Harley Quinn

THE STRANGE CASE OF HARLEEN AND HARLEY (2024)

December 9, 2024

As alluded to by the title and the cover, THE STRANGE CASE OF HARLEEN AND HARLEY from writer Melissa Marr (WICKED LOVELY) and Jenn St-Onge (JEM & THE MISFITS) tackles Robert Lewis Stevenson’s DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE via an alternate young adult take on one Harleen Quinzel.

Harleen and her family — her mother, her criminal associate dad, and her younger sister and older brother Miri and Joey — are exiled from Gotham to the suburbs.

During a brief break-up with one Pamela Isley, Harleen became entangled with a dude named Bernie who straight-up murders a schoolmate for making fun of Harleen. Bernie is jailed, and Harleen and family pay the price by association in more ways than one.

Sidelined, her father is having a hard time paying the bills. Due to court-appointed probation, Harleen drive. Without car access, she can’t get a job. No job means no money to pay her gym coach.

No gym coach, no training.

No training, no college scholarship.

Reunited and joyriding with Pam, Harleen spots a billboard for Hawthorne Biomedical Laboratory, who pay volunteers for medical experiments. Even better? One of the experiments studies the effects of a new anti-anxiety medication, giving Harleen hope for a respite from her crippling anxiety.

The meds relieve her anxiety far too well. After each dose she becomes the far more gregarious, hedonistic, risk-taking, and fast-talking Harley Quinn. Pam immediately notices, impressed, stating: “You seem different. […] You don’t feel like ‘Harleen’ tonight.”

Matters escalate, including Harley freeing lab animals from Hawthorne with Pam, who Harley names “Ivy” because “I like how your arms feel wrapped around me.” Harley riles up a prison riot. Harley discovers that, thanks to the experimental drugs, Pamela blooms into Poison Ivy. (Couldn’t resist.) Also? Harley starts running criminal errands for one Jack Napier.

(If you know that name, you know and, no, you do not have to worry. If that name is new to you? You also don’t have to worry about it!)

In adapting JEKYLL + HYDE, Marr ditches the classic Harleen/Harley chemical transformation story in favor of emphasizing continuous duality, as opposed to kicking Harleen to the curb via a one-time traumatic incident.

While STRANGE CASE adheres pretty closely to JEKYLL + HYDE with the serums, as Harleen + Jekyll have similar changed character traits of hedonism and moral ambiguity in tandem with escalating doses, it doesn’t go as far as to mirror murderous impulses.

In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Marr’s context of the serum being a functioning anti-anxiety drug with severe side-effects mirrors some cases where anti-depressants are prescribed for those with bipolar and anxiety disorders. For example, as I can attest to, SSRIs can ease anxiety but can also cause pronounced and frequent stages of mania or hypomania.

In other words: the same side-effects that turn Harleen into Harley.

When I was misdiagnosed and prescribed SSRIs, the same fucking thing happened to me, even down to being described as “not acting like myself”. Like with Harley + Harleen in this text, the side-effects can have their positive attributes but, ultimately, the cure can be more destructive than the condition.

That duality was eventually rectified and to see that journey reflected here — and for youths that may be reading STRANGE CASE and may have to endure something similar — is not something I expected from a Harley work, even if Harley is often a wellspring of meditations on mental health.

(A brief aside: It’s worth noting that this Harleen/Harley is one of the few characterizations where she doesn’t seem to have ADHD.)

I do not mean to give short shrift to the visual stylings of Jenn St-Onge and Lea Caballero, as well as colorist Jeremy Lawson and letterer Luca Gattoni! The line work contracts and expands, occasionally appears harried and sketchy, then might pool together in swirls and curls, such as with one Mucha-inspired tableau. There’s Harleen’s chipped and worn nail polish — a visual testament to her anxiety — that I always appreciate. Additionally, the diamond pupils are a damn fine touch.

Lawson’s colors give a point-of-view glow, green bleeding into red when Harley and Ivy are together, predominantly darker greens and purples when Napier is overseeing matters. The defined shadows cast about the frame emphasize St-Onge’s verve and extremely welcome. Gattoni’s words anchor the page, exuberant but only distracting when they should be.

If I have one complaint about STRANGE CASE, it’s that Pamela is severely backgrounded. While this is first-and-foremost a Harley Quinn story, Pamela goes through a lot, what with Harleen’s distance and legal woes, the domestic abuse in the Isley family, the superpowers she gains from a company she wants to take down that may or may not be temporary, it feels like there should have been more or less going on there. I would love to have Marr and St-Onge return to tell the story from Pam’s perspective.

However, that’s simply a case of wanting more of a good thing. Like HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS, THE STRANGE CASE OF HARLEEN AND HARLEY is another exceptional offering from the DC’s Young Adult imprint, and I can’t to see what’s next.

SUICIDE SQUAD: KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE (2024)

November 19, 2024

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This was previously penned several months ago and fell through the cracks, so some details may be out-of-date.

You might be asking yourself: “Wasn’t WB Games’s SUICIDE SQUAD: KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE widely panned as being exceptionally unexceptional? Didn’t they spend over five years developing it? Didn’t it cost $200 million dollars to produce?“

Yes it was, yes they did, and yes that’s a fuckton of sunk cost. KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE turned into a debacle. What should have been a tight epic single-player anti-villain action/adventurer of the kind that acclaimed studio Rocksteady is — well, was — known for became an always-online mostly-multiplayer shooter, battle pass and all.

Adding insult to injury, the initial four playable Suicide Squad characters — Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, King Shark, and HARLEY FUCKING QUINN — were all shoehorned into adopting aerial traversal and combat modes, despite the fact that none of them are known for flight.

This is a project that should have been canceled years ago, when it was clear that it didn’t even have a 30 seconds of fun gameplay loop that can help sustain mindless looter-shooters.

However, I still bought it. I was one of the suckers that paid full price for it even after reading the lackluster reviews. I was restless, wanted something that was mindless and thrumming but didn’t want to dive back into DESTINY 2.

Also, it featured Harley Fucking Quinn and what was I to do? Not buy it?

The first few hours show some promise: banter between the squad members is just a sharp and precise as the controls. The sprawl of alien-occupied Metropolis is visually striking, often bright-and-sunny despite the husks of people littering the city. Supes, Bats, Wonder Woman, Harles, Boomer, everyone is gloriously detailed and supremely expressive — especially Diana — when they could have easily hand-waved that need away, focusing solely on costumes to carry the personas instead of smirks, smiles, grease, glowering and shrinking.

Unfortunately, as time passes the veneer grows tarnished:

  • The ‘travel to X and kill Y aliens solely using Z abilities’ mission loops quickly feel more like chores. Many features — such as leveling and weapon management — are so opaque to the point where you can easily waste a few hours effort.
  • Months later, the game still features a number of shockingly messy bugs; halfway through, the supplemental world and character building codex still repeatedly locks and unlocks entries.
  • More than a few times, enemies would either refuse to continue spawning, or the last enemy required to clear a mission would simply disappear. Not a big problem with you’re engaging in a five-minute clean-and-sweep, but a huge issue when you’re slogging through one of the later 30-min missions.

Is it playable? Sure, it ticks most of the boxes. You press buttons, your character reacts, and the world around them reacts in kind. Is it enjoyable? Not particularly.

So, why did I bother to play through the story campaign? There are the usual suspects: 1) I am the sum of many, many poor life decisions and this is yet another. 2) After investing roughly 10% of the energy required to finish reading/watching/playing a work, I feel compelled to finish what I have started. 3) Harley Fucking Quinn. All three of those certainly play a factor.

However, the primary reason why I persisted? It’s because — paradoxically for a live-service game — they did not skimp on the script.

SUICIDE SQUAD: KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE feels like a full-blown summertime comic book crossover event, the kind that DC pioneered with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. The stakes are astronomical and touch on all of the major facets of the DC world. Metropolis becomes a bombed out husk of a city. Heavy-hitting characters are killed off. This is some end-of-the-fictional-mulitverse shit.

(It is worth noting that a few months after KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE was released, DC embarked on the Superman ‘House of Brainiac’ crossover event. Brainiac has a major role in KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGE, and ‘House of Brainiac’ is the precursor to the next crossover ‘Absolute Power’ and it features Suicide Squad’s Amanda Waller. Make of that what you will.)

The script works. The story is thrilling but also maintains a soulful gravitas, regardless of how many puerile quips Captain Boomerang flings. Wonder Woman’s frustration with the Suicide Squad while attempting to reign in the increasingly possessed members of the Justice League has heft. King Shark’s daddy issues and need to belong occasionally bubbles through his humorous literally minded look at the world.

And Harley?

It would have been easy to treat Harley the way most games and many comics have: sideline the pathos and trauma and smarts and dissonance in favor of cavalier, nihilist jokes and pining over Mistah J. Thankfully, KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE spends more time with her nuances and historyl.

While the enlisted Suicide Squad members have their own vendettas to settle with the Justice League kill list, Harley’s beef with Batman is far more fraught than say, Boomerang being eclipsed by The Flash. Batman’s presence and actions have impacted her life both directly and indirectly, especially his singular role of maintaining — and sustaining — Arkham Asylum, Harleen Quinzel’s professional residence.

If it weren’t for Batman, Harley would probably still be Harleen.

KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE doesn’t play Harley’s conflict with Batman as mindless vengeance or wish-fulfillment. It’s complicated and she treats it that way because she’s fucking smart while also realizes her struggles with identity and history and self-improvement. Here’s a depiction of Harley that is surprisingly thoughtful; an unexpected approach to a character who is frequently ill-treated.

(I will note that Joker is a playable character in the game’s first season. Perhaps it handled matters with Harley as intelligently, but I didn’t want to find out.)

Yes, KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE is a live-service game that no one was asking for. It’s a messy patchwork of gaming fads and ill-advised boardroom decisions. Despite that, there are genuinely thrilling and engrossing moments buried in the campaign. You can catch glimpses of what kind of game it might have become if it weren’t saddled with the mandate to become the next ‘forever game’. While it’s doubtful that KILL THE JUSTICE LEAGUE will ever be anyone’s favorite game, it is a qualified recommendation as a game for a rainy Sunday.

HARLEY QUINN: REDEMPTION (2024)

June 17, 2024

Spoiler Alert

This post contains spoilers for HARLEY QUINN: RECKONING and HARLEY QUINN: RAVENOUS.

HARLEY QUINN: REDEMPTION is the final novel in Rachael Allen’s DC Icons Harley Quinn trilogy, wrapping up Harley’s arc from Harleen Quinzel — a curious and brazen student of science — to Harley Quinn — a brilliantly anarchic and transformed student of both science and law-breaking and violence, all for her perceived notion of aiding others.

REDEMPTION kicks off with Harley on summer vacation at Ivy’s parents overly spacious home. Harley’s single-mindedly trying to cobble together an intimacy solution to prevent Ivy’s lips from killing Harley upon contact. Is it going well?

No, it is not going well. Failure upon failure.

On top of that frustration, her prior Reckoning partners have abandoned her and she’s getting daily creepy stalker missives from an unknown person, each note accompanied by a heavily altered doll.

Harley, with Ivy by her side, piece together that the sender of these disturbing packages is abducting youths and young women from the streets and the dolls Harley receives? Each are small facsimiles of how he sculpts each victim or, as he — often referred to as The Dollmaker — sees it, transforming them and bringing them to a higher aesthetic and physical plane by bending, warping, appending and removing facets of their body.

(For those familiar with Batman lore, yes, there have been a number of iterations on The Dollmaker, although none who match the very specific kind of self-perceived physical abuse that he enacts.)

The Dollmaker is partnered up with the Mad Hatter — a mainstay of Batman’s lineup of villains — who requests that The Dollmaker occasionally shape one of the abducted into an ‘Alice’ and hand them off to him. Unfortunately, often The Dollmaker’s Alices don’t always match Hatter’s tea party expectations, resulting in the need for a new Alice.

To keep their victims placated, The Dollmaker and Hatter utilize an improved iteration over the inferior mind-altering chips they handed off to Scarecrow in REDEMPTION. These chips last longer and allows for them to mentally mould their victims to their whims and desires, which essentially means making them subservient and as happy with their new twisted and weaponized bodies as possible.

Harley becomes ever-increasingly embroiled in The Dollmaker and Hatter’s activities and that’s when REDEMPTION pivots to something far darker than explored in the prior two novels. Bodies are chipped and ground away and turned into something both inhuman and super-human, the latter for the benefit of crime bosses and governments who want some additional protection. Or just a novelty to show off at galas.

Even for this trilogy, The Dollmaker’s ‘artistic endeavors’ are cruelly outlandish and upsetting, although it ultimately works against him in ways that I will not spoil, in ways that underscore the trilogy’s overall message of women turning the tables on the abuse that men inflict.

It’s not all body horror and torture, however. As Harley often does, she imparts herself on friends new and old, and builds and rebuilds a found family and support network. Harles and Ives go to pride! King Shark wears a shark costume! Fun is had and cotton candy is consumed!

If anything, Harley is too exuberant and bubbly. (I didn’t know such a thing was possible.) She banters around the term ‘love language’ quite a bit. She is exponentially more elated at the slightest bit of physical or emotional shiny she comes across than the prior two novels. While Harley is always a bit much, here her gushing and wide-eyed wonder at the world occasionally comes across as a titch too much, even for her. I kept waiting for someone to ask if she’d take it down a notch — even a resigned ‘Harrrrleey’ utterance from Ivy — but no dice.

Allen dedicates REDEMPTION “To everyone who loves Harley Quinn and sees a piece of themselves in her.”

It’s clear, even from the beginning of the trilogy, that Allen knows how Harley has resonated with so many, even to those like myself that don’t exactly fit the Harley mould. Allen also deftly excises the more fraught, subservient and coercive facets of what normally constitutes Harley’s history, making her even more of an inspirational figure without sandpapering over Harley’s impetuous and occasional blinkered flaws.

As I mentioned in my write-up of RECKONING — the beginning of the trilogy — there are many different Harleys. Allen’s Harley can be inspiration. Her Harley is a tale of a lower-class misfit who has lived through and endured a lot of lows and abuse in her life. Despite that, Harley is smart and is determined to be herself, to push herself further and help people in need when she can, of aiding those taken advantage of, of those who are abused, of exacting vengeance on those who abuse their power and mentally or physically tear others down.

This trilogy is part of the DC Icons series, a young adult imprint of Penguin Books. Each work examines popular DC characters when they were teens. That’s… seemingly all that exists of the DC Icons mission statement. It’s questionable whether it exists as an entryway to comic book for teens who eschew the funny pages which, given the wide financial disparity between how much the movies gross and how low actual DC comic books sell, might not be the worst idea. Especially since some of them are New York Times bestsellers.

It also helps that Harley’s mercurial, impetuous, extremely emotional nature mirrors life as a teen, and because the world is harsh and people are cruel, and it is hard to go through life without putting yourself in danger and Harley is all about reckoning with these dangers.

(Worth noting is Allen’s series isn’t even the only YA Harley work out there, as there’s also Mariko Tamaki’s HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS which examines a different youthful life for Harleen.)

For those whose first encounter with Harley are these books — I know, that’s highly unlikely but bear with me — I can’t help but wonder the rude awakening one might have upon reading some of the earlier solo works, Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti iconic run, or newer flights-of-fancy such as HARLEY QUINN: BLACK & WHITE & RED, the multiverse tales of Harleys, or even going way back to the source BATMAN: THE ANIMATED episodes as well as MAD LOVE.

I can’t help but think it’d be a rude awakening to go from the very queer, very scholastically and scientifically minded Harley, someone who has a staunch sense of morality, someone who is very, very queer, to then see her constantly shackled and emotionally abused and toyed with by the Joker; to experience a Harley with an extremely cavalier disposition towards maiming and murder and mayhem and meta-commentary, not to mention often serving as eye candy in the worst ways that comics can be.

Oddly, HARLEY QUINN: THE ANIMATED SERIES comes closest to the young Harley & Company portrayed in Allen’s trilogy, and while swearing and sexual content are absent from those novels, every minute of Harley’s animated work is crammed full of heart-warming filth.

All of my question and speculations are besides the point. I will set those aside and simply state that REDEMPTION is propulsive, thrilling, heartfelt, inventively unsettling, and perfectly brings the arc from Harleen to Harley, from orphan to having a found family, of growing and learning while leaning into her strengths and being aware of her weaknesses.

Regardless of whether it’s your first Harley-go-round or hundredth, Allen succinctly weaves the totality of Harleen and Harley’s experiences and growth — even if they don’t match with what one may have previously read — this Harley is one to aspire to.

HARLEY QUINN – RAVENOUS (2023)

June 10, 2024

Spoiler Warning

Please note that this post contains spoilers for the first book in this series, HARLEY QUINN: RECKONING.

Where Rachael Allen’s HARLEY QUINN: RECKONING (RECKONING from here on out) deals with Harleen’s gap year of science and super-villain study, Allen’s HARLEY QUINN: RECKONING — the second of three in the DC Icons young adult Harley Quinn series of novels — sees Harleen attempting to settle into life as a freshman at Gotham University or, as colloquially referred to, Gotham U.

With her mother dying when Harleen was young, her father murdered due to some poor withdrawals from mobster loan sharks, Harleen is officially an orphan. Her ex has took the fall for The Reckoning’s antics, and due to Harleen wanting to focus on studies instead of blowing shit up, the other two members have turned their backs to her.

While Harleen has a free-ride scholarship thanks to the paper scrutinizing the Joker and elevated levels of trauma-induced modifications to the Super-Villain gene, she still has to worry about financial matters like non-food hall sustenance and sorority dues while still juggling classes and labs.

Those with any prior knowledge of Batman lore, especially regarding one Dr. Crane and Talia ah Ghul. Talia is delightfully integrated, especially given how Harley comes to see her as a mentor. Those who aware of these characters will quickly recognize where the novel is going, but watching Harleen piece matters together and pick her bat up again is just as thrilling as if you have no knowledge of Gotham villains.

Again, if you’re even vaguely familiar with Batman’s motley number of popular villains, you’ll quickly suss out that RAVENOUS centers around Scarecrow, and part of the plot includes ‘chipping’ victims to make them more pliant.

If you are a fan of Harleen’s gymnastic skills — especially the beam and bars — Allen doubles down on Harleen’s agility and how she utilizes them in the wild.

For those looking for some Harlivy, well, the seed of their romance is planted here — sorry, not sorry — as Harleen and Pamela Isley become fast-friends and they divulge some of their deepest secrets.

While, yes, yet again the Joker makes an appearance, he’s mostly backgrounded apart from one moment, but Allen dodges the bulk of his canonical abuse and coercion.

The following could potentially be construed as a slight spoiler for RAVENOUS, so only expand it if you have fear no spoilers.

Spoiler

RECKONING does tackle the metamorphosis of Harleen from Harley via the same Joker chemical bath, however it does differ in that Harleen takes the plunge outside of the realm of the Joker and falls of her own volition. (Also see: HARLEY QUINN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – ‘Being Harley Quinn’.)

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As usual, Allen’s prose is crisp and clean and propulsive, peppered with her wide scientific knowledge. While there were a handful of visual design elements in RECKONING, RAVENOUS features even more forms, clipboards, diagrams and handwritten elements which may sound dry but vividly heighten the work. RAVENOUS also temporally jumps around a bit more, and chapters are centered more along the lines of Harleen/Harley traversing Gotham U, Arkham Asylum and Arkham Acres; Gotham in general, clarifying matters.

If you have any interest in Harley Quinn you should read RECKONING, however! RAVENOUS does an exceptional job of succinctly weaving in the events of RECKONING so — if you just want to jump into the DC Icons and see how they handle Harleen’s future as Harley — you can do so with ease.

Like with RECKONING, while this is technically a young adult book, it is an electrifying read, one that I burned through in a day and a half. I’m a tad hesitant to see where REDEMPTION — the third and final novel in Allen’s Harley Quinn trilogy — goes, but I do feel confident that with Rachael Allen? I’m in good hands.

“I choose me.”

HARLEY QUINN – RECKONING (2022)

June 3, 2024

CONTENT WARNING

The following discusses abuse, coercion and trauma.

There are so many Harleys.

So many.

Not just in the comics. Novels. Film. TV.

This is only a sampling of Harleys: BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES Harley! (Obviously, the first Harley!) Cathy Yan’s BIRDS OF PREY Harley! Kelly Thompson’s BIRDS OF PREY Harley! Old Lady Harley! A whole buncha terrible videogame Harleys! Even more animated Harleys! That fucking awful Harley in David Ayer’s SUICIDE SQUAD that only worked because of Margot Fuckin’ Robbie! James Gunn’s THE SUICIDE SQUAD Harley! GOTHAM CITY SIRENS Harley! Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti’s Harley! DC Rebirth Harley! All of the MAD LOVE Harleys! The young Harleen in BREAKING GLASS! The current Tini Howard Harley! The Harleen/Harley in this trilogy of books!

So many Harleys!

As I’ve repeatedly said? I will never, ever shut up about Harley Fuckin’ Quinn.

Harleen Quinzell and Harley Quinn represent so much and so many terrible outcomes. The coercion. The abuse. The trauma. Not just by the Joker, but often by her parents and others.

Also? She represents the folks who are smart but went wayward. She represents the anger against abusers. She represents folks trying to repair themselves. She represents pushing through and attempting to be a better person, even though she — and you — will often fuck up along the way.

She means so much to so many because while most comic book characters are power fantasies? She has no super-powers. She is someone who is muscling through all of her issues and is fucking pissed off and so goddamn strong and trying to make the best of her life.

This is exactly why I empathize with her, a fictional character in a wildly stupid comic book universe.

This is also why so many others love Harley. She’s multi-faceted; she’s had so many iterations — hell, I even wrote a four-issue series about her encountering all versions of herself! (I shelved it because after I wrote it? The monthly Harley Quinn comic did a multi-verse Harley arc. It’s not even close to what I penned; mine was brutally emotional and probably unpublishable but whatever.)

The moment I saw the ‘Being Harley Quinn’ episode of HARLEY QUINN: THE ANIMATED SERIES? Where she realized she leapt into the acid of her own volition? That she did so to please ‘Mistah J’? That she told herself for years that she was pushed by him? That it was her origin story? That shook me to my core. (I also identify way too much with Harley disassociating, which also sucks!)

I am not proud of that! But it did!

That’s my Harley. I’ve lived through versions of all of that. (And yes, plural.) I hated it. I have never really understood why I accepted all of the abuse and bullshit but Harley didn’t either and she found a way through via a support network, and I am trying to do the same.

While there are many Harleys, these are the fundamentals:

1) She has ADHD.

2) She is extraordinarily physical and loves to throw herself around.

3) She is extremely smart.

4) Being smart didn’t prevent her from being coerced and transformed from Harleen Quinzel to Harley Quinn.

5) She is queer as fuck.

6) She is a product of trauma.

7) She managed to work through her trauma.

8) She is a survivor. 1

9) She is extremely gregarious.

10) She has a flair for argyle patterns.

I am not Harley. I am not fun like Harley. I have a lot of issues, but ADHD? Nope. Also? Not gregarious! I’m a fucking introvert!

Everything else? It tracks, although I’m still working out my trauma issues and I am not sure that I am as smart as she is.

Item #2 to me is paramount. Yeah, Jason Todd was an acrobat and all, so that dovetails with all of this shit, but you know what? I fucking loved gym. I was game for any and everything. I loved tumbling; I loved the pommel horse; I loved the beam.

But what I really loved?

The fucking uneven bars.

I have said — probably to a sickening amount — that I love to throw myself around.

Well, you can’t throw yourself around more than on the uneven bars.

I love that Rachael Allen’s Harley Quinn novel RECKONING — technically a young adult novel, but I found pleasing despite not being a young adult — puts a pin in Harley as being a beam person because? The way she throws her way around? The way Rachael Allen pens her? It’s the same sort of feeling, that sort of balance and elation and abandon and self-confidence.

Fuck. I’m telling this all wrong.

RECKONING is about Harleen, not Harley. Harleen is eighteen years old and in her gap year and enrolled in an advanced STEM college course and not acid-bathed. (It is worth noting that Rachael Allen’s day job? A scientist. She knows her shit.)

Harleen is surrounded by abuse, and as she is want to do, wants to absolutely rectify matters and go to town on them, along with a few friends who also want to dole out some punishment and light terrorism. The name of their vigilante crew? The Reckoning.

Also? Harleen falls in love — albeit not with Pamela Isley. It’s a very succinct, clearly penned thrill-ride that goes down easy without being pandering. It also fleshes out Harleen, whose pre-Harley life is often ignored or simply glossed over!

I will note that the Joker does make an appearance, and Harleen immediately feels a magnetism towards him which… yeah, but still sucks.

Also? It features a cover by the so very awesome Jen Bartel!

Sidebar: If you haven’t seen the collegiate women vigilante canceled-too-soon TV series SWEET/VICIOUS? Read RECKONING and watch SWEET/VICIOUS in tandem and get back to me.

Joker aside, it is a great read and a terrific set-up for the next two books filling out the trilogy. If you are a Harleen/Harley fan, it is a necessary read.

You can purchase HARLEY QUINN: RECKONING via Bookshop.org!

Notes

1 I do not like the term ‘survivor’, despite having it ascribed to me more than a few times. In my opinion? You’re never a survivor. You simply persist to live. I do not feel like I’ve survived jack-fucking-shit. Like Harley? I feel like I’ve died several times over. Hell, I should have. Nonetheless, I’m still here motherfuckers.

HARLEY QUINN: THE ANIMATED SERIES – Season Four (2023)

May 8, 2024

As always, I will never, ever shut up about Harley Fuckin’ Quinn.

Historically, fourth seasons of shows are lackluster; the writers are often running on fumes and have done all they set out to do. Producers either bring in new blood or the show gets canceled. The best example of this is probably ANGEL whose fourth season was abusive and very problematic and, from a writerly or viewer perspective, very fucking boring and insulting. However the fifth (and final) season was fucking gangbusters, partially due to the smart and comedic injection from THE TICK’s Ben Edlund. (Yes, I do have a Puppet Time Angel puppet.)

This is not the case with HARLEY QUINN: THE ANIMATED SERIES.

Look: I love every season of this show. I endlessly rewatch it; probably too much. It has been one of the most affecting shows I’ve seen in years, and I realize that’s incredibly embarrassing to say about a show that has its roots in a Joker sidekick dressed like a clown.

(I’ll note that, after she quit the traditional harlequin get-up, I’ve never thought of her as looking clown-ish — especially in THE SUICIDE SQUAD — but I am goth and routinely paint my face and have an actual Harley BIRDS OF PREY armband tattoo on my right arm, so who am I to say?)

That said, my favorites are the first season and the Valentines Day special (which I will now only refer to the V-Day special) which bridges the third and fourth season. As I’ve previously posted, one episode from the first season moved me so much that, thanks to my wife, I have a watercolor recreation of a scene. I love the V-Day episode because it’s so honest and heartfelt and they really lean in on the ancillary characters while also paying tribute to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY which …is something I never expected to type.

The fourth season is incredible. It is one hell of a wildly high-concept swing that also manages to weave so many emotions and romantic interactions between Harley and Ivy, while also conveying the push-and-pull and combativeness that comes with relationships.

It is so tightly plotted!

Also, Harles and Ives go to the fucking moon!

NORA FREEZE: “Shit, I hope the clouds don’t have a gag reflex!”

I swear, Nora is the most underrated character on this show. She is the fucking hedonistic worst and — like everyone on this show, so fucking trauma-laden — which also means? I fucking love her!

They also recreate Michelangelo’s iconic Pieta. I will not spoil how.

And the rapport between Harley and Batgirl, and Batgirl’s neediness? So hilariously sweaty.

OH! And Ivy as — as Lex Luthor puts it — is now a ‘she-e-o’! The writers know how to advance their characters while never losing track of the spirit of the show.

The in-jokes are amazing but never get in the way of the story, and I am positive I missed a number of them just because I haven’t been reading many mainstream comics as of late.

Oh, and not to spoil matters but Harley finds a moral equilibrium. As Amanda Conner put it when interviewed about her BIRDS OF PREY work: Harley is an anti-villain, which I think just about every misfit can identify with.

One minor hint as to where season five — as apparently there will be a season five — will go: Gotham City Sirens! Personally I wish it were the Gang of Harleys but I’ll take what I can get.

I implore you to watch this fucking show. It’s heartfelt, it’s hilarious, it’s smutty, it’s kind; it is the total package and I cannot fucking wait for the fifth season.

HARLEY: “Strap yourself in for more sex, more drama, and more Bane! …being Bane.

“And also? More Harlivy! Like, a lot more because you weirdos are kinda obsessed with us.

“Anyway! Love ya! Byeee!”

(I love the ‘Anyway’ tag, because? Well, I don’t want to further spoil matters, but that is definitely a nod to a Bane exchange in the V-Day special.)

RIDDLER: “…does anyone know that?”

BANE: “They do now!”

HARLEY: “Jugs out! Rugs out!”

Goddamn myself and this show are two hella pieces of filth.

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY (2021)

April 15, 2024

As in typical Harley fashion: I’m unintentionally reading these works all out-of-order. Also, a reminder: I will never, ever shut up about Harley Fuckin’ Quinn, even if the work is mostly Poison Ivy-centric.

I certainly should have read this before I read G. Willow Wilson’s current POISON IVY run, as there’s a lot that dovetails and reflects on it.

There’s a lot of dissonance, a lot of loss, a lot of weird shit, and a lot of frustration and anger.

However, almost all of that is via Ives.

Harley is a reactionary, bolstering voice here. This is Ivy’s tale, and it’s a messy one and has her reckoning with her past and Harley trying to back her up, but …not exactly able to do so.

What makes Harley & Ivy’s relationship special and significant — especially in the world of mainstream ‘superhero’ comics — is that they fundamentally understand each other. Both have been victims, mentally and physically changed by their abuser. Those changes exacerbated their features and, at times? Harles and Ives are like oil and water, and that is the case here.

Ivy is hellbent on revenge, not just on Floronic Man/Jason Woodrue — the monster who mutated her — but humanity in general. Harley is trying to repent for her prior ways and being a better person for humanity.

Like I said: oil and water.

Harley mostly rolls with Ivy’s plan because she’s ride-or-die, but the relationship is often discordant.

Jody Houser’s script is cutting and dodges when I thought it would weave — there’s one reveal later on in that made me question, well, everything — and the artwork, mostly via Adriana Melo (except when it isn’t) is strikingly focused on close-ups of everyone’s faces and reactions, giving an almost Ingmar Bergman type of intimacy.

As Ivy would like? This series is her world, and we’re just about to be torn asunder.

HARLEY QUINN: A VERY PROBLEMATIC VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL (2023) [REDUX]

February 14, 2024

“Who is pumped for the best VD EVER?!

“I mean, ugh, you know what I meant.”

(Phrasing, Harley.)

Look. I love romantic works. Yeah, I know. I’m weird for …someone who is who I am. I have literally penned more than a few very fucking queer romance novels and screenplays. Maybe someday you’ll read one of ’em? (I’ll warn you? It often doesn’t end well! I’ve been through some shit and if I have to? So do my characters!)

Consequently? Yeah, I’m totally reposting this amazing special focusing mostly on Harley and Ivy — colloquially known as Harlivy — because? Well, because it’s fucking Valentine’s Day and it’s adorable and I love it and they are so fucking good for each other and, while they have their issues, they’re the best match and I cannot get enough of that.

I’ve rewatched this so many times. If I remembered to count, I’d probably be embarrassed, but I stopped counting so fuck it!

It is an absolute delight. (Except for the weird Clayface assplay? Not really sure what’s up with that but that’s what ‘skip forward’ is for!)

(Also? I may or may not have rewatched it halfway through penning this post.)

So, yes, here we are, here’s my take on HARLEY QUINN: A VERY PROBLEMATIC VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL .

Also? I love Ivy’s hair here! And I love how the illustrators don’t use the same staple buxom body type for women! And I love that Ivy actually dressed up instead of wearing her bingin’ sweats! The end is so heartfelt and poignant, with Ivy’s reveal about her best Valentine’s Day ever!

Harley: “…yeah, I think the orgasm matters.”

Ivy: “Yeah, I didn’t totally buy that either when I said it, but I needed like a third example for the structure of the speech so…”

Goddamn this show is so much fun and so smart while also being so enjoyably and non-judgmentally smutty! Just fucking watch it already! Happy VD, everyone!!

HARLEY QUINN: A VERY PROBLEMATIC VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL (2023)

Also, I may have rewatched it again. No, I definitely did, and I will not apologize for my streaming actions!

POISON IVY – Unethical Consumption (2023)

January 22, 2024

I already wrote about G. Willow Wilson’s first bout on POISON IVY and while I loved it, Unethical Consumption takes matters further in a way that has turned me into a ride-or-die fan.

What Wilson gets about IVY is that she is so fucking pissed at the world — rightfully so, as well, we keep mindlessly exploiting all of its resources — but she still has an inexplicable empathetic core for humanity, and others can see the good in her, but she’s also so singularly focused on herself.

However! She’s still willing to murder anyone who gets in her way, and also wants to commit global genocide.

Yes, she is the actual villain in her own story. A complex villain, for sure, but still? Yeah.

While so much is that comes from her trauma, of trusting someone who then abused them and literally tore their humanity away from them — a facet of her character that Wilson doubles-down on and I very much appreciate — she is not what one would call a ‘good person’.

Obviously, this is why she and Harley Fuckin’ Quinn fit so well together. Harley? She’s an anti-villain. Ivy? Anti-hero. They both realize their own faults and they keep each other in-check, and Wilson leans heavily on that here as Harley manages to seek out Ivy on her road trip, then leaves Ivy to do what she needs to do. Harley is Ivy’s anchor, but they’re still independent people.

I especially love this bit of reflection from Ivy on Harley:

“More than anyone I know, you see the world without judgement, without expectations, without fear.

“Things that would drive other people mad, you just … take in your stride.

“Delirium doesn’t scare you.

“You can see the world behind the world.

“And you were right.

“I didn’t need to be so afraid.”

Now that is true appreciation and respect from a devoted partner, and I love to see it.

And then of course Ivy fucks her odd roommate Janet — who I’m sure is far more than the basic person presented — stating:

“Harley would understand.”

It’s clear that this isn’t just a hookup for Ivy; it’s a mistake.

(I’m still not sure whether Harley being poly is canon? I’ve just assumed she was. Is Ivy? I have no fucking idea, but I’m going along with whatever Wilson is sellin’!)

JANET: “Be a monster. Embrace the monster. But be a monster who gets between innocent people and the even bigger monsters.”

I can’t help but think of Carmen Maria Machado’s remarks regarding JENNIFER’S BODY:

“Kiss someone, fuck someone, think about fucking someone while kissing someone else. Let sex be unknowable, warm, thrilling, funny, erotic, terrifying; let sexuality be all strange currents and eddies and unknown vistas and treasures and teeth.”

Carmen Maria Machado

As with the previous volume The Virtuous Cycle, this is an absolutely fucking gorgeous work. Marcio Takara’s intricate pencils and inks are mesmerizing, even if half of it features Ivy puking. (I say that as someone who would like to go one week without reading/watching/playing something that didn’t feature vomit.)

IVY: “I’m pretty good at recognizing things I know I will regret later.

“I’m much less good at stopping myself from doing them.”

Arif Prianto’s colors are so goddamn vibrant and command attention! And Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou? Holy shit, their lettering is so inspired, especially during the drug trip that Ivy and Janet undertake which leads to one hell of an unbridled orgy. (Yes. That is a thing that happens and I do not apologize for spoiling it.)

IVY: “I can’t violate her like that. I know what it feels like, and I can’t.”

JANET: “So we all have to live with the consequences of her bad decision?!”

IVY: “NO. We all have to live with mine.”

This series is an embarrassment of riches, a complex and thorny work, and I am absolutely here for it and I can’t wait for what’s to come.

You can buy POISON IVY – Unethical Consumption via Bookshop!

HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS (2019)

November 6, 2023

I’ve touched on this in prior posts about Harley Fuckin’ Quinn — as I will never, ever shut up about Harley Fuckin’ Quinn — but I refuse to read or watch or listen to works that involve her in a relationship with the Joker.

It’s a coercion/abuse thing. My Harley — because there are many different Harleys because she is nothing but mercurial and has had many writers — has (mostly) moved beyond that. Read into that as you will.

As usual, I picked up HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS — penned by Mariko Tamaki (SKIM, THIS ONE SUMMER) with art by Steve Pugh (ANIMAL MAN, HELLBLAZER) — without knowing jackshit about it. It was about Harley and it looked like fun.

I didn’t realize it was considered part of DC’s non-canon young adults imprint which, uh, is boringly named ‘DC: Graphic Novels for Young Adults’. That said, it’s more adult than a number of ‘mature’ comics I’ve read. Also, probably something that if it were on more garbage folks radars, it would probably be banned due to Harleen/Harley being part of a queer found family.

BREAKING GLASS is a twisted fairy tale-ish take on an alternate Harleen/Harley’s teen years (hence the YA label). She was sent by her mother to Gotham City to live with her grandmother because, well Harleen doesn’t take shit and we’ll leave it at that.

(Not-so-brief note: I will be switching between Harleen/Harley to match the use in the book as the best that I can. As someone who did draw a line in the sand at a certain point in my life as to which name I would utilize, most Harley-centric works don’t have to juggle that, so I appreciate that Tamaki respects that and I will as well.)

Harleen found her way to the address of her grandmother’s house, only to discover that her grandmother had died, but had been overseen by the minder of the building called Mama, an older queer who oversees a number of misfits. Gotham City’s YA take on TALES OF THE CITY, if you will.

“And yes indeed, our happy heroine Harleen was happy as a kitten on a radiator.

“She had everything she needed.”

Mama takes Harleen in and Harleen starts attending high school with a bunch of — to use her phrase — boogers, boogers that disgust her because “boogers will always act like boogers.” As Harleen is prone to do here, she acts out, and gets punished for pushing against the bullies and jerks — I mean boogers — of her high school.

However, she does find solace in Mama’s queer community, as well as one fellow student: Ivy, a vegan, anti-establishment activist, and the two form a fast, if somewhat combative bond. Harley learns from her, she grows, she tries to do better and to do more and to be more supportive. (There’s nothing more Harley than her trying to grow from terrible situations, even if she consistently fucks up.)

Eventually, due to her urban reactionary behavior, she’s eventually spotted by ‘The Joker’, basically a similarly ostracized youth who has managed to wrangle a bunch of other youths to do slight terrorist actions to Gotham.

(I will note: his face is not physically altered like in the canon. He wears a mask that exaggerates the already exaggerated canonical Joker look.)

Matters escalate in the way that teen dramas do, and it’s quite fulfilling. This is a fully realized work, from the framing device of Harleen’s scattered fairy tale rendition to the exacting dialogue, to Pugh’s amazing command of color depending on Harleen/Harley’s situation, often only utilizing primary colors, and explode into vibrancy when her emotions rise.

Like all of the best young adult works it transcends ages. If I had nieces? I would totally hand a copy to them. (Not that I wouldn’t hand it off to nephews, but I know my nephews and haven’t handed off a copy.) Harley isn’t exactly the best role model but Ivy is and Harleen is improved by being in her orbit and simply listening to her.

While this isn’t the cavalier Harley of Conner/Palmiotti, it is a great take on the character and an extraordinarily well-executed and well-plotted and well-penned and dynamically illustrated and vividly colored work that deserves all of the eyeballs.

I mean, come on! Just look at that cover! I endlessly return to it because it’s so engaging and encapsulates all that’s Harley! It’s worth picking up solely for that print!

You can purchase HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS via bookshop.org!