Gotham City Garage #3

Written by: Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing
Art by: Aneke
Colours by: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Published by: DC Comics

Gotham City Garage’s first few issues (chapters) concentrated mostly on our new Supergirl, Kara Gordon, as she is introduced to the world outside of the sphere of influence of Lex Luthor and his idea of a perfect utopia. In this issue, we get to meet a few more of the characters that will populate this new world: Barbara Gordon and Harley Quinn.

First off, we get to meet Barbara Gordon as she learns of the death of her father from Batman, who, we must remember, is an agent of Lex Luthor. The issue doesn’t spend too much time on Barbara, but we do get an idea that she is being manipulated into believing that Kara killed their father (in this world, they are sisters), when we all know that Batman was the one who did the deed.

The crux of the issue is spent learning about Harley Quinn and how she came to be how she is now. We learn that for a time, she was under Luthor’s thumb and helped to create the machines, Ridealong, that are now controlling the population within the dome. As a willing participant in the trials to perfect the brainwashing device, Kelly and Lanzing had a lot of work to try and make her a sympathetic character as the story progresses.

They do this by interspersing shots from the present as Harley is preparing, something, on what she considers an anniversary. Her celebration brings her into conflict with Barbara and Batman, but inevitably, she comes out on top.

The art in this issue was fantastic and helped introduce me to Aneke, an artist I had never seen before. Their line work is perfectly complimented by Fitzpatrick’s colours and really brings this story to life.