DC’s Superheroines Are Becoming A Badarse Anti-Fascist Biker Gang In The New Gotham City Garage Series

Much like its Bombshells universe, where classic characters such as Wonder Woman and Batwoman were reimagined as WWII-era heroes fighting undead Nazis, the publisher’s new Gotham City Garage began as a collection of highly-stylised, limited edition statues. Now, it’s becoming a comics series of its own.

Image: DC Comics

Penned by writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with a rotating roster of artists lined up and Brian Ching illustrating the first issue, Gotham City Garage will tell the story of an alternate universe where Lex Luthor reigns supreme over an idyllic Gotham city that’s been renamed “the Garden”. In exchange for bringing peace to the Garden, all Lex asks for is the unwavering loyalty of its citizens. Secrecy in the Garden is discouraged with advanced “LEXES” tech that networks everyone together into a pseudo hive mind, and defiance is squashed by Lex’s elite squad of overseers led by Batman.

Lex’s control of the Garden is challenged, however, by Kara Gordon — a LEXES employee and a secret Kryptonian — who’s suspected of subversion and driven into the wild wastelands outside of the Garden, where she meets other rebels such as Big Barda, Harley Quinn and Hawkgirl. Recognising Luthor for the tyrannical strongman that he really is, Kara and her new crew form a biker gang perfect for the apocalypse and set out to reclaim Gotham city for the people.

In an interview with Comicosity, Kelly described the series as “an anti-fascist anthem for the open road”, and promised that we should expect to see all manners of badarse bikes and hardcore tattoos. Conceptually, Lanzing said, Gotham City Garage is meant to be a story about anti-fascism perfect for anxieties bubbling up here in the real world, a concept that’s featured heavily in Bombshells. What remains to be seen, though, is if Gotham City Garage‘s predominantly-male creative team will be able to balance out the core concept (attractive women on motorcycles) with the same kind of progressive, feminist voice that makes Bombshells such a delight to read.

Like Bombshells, Gotham City Garage will begin as a digital-first series when it launches August 16 with print issues hitting stores later this year in October.