Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Review: Bombshells United #18

By Philip Schweier
May 22, 2018 - 15:44

Lena Luthor leads the invasion of Earth by the forces of Apokalyps. On the ground below, all over the world, various Bombshells combined forces in battle against Darkseid and his armies of parademons. Meanwhile, the death demon that was the Joker expires at the hands of Harley and Ivy, and the spirit that was Death goes to –

Well, that would spoil the ending, but consider this: With dialogue of “…for I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!” are spoilers really this book’s biggest problem? I would suggest not. It suffers from bad dialogue, bad art, and a maturity level aimed at 15-year-old girls.

Think of the trees that have died to provide paper for this drivel. I can’t imagine anyone at DC Entertainment believing this to be a title worth publishing, other than to reach a very narrow demographic. I would expect this series to have been canceled for lack of sales already.

In my opinion, the series suffers not only from poor dialogue, but also a misplaced reliance on the reader to remain aware of where each character was last issue. And there are A LOT of characters to keep track of, many of whom all seem to wear either the League of Their Own variant of the Batgirl costume, or 1940s-style lingerie.

Another failing is questionable art direction, but I don’t know if that’s the writer’s instructions or the artist’s lack of storytelling ability that fragments the story. In three pages, Amanda Waller steals a plane and attempts to bomb Japan, but with other events transpiring in a matter of minutes, one might think Waller did it all within the same time frame.

The artwork is highly stylized, and might work with another property, but I don’t know which one. Because the renderings are basic line drawings, I would suggest one of the cartoon-based titles where texture and depth-of-field are in less demand.

Rating: 2/10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12