After the first 100 digital chapters, 33 print issues and dozens of statues based on the designs of Ant Lucia, the DC Bombshells is now entering its second series with Bomshells United. Rather than just start another year of World War II, writer Marguerite Bennett and her roster of artists have started fresh. This means the return of the always excellent Marguerite Sauvage to bring Bennett’s stories to life.
Here’s the official synopsis from DC Comics:
The Bombshells are back in an all-new series! As our new tale begins, the year is 1943, and Wonder Woman is called to Arizona for help by two young girls named Cassie Sandsmark and Donna Troy! The girls’ friends and families are being displaced from their homes and forced into internment camps! To save them, can Wonder Woman fight against the same people she once fought alongside?
The last Bombshells arc ended with the Battle of Leningrad, leaving the events on the homeland far behind. United‘s first story, “American Soil,” picks up the action in the U.S., three years after the start of the war. After a brief introduction to catch us up on what’s been going on in the world, highlighting Bennett’s literate writing, she takes us to Arizona. There, Donna Troy and her friends are hoping to stop a train carrying Japanese Americans to an internment camp. They’ve enlisted the help of Wonder Woman, who agrees to help even though she knows it would endanger her standing with the American government.
Just as she did during the original Bombshells series, Bennett finds another World War II story to tell through the eyes of transplanted DC Comics characters. How would Wonder Woman act if she learned that the government she fought for was doing the same thing as the one she was fighting against? Would she ditch her allegiance to country to save humans? Of course, the answer is yes, and she’ll have to deal with the consequences of her actions in future issues.
What has made the Bombshells series so enjoyable, aside from seeing so many female DC heroes get their time in the spotlight, is the use of characters from all areas of the DC universe. No character is off-limits and Bennett makes an effort to make them different from their canon counterparts. The World War II setting isn’t just windowdressing for Bennett’s stories. It shapes these characters in unexpected ways and there have been unexpected pairings throughout. If the first issue of United is a sign, then this will continue.
It’s also very cool to have Sauvage back on Bomshells. Sure, Laura Braga, Mirka Andolfo and the others who did the heavy lifting were great, but Sauvage really set the tone for the style of Bombshells at the very beginning. Sauvage’s style is unique and Bennett’s script lets her stretch her ability to do great action.
Bombshells has lived on far longer than anyone could have expected and it’s great to see Bennett continuing her story in United. She’s shown that it’s possible to tell a serious World War II story with superheroes while paying tribute to the real war heroes. Bennett took an idea for cool statues and turned it into an exciting universe.
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