Harley Quinn (2016-) #55

by Sam Humphries

[Quirky Cat]

I’m giving 3 ½ stars for this issue. I’m rounding it up to four, partially because I’m rewarding a risk taken here and partially because rounding down didn’t feel right in this case.
It’s the holiday special for Harley Quinn! I figured that this would be the perfect time to jump back into the series (I gave up on it mid-August because of the plot they were running, forgive me for that).
I was surprised by how heavy the issue ended up being. Sure, it still had its silly elements, but they took a major risk with one of the characters here. Granted it isn’t a character we see on a regular basis. But it is one that has an impact on Harley…so there’s that. I’ll admit that it did feel a little cheap at times, but I can’t quite explain all the reason I feel that way.
The absence of one character in particular really struck me in this issue. I’m talking about Poison Ivy, obviously. It’s the holidays and Ivy would naturally be around. I know I said I’d been out of the series for a bit (I think I missed 8 or so issues?) but this leaves me with some guesses. For example, I’m assuming that this timeline synchs up with the Heroes in Crisis timeline? Which means that Poison Ivy is well…spoiler. If that’s the case then you’d think that Harley would bring her up, again because it’s that time of the year…or she was trying to keep herself busy, thus all the crazy baking and party planning…I’m very conflicted on this. Somebody else care to weigh in?