Gotham City Garage #9 Review

Story by: Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing

Art by: Lynne Yoshii & Neil Googe

Colors by: Kelly Fitzpatrick & Tony Aviña

Published by: DC Comics

After having followed Gotham City Garage for the past few months, I felt like this series was missing that small little spark. Knowing that it is now a limited digital-first series (I believe it ends with issue #12), I wanted to see something come out of the series.

This is the issue where I finally “wowed”. Unlike some previous issues where both chapters of the issue revolved around the same characters, this issue sees the introduction of two new characters to the universe: Lois Lane and Kendra Blackhawk.

In the first chapter we see Big Barda trying to recruit Lois Lane to the Garage’s cause against Luthor only to vehemently rebuffed from the strong-willed reporter/radio DJ. Lois Lane has always been one of my favorite DC characters in their universe, and Kelly and Lanzing’s take on her for this series is almost too perfect. Add to that Yoshii’s gorgeous rendition of her, as well as Jimmy Olsen, and you have a character that I fell in love with in less than 10 pages.

In the second chapter of this issue, we are introduced to Kendra Blackhawk. For fans of DC, you’ll notice that this character is a combination of both the second Hawkgirl Kendra Saunders and the paramilitary group the Blackhawks. In her story, we get to see a little more of the world as it is outside of the Garage and Luthor’s domain and get a little history on what exactly happened to lead to this world. It’s a nice change of pace and adds new players that could come into play later down the line.

In all, I’d have to say this is one of the strongest issues of Gotham City Garage up to date and now I’m really looking forward to see what comes next.