If anyone should be having a Brat Summer, it’s the bad girls of Gotham City. And thankfully, writer Leah Williams and artist Matteo Lolli bring that icon energy to the page in DC Comics‘s four-week event series, kicking off with Gotham City Sirens #1.
The gist of the series is pretty simple: shirtless hunks are attacking Gotham, and it’s up to Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy to stop them. It’s the same sort of ridiculous energy Williams brought to Marvel’s X-Terminators, and while it doesn’t quite same awkward comedy/tension including X-23 brought to the mix of party girls, the Gotham City Sirens instead deliver an “oh, this again?” blasé tone that works against the high stakes they’re up against.
Those high stakes become clearer at the end of the issue, with a perfect foil for the anti-heroic trio that I won’t spoil here. But after a solid set-up issue, it looks like the plot will be off to the races (perhaps literally) starting the next issue. And that’s the best part of this series… While it’s taking the place of the regular runs of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman, all you really have to know here is that these three have seen — and dealt with it all before. And now they’re stuck in it again.
It’s the perfect breezy blast of weekly comics for a four-week August event. And continuing the ongoing conversation about how to get folks back into comic book stories, why wouldn’t you want to head on down to the local shop to see these characters take on bison and a squad of shirtless hunks (did I mention there are shirtless hunks?) over four wicked weeks?
It’s only helped by Lolli’s pencils, which perfectly capture the tone of each of the characters. Harley is a goofy loose cannon. Poison Ivy is the brainy, dangerous science type. And Catwoman ends up being both stealth and hacker all rolled in one. Each gets their artistic moment in the sun, and that’s only emphasized by Triona Farrell’s poppy, bright candy-colored, er, colors.
While the backstory here may be that DC is killing time to allow the regular teams to get ahead in preparation for the DC All In initiative that’s hitting in October (that’s speculation on my part), I’m all for a cooldown comic in the middle. It is Brat Summer, after all, so bring on the brats.
Gotham City Sirens #1 is in stores now.
