yellow mostly, but it gives it a classic feel without looking dated.

It’s a shame that the art is the best part of this book. I loved looking at the story but didn’t particularly care to read it. Maybe it’s just a first issue thing, but something tells me that it’s just how this series is going to go and that it won’t end up being something I enjoy reading. Time will tell, but what’s here in this first issue isn’t particularly fresh, exciting or interesting. The artwork, on the other hand, is all those things and more. If you want to hear more about this issue check out this week's Comic Bastards Podcast!

Score: 3/5

Bombshells United #1
DC Comics