JP On Gaming

Monday, May 4, 2020

[Kinda Book Review] Harley Quinn Vol 1: Die Laughing

I like Harley Quinn. I was intrigued by her when she first appeared in the Batman Animated Series. She made me both laugh and facepalm at once. This is another trade I got for 5$ at a sale from a local comic shop, this one for Jojo who also likes her antics.

The cover promised all kinds of mayhem and craziness. I was WAY more interested in this one than in Flash: Blitz.

Pfff... This book is a teenager boy's dream like watching the "Side-Boob Hour". The art is just an excuse to put Harley (often with Poison Ivy) in semi-porn positions for no reason. Showers, baths, massages, nighties, pantie-shots, and the girl-on-girl not-so-innuendos throughout. Now let me be clear: I ENJOY WATCHING HOT WOMEN. It is pleasing to my eye. I make no apologies for that.

BUT (only 1 T)

Now that I'm not longer 14 years old, I want the story to mean something, to add a purpose. Here it does not.

The plot is meaningless and Harley rarely has anything to do with it.

So in the first arc, an alien comes to Earth, sees a cow, shape shifts into one then get turned into hot dog meat all sent ONLY to Coney Island. Those who eat him turn to zombies. Okay. Stupid but I'm still on board. It's full-on apocalypse. Harley falls into the mob and kills and escapes it for what seems like forever as the scenes keep moving her from one scene to another. Again. The situation is resolved without any of the characters doing anything: more aliens show up and summon their friend's body back. Apocalypse over.

Then for some reason, she decides to go to India to stop call centers. She gets on a commercial plane and goes there. What follows is a 5 year old idea of stopping a call center: go see the Russian boss and kill him.

Harley Quinn. On a commercial plane.

She in NOT a good guy. She's a villain. She's the Joker's Girlfriend. She is NUTS.

The storytelling is JUST ATROCIOUS. The plot makes no sense. No one ever dares to say anything to her, they just roll with it. Sure! It's fine. You just killed people? Okay.

Oh and India Security has this bad-ass-looking robot. She whacks it (quickly but I will let it go) and out comes... A boy of about 5! WTF?

At some point she trashes the Penguin's lair IN FRONT OF HIM. And what does the Penguin do?

Nothing. He asks her if she is fine now.

NOTHING.

Next panel she is walking the street with her cop buddy.

Atrocious. Atrocious.

I will avoid any product by the horrendous team of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. These people have no idea how to tell a story.

So to rate this... The art is of good-to-high quality, the one redeeming quality of this book. However even that cannot overcome the garbage that it wraps around. You can wrap a turd in bacon, put batter around it and deep-fry it. But it's still a turd. Rating the art alone, I would give this a 4/5. But the story made me angry I spent money on this and that the paper was glossy so it could not be used as emergency toilet paper.

Yup 1/5. The lowest score I can give.

Rubbish.

Garbage.

Now I remember why I don't like modern comics. Thanks DC.

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