Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Die Laughing (Rebirth)

by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner

[Quirky Cat]

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking: Huh, you know what would make a fantastic mash-up? Harley Quinn and zombies! Then this is the volume for you. Seriously, so many zombies. There are two other plots that accompany this one, but that one stood out the most in my memory.
Harley Quinn Rebirth is distinct from the New 52 plotline, but still carries over a lot of the new characters and setup from it. You can easily skip right to Rebirth if you want, as the first half dozen pages or so are all summarizing Harley’s past, allowing the reader to jump right in.



As I mentioned above, this volume contains three different stories. The first one is…a little out there for my taste, but it wasn’t awful either. The short story basically is that this alien teenager comes to earth to hang out for a bit, mistakes cows as the highest being on earth and pretends to be one. This ultimately ends up with him being sent to a slaughterhouse and turned into hotdogs. I’m not even done! Then all the people that eat said hotdogs turn into zombies. Naturally the stand was within a block or two of Harley’s place, putting them in the epicenter of this whole shenanigan.
I won’t give away how that one ends, but let’s just say that it’s almost as odd as the beginning of the whole thing. This wasn’t exactly my favorite Harley plot, and raised a lot of questions for me. For example, what on earth was the bubble keeping the police officers out? How come Ivy was able to get through (or was she already there?). Things like that. Additionally I have some concerns about Harley’s care for being sanitary…eating something without washing your hands is bad enough. Throw in zombie guts and bathroom messes? That’s a whole new level of ew, and borderline too much for me to think about.
The second plot went a lot faster, which is good, because I didn’t enjoy this one all too much either. Harley goes to India? Long and short of it is she got hired to catch a bunch of scammers targeting the elderly (via cold calling, naturally). I found this story to be kinda boring (I kept finding myself losing interest) and a little bit tone deaf. At least it was resolved quickly – though we never do find out of the people that got scammed got their money back.
And finally, my favorite from the volume: Harley goes punk! You heard that right. If you’ve ever wanted to see Harley with a Mohawk, now’s your chance! She, Red Tool (with his new odd arm), Eggy, and Big Tony all go undercover to seek revenge for their dearly departed postal worker. All jokes aside, it’s actually really sweet that Harley legit cares about the people in her neighborhood. Also, girl can totally rock a Mohawk. I wonder how her hair will look next volume. Partially growing back? Or full on back to normal?
On that note, I’m one volume shy of being caught up with all the Harley comics! I’m so excited! I’m curious to see where volume 2 (Joker Loves Harley) is going to lead us. I think we’ve already witnessed a bit of build-up for that one.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks