Hold onto your handlebars DC Comics fans, because the company’s best known heroines and femme fatales are getting a motorcycle makeover in Gotham City Garage. It isn’t a case of another post-apocalyptic reboot or ‘alternate future’ for DC’s main continuity this time around, but a response to fan enthusiasm over a line of collectible statues that reimagined the likes of Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman as leather-clad outlaws swapping their signature styles for a signature set of wheels. The spark of creativity that spawned the series implied so much more story, DC has seen fit to develop an entire Digital First comic series - and a fictional world these reimagined rebels can inhabit.

Named for the line of biker-minded collectible statues, Gotham City Garage will begin its run on August 16, 2017 from the writing team of Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly (Grayson). They’ll be working with a changing roster of artists to build an entire universe in which DC’s heroines fight for “freedom for all” with oil, gasoline, and speed. And if the visual re-designs of the characters doesn’t catch your attention, then the premise definitely should.

Most of the time, it’s the comic book creators’ job to hook fans on a character or series - then sell them a collectible statue to treasure. Gotham City Garage is doing the opposite, but when you introduce alternate visions of Wonder Woman, clad in leather on her stretched cycle, Harley Quinn tossing bombs with hyenas in her sidecar, and Selina Kyle at home astride her chopper, you’re going to want to hear the story behind it. That task falls to Lanzing and Kelly, who have crafted a future sure to evoke memories of Full Throttle - in the best way possible:

It’s been a decade since Governor Lex Luthor saved his people from devastation and turned Gotham City into the modern utopia known as The Garden. With the rest of the world in ruins, Luthor’s city continues to thrive—but not for everyone. Order has been kept only by the LEXES technology that networks the entire population under one mindset—and if a citizen steps out of line, the Bat and his minions are brutal in restoring the status quo. So when a young Kara Gordon comes under suspicion by her LEXES superiors, she heads straight into the dreaded wasteland—where she’ll discover the fierce oil-and-gear rebels of the Gotham City Garage.

Garage isn’t a case of simply building a premise to look the part, but one that embraces the ideaology, rebellious attitude, and subversive history of biker culture - all with a mainly heroic slant. Kelly explains the politics that seem to beat at the core of the series, calling on women from across the DC Universe to show that sometimes, ‘fighting the bad guy’ means leaving the urban oasis behind for the desert’s blacktop:

Lanzing seconds the excitement while doubling down on the social commentary these Old West outlaws of the future highways will be offering. Beneath the bikes and outlaw antics - and perhaps fueled by the Kryptonian Kara - Lanzing sees the series as an opportunity for the rotating creative team to “rebel-yell alongside our favorite DC superheroines at a time when we need it the most.”

“Gotham City Garage is an anti-fascist anthem for the open road, starring reimagined takes on DC’s great female characters through an outlaw lens. We’re bringing Big Barda, Steel, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Silver Banshee, Hawkgirl and the first Kryptonian this world has ever seen—the mysterious girl named Kara Gordon—into a world of bikes, outlaws and elaborate tattoos.”

Since most of the women mentioned in the announcement are vigilantes, outsiders, or anti-heroes already, slipping into leathers and straddling a bike doesn’t mean a drastic change for their character. A future in which Lex Luthor seems to rule the remains of the American wasteland with help from Batman… now that seems like something new.

With a debut cover by Rafael Albuquerque and first run from Supergirl artist Brian Ching, the variant cover art (above) by Dan Panosian is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagining the outlaw renditions of Big Barda and Hawkgirl… well, we’re marking the release date in out calendars.

Gothan City Garage #1 will arrive August 16, 2017, with a new chapter released biweekly through October 2017 and weekly thereafter, with print issues available in October.

Source: DC Comics