Gotham City Garage #1 Review

Gotham City Garage #1

Writers: Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing

Art Team: Brian Ching

DC Comics (Digital First Lineup)

Release Date: August 16, 2017

Cover Price: .99 (digital first release)

DC Does Thunder Dome

Well, well, well what do we have here … it looks like a brand new digital first comic coming out of the woodworks from DC.  These books always tend to grab my attention, at least for the first Volume or so, as I feel out whether it’s something I’ll stick around for, and for .99 cents an issue there’s not much risk involved. This latest title, called Gotham City Garage, is based on the DC lineup on statues baring the same name that, as the kids say, are hot on the streets. Does Gotham City Garage find the early success and traction Bombshells has carved out for itself? Let’s find out here in this first issue what’s cooking.

The book starts with a very cold opening, as we’re witness to a group of cyborgs, modeled after what looks to be Batman, burning down a family home about to execute those who lived inside. Thankfully a shadowed protector, arrives on a motorcycle, to seemingly save the day … but we’re left wondering exactly what’s occurred as the story moves forward.

Up next we’re introduced to what looks to be our title character, Kara Gordon, who lives under the dome of the ‘last city on earth’ called the Garden.  She appears to work for a division or corporation run by Lex Luthor, or those related to him, in some type of computer programming role … but all is not well.  Kara leaves work and walks out into this dystopian future where we get hints that most citizens are controlled through some sort of programming. 

Kara ends up drawing some attention to herself after helping a ‘non-compliant’ individual to the dismay of local law enforcement drawing unwanted attention on her walk home.  The last name Kara takes in this universe, Gordon, finally comes into play in this scene, when she arrives home, and we learn she was adopted by Jim Gordon long ago.  There isn’t much time to catch up on the relationship shared between the two characters as Jim gives Kara some strange warnings she’s can’t make sense of yet before being interrupted by the Batman. 

This Batman is not the friendly neighborhood Batman we’re all familiar with however as he tosses Jim aside violently and goes off in pursuit of Kara running for her life.  Kara, though some slick display of skill, is able to lose Batman momentarily, before hacking a few Robo-Bat’s, making them shoot a hole in the doomed Garden structure she calls home, which lets in some yellow sunlight.   A last-ditch jump reveals a hidden secret keep from Kara for so long, her ability to fly, as she launches out of the dome and what she hopes is to safety.

The book concludes with a catchy cliffhanger with, Kara finding no safety and surrounded on the outside of the dome by Robo-Bat’s, with four awesome new ‘Gotham Garage’ characters seemingly coming to her rescue … that I won’t reveal here. Go spend the .99 cents and check this out you won’t be disappointed.

Overall, I found this first chapter of Gotham City Garage (a digital release) to be a blast to go through and would recommend it to anyone with even a remote interest in the concept. Getting in touch with this new world, and the characters that inhabit it, has me very intrigued going forward with Kelly and Lanzing providing some interesting twists and turns on every page along the way.  Brian Ching is on art duties here and his style is a nice match for this Mad Max type world. My suggestion is go to dehydrated for an hour and splurge those .99 cents on this book during your break on work you won’t regret it.

Bits and Pieces

Gotham City Garage comes out of the gate firing with a cool concept then building a world around it I want to continue reading more about going forward.  If any part of this concept sounds interesting to you jump on and enjoy the ride.

8.2/10