Harley Quinn:

by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner

[inlibrisveritas]

3.5 Stars

Harley Quinn is one of those characters that pulls me in because of the psychology of the character. The whole fact that Harley Quinn is pretty smart (there was some fudging on her psychology doctor exams) and successful well before she ever falls into villainy was a huge draw. I loved that she fell prey to a psychological disorder of her own and allowed herself to fall for someone who was far from good for her, and then spent years going back and forth between loving and hating him. So I was really pleased to see that she was getting her own comic, anything that puts some distance between her and Joker is even better because I like who she is when she’s not near him. That being said these first few issues were a bit tedious.

I wasn’t really sure how they were going to portray Harley in this because she has multiple faces. You have the smart psychiatrist that she’s capable of being, the ditzy and super cute Harley from the Animated series, and then the complete and total wildcard Harley. This series is mostly the latter, with a few moments of the first two. It’s great to see her striking out on her own with Joker or Ivy and take on some people of her own, but most of this is just comic relief…which is somewhat expected because it’s Harley but it’s also kind of irritating when you want actual story. She does get a new outfit (or two), and takes up roller derby as a hobby…and for some reason has a stuffed beaver who is her voice of reason. In some ways she is now DC’s Deadpool character. SHe has quirky asides with herself, breaks the 4th wall, and doesn’t seem to have story of her own but instead has a story mixed with a lot of jokes and other characters’ stories.

I did love some of these issues though and I still enjoy Harley as a character, but I would love see some more depth put into this as opposed to just keeping her as a filler character.