White Rabbit Smash! — Reviewing ‘Gotham City Sirens’ #3

The Joker tends to chaotically break the system for evil. Punchline would rather use the already broken system for evil. Not a large leap since many of the systems in place already are quite often used for immoral, selfish, and outright evil things.

Money is flowing and Gothamites are caught in the crossfire as Gotham City Sirens #3 kicks the miniseries into high gear for this penultimate issue. Old hateful money meets modern tech innovations in a tale from Leah Williams, Matteo Lolli, Trionna Farrell, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

If the previous issue was all slow setup to cross “heroes” and villains’ paths, well this one was the opposite. Our trio of anti-heroes/villains are captured by Punchline who enacts her capitalistic plan before the title trio sets to tearing it all down. Plenty of fast paced action, zingers/quips, Hulk impressions, and old white men doing the (usual) worst of things.

A few quibbles remain with the way this is structured, but overall, what Williams is attempting is intriguing. Rather than just trying to rip things down and take over, we have a villain realizing that there is far more room to wiggle into and control the system as it is. Just like we see day after day from various individuals who hit it big and become the system that once exploited or harmed them in the past.

Some real if you can’t beat them, join them so that you can beat them up from inside and control it all energy.

I’ve come to realize that despite the growing list every year, there are more comics I should probably read. Chiefly because I was trying to figure out if the White Rabbit’s whole split situation was something that the story hadn’t explained yet or was just her whole deal (I’m not familiar with this character version). Turns out it was the latter. The addition of Bad Bunny (a Hulked-out version of the villain) is a funny bit and fits the story. Also, it’s a good way for the character to save herself.

Overall, as before, it’s clear that Williams has the voices for these characters down and knows how to bounce them off each other and the settings.

We see the return of Lolli for this issue, fittingly so with the dynamic fluidity that the art style showcases. So smooth while heavily detailed and full of tangible weight. Hitting that sweet spot where things have heft and realness to them while brimming with whimsical energies. Our protagonists are put through some things during their dehydrating imprisonment, and it’s very much felt. Just like all aspects of what is on the page, emotionally and physically it is beyond clear at every single moment.

Across the series so far Farrell manages to really keep the flow with the colors. Giving us the big bold bright tones that are expected for this sort of affair. Mixing in a heaping of the darker and sometimes more toned-down neutral portions of the palette gives the world that familiar feeling. It all really flows with the artwork, no matter which artist happens to be at the helm.

There is a reason that Otsmane-Elhaou gets so much praise when it comes to the realm of lettering. So bold, dynamic, energetic, and all-around fun. While just doing what it needs to do in order to convey what the story calls from, whether we’re talking about dialogue or captions or even headers. Each project means tweaks to the great foundation that he has created with his work, flowing with whatever personality a book embodies.

Poison Ivy sure has to deal with zombies a lot lately, that’s for sure. At least this time the zombified folks are not the fault of her or her fungus but tampered with energy drinks.

Gotham City Sirens #3 is now available from DC Comics.