Rereading this again as its been some years since I last perused it, my thoughts have not changed overmuch from then as to now.
The A plot concerning Japanese internment camps and the United States pulling its own efforts at being absolutely awful and Wonder Woman striving to stop them was quite awesome. I heartily cheer on Wonder Woman fighting against oppression. Donna and Cassie being in there was also a delightful touch.
Using Clayface as the jarhead military villain works surprisingly well. A horrible asshat who claims the land as his own by BEING the land. Declaring anyone who isn’t his definition of American as being the enemy. So fixated on his idea of what Wonder Woman is as a symbol for America that he cannot handle the truth that his vision of her is shallow at best.
Plus, its admittedly a bit fun to see the two characters made out of clay face off once in a while.
Seeing Diana seemingly fall and the five girls all take up Wonder Womans armaments to continue the battle in an effort to keep her message alive was also rather powerful.
Seeing Paula Von Gunther of all characters pop back up to play the role of a reformed ally of Wonder Woman thanks to the compassion and mercy Diana showed her. Heck, that Clayface would do a heel face turn thanks to compassion and a chance to reflect made it all the better.
Including Dawnstar and making a comparison to the treatment of Native Americans was an inspired choice.
The notion that this iteration of the character possesses the memories of all iterations of herself across realities and can in turn grant someone the memories of lives they never lived makes for some compelling storytelling that I wish I could see explored more in other comics. I know thats not actually Dawnstars thing in the regular stuff, but STILL!
And that finale! -chefs kiss- Diana dead and reborn. A sister to Donna Troy. That whole scene was gloriously heartfelt and amazing to read. I thoroughly loved it.
In hindsight I recall having thought Emily Sung was Tina Sung (Damien Waynes great great great grandaughter) and being a bit thrown by the writer working in three Batman characters who had been around for less than a year.
But no, instead it was Element Woman all along.
To voice my one nitpick of the story, I was kinda pulled out of the story at points by how heavily Bat-centric the cast largely was.
Yuri and Yuki who were two of the Wonder Girls in this are Batgirl villains (a pair of bikers)
The General is ‘General’ a Tim Drake villain
He of course led Clayface and the Mud Pack which need little introduction.
Im well aware its a silly nitpick to make given that it served the story well, and im sure Bennett made those choices because the Bat-books are what she is most familiar with and thus thats why most of the characters in Bombshells are from the Batbooks.
But STILL~ I just wish this could have been a chance to shine some attention on some of Wonder Womans fun characters.