Review: DC Comics Bombshells Volume 1 - Enlisted

With World War II in full swing, government bigwig Amanda Waller puts together an elite squad of untapped resources – women – to contribute to the war effort. Dubbed the Bombshells, these incredible heroines are sent behind enemy lines in order to undermine the Nazi regime.

DC Comics Bombshells Volume 1: Enlisted collects issues 1-6 of DC Comics Bombshells, written by Marguerite Bennett and with art by Marguerite Sauvage, Laura Braga, Ming Doyle, and various others.

Based off of the popular DC Collectibles line of statues, DC Comics Bombshells re-imagines the iconic women of the DC Universe as World War II era heroines. While the statues were quite obviously created to superficially portray them as little more than sexy 1940s style pin-up girls, the world that Marguerite Bennett and her artists build in this series is nothing short of brilliant. Bennett takes cues from the statues – such as initially portraying Batwoman as a baseball player – and manages to create something wholly unique in the process.

Enlisted largely serves as an origin story for the Bombshells. It introduces each member individually, but focuses primarily on the narratives of Batwoman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl. Batwoman, as mentioned previously, is portrayed as a baseball player who spends her nights combatting crime as a masked vigilante. She is one of the first to be recruited by Amanda Waller and is tasked with venturing to Europe in order to rendezvous with Contessa Selina DiGatti (the DC Comics Bombshells version of Catwoman).  Bennett writes a wonderfully layered Batwoman, examining her relationship with Maggie Sawyer and utilizes her as an almost James Bond-esque kind of a figure within the narrative. Standout moments include her banter with Selina, as well as the gorgeously drawn vignettes of Kate’s time with Maggie prior to her enlistment (Marguerite Sauvage is a total artistic goddess!). Wonder Woman, perhaps as a result of already being a World War II era creation, is left largely unchanged within this universe. Her story plays out much the same – Steve Trevor lands on the Amazons’ island and Diana going off to fight bad guys in Man’s World. What is different here is the inclusion of Mera as Diana’s closest friend and the Amazons seem even more disconnected than usual. Finally, we have Supergirl – who crash-landed in Russia rather than America. Kara, along with her adoptive sister Kortni, enroll in the Night Witches program. When she is discovered to have superpowers, she and Korti become the Russian heroes Supergirl and Stargirl. It’s a fascinating twist, particularly since it allows readers the opportunity to see beyond the American or British involvement in the Second World War. Bennett clearly shows that she’s done her research in that respect. I also love that she seems to reference Justice League Unlimited (or at the very least Justice League United) by linking Supergirl and Stargirl in this way.

I thoroughly enjoyed Enlisted. Its focus on the women of the DC Universe is great, but it’s ultimately the world that Bennett and her artists build that drew me in. I found myself curious as to how she’d re-imagine each Bombshell and seeing how she’d take inspiration from their statues. For instance, Zatanna is a cabaret performer in Berlin who works under duress due to her Jewish-Romani heritage. Bennett also rather hilariously works in Constantine being turned into a rabbit (a rather prominent feature of Zatanna’s Bombshells statue). Beyond that, the dialogue is a major strong point of this series. Bennett really captures the punchy way in which we often envision this era, which creates a constant electric interplay between the characters and injects the book with some rather clever (and often queer) double-entendres and subtexts.

DC Comics Bombshells is fairly unusual as a series for quite a few reasons. It’s outside of the main canon, it’s set in an imagined past and it has a high rotation of artists. That last point is somewhat contentious, as it invites quite a bit of inconsistency in terms of quality. Some artists, unfortunately, aren’t as good as others in this collection and it ends up taking away from the overall aesthetic of the world being built around these characters. That said, I absolutely adore the sheer amount of female talent that explodes out of this book. Bennett is joined by a host of ridiculously talented female artists and, if anything, it ends up proving that badass female artists are not as hard to come by as the industry pretends they are. Marguerite Sauvage handles the art chores in the first issue and totally knocks it out of the park. Her style is very fresh and cute. It seems strange, but I’m also in awe of how she draws hair. Another favourite of mine is Mirka Andolfo, who brings us the art for Harley Quinn’s section of the book. Her style is extremely expressive and vibrant. She’s a perfect match for the zany Harley. Then there’s Bilquis Evely, who is primarily responsible for the Supergirl and Stargirl sections. Her aesthetic is sketchier, but there’s a quality to it that seems to mimic the setting in which those sections are set. Other standouts include MLSanapo and Laura Braga, both of whom get to draw Wonder Woman. Their style is much more traditional in its approach to comic book art.

Aside from the inconsistency in quality brought on by rotating artists, I could not find or admit to a single flaw in DC Comics Bombshells. I love the direction, tone, and dialogue present in this title. Bennett creates an absolutely fascinating world of whimsy and wonder, which is further brimming with a pop art sensibility thanks to its talented artistic creators. There’s also a welcome sense of gravity to it, as Bennett further explores the harsher realities of World War II since some of the book’s characters are Jewish (notably Batwoman and Zatanna) and since a queer character is placed at the forefront (again, Batwoman). As someone who fits squarely into an LGBTQ+ readership, Bennett and DC Comics Bombshells itself offer a sense of both representation and of normalcy amidst such a turbulent setting. In essence, this is the book we need and deserve. DC Comics Bombshells Volume 1: Enlisted is quite possibly one of the best comic book trades I’ve read in a good long while! It’s a must-read for sure!

RATING: A+