Gotham City Garage #2

Written by: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Pencils by: Lynne Yoshii
Colours by: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Published by: DC Comics

This issue of Gotham City Garage begins, what I believe to be, the fleshing out of our supporting cast in this series. In the first issue we were introduced to Kara Gordon who will be acting as the reader’s surrogate through the series - or at least, that is how she is positioned - and now we get to meet the rest of the cast.

Enter Barda Free. Like her counterpart from the DCU, Barda grew up in the hell that was Apokolips and has now made her way to quite a different type of hell. We get to learn, through a fair bit of exposition, that she has taken it upon herself to train Kara in the art of, motorcycling I guess? This training is put to an immediate test when Steele charges Barda, Banshee and Kara to steal a shipment of unknown origin from the Lexes as it is being transported through a dead zone in the wasteland that they call home.

The antagonist for this issue turns out to be the Red Hood Motorcycle Gang - a great use of the Red Hood identify in this world, and a call back to many other works in the DC pantheon. They, like our heroines, are after this shipment and fisticuffs ensue.

Unlike other digital comics that I’ve read these past few months, these two chapters work seamlessly together, so much so, that I didn’t even notice when one bled into the other. This could also be attributed to both the production team, by not adding “Chapter 4” in the middle of the comic, but also to the art team that remained consistent throughout.

I enjoyed this issue as a vehicle to let the reader to get to know more of the characters of this world. Barda comes off, as she usually does, as a brave warrior willing to not only take the fight to the enemy, but also as a protector of her charge. She gives off a “Big sister” vibe when it comes to Kara, willing to protect her at any cost.