Retro Review: Harley Quinn #21 Hell and Highwater!

August 2002
Writer: Karl Kesel
Cover: Terry & Rachel Dodson
Art: Brandon Badeaux
Inks: Dan Davis
Colours: Guy Major

When we last left off, Harley found out she was literally in Hell alongside some former partners and after a few failed attempts of reasoning with the powers of the underworld, decided to bust out.

This issue brings a new card into play - Ulysses Highwater - a damned bounty hunter, who we see chasing down a bank robber seemingly intent on not just getting his man, but also finding out information on a certain Nathan Drumm. His current prey can't help him but when Ulysses is summoned to see Etrigan - rhyming demon of hell - in order to capture Harley Quinn and her gang... Ulysses wonders if she might know.

Without a doubt one of the best wanted posters I've ever seen!

Speak of the devil - Harley and her gang isn't doing too bad - stealing a tank, and running down Pettit (no doubt revenge for the knee capping from earlier!) with a satisfying 'sklonjtch' noise.
Eventually they get cornered, but keep going and smash through a gate and into a hidden metahuman containment facility.

Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #1

Commitment to Chaos

During a run-in with a villainous crime syndicate, Wonder Woman learns about a hit list whose biggest target is a familiar name – Harley Quinn! Can the Champion of Paradise Island track down the Clown Princess of Crime before it’s too late?

Writers: Conner/Palmiotti
Artist: Miranda

Colours: Hi-Fi

April 2020

There's not a lot of variation in these two covers, Wonder Woman looking "off-screen" at whatever threat she's countering. Harley Quinn acting tough behind her, and in BOTH covers manages to make direct eye contact with the reader. I'm not the biggest fan of Conner's artwork.. but good gravy it looks like something from the Louvre next to the horrible body shapes and contortions that the variant gives us. What happened to variant Diana's shoulder and stomach?? Why are variant Harley's boobs looming like visions of doom from the future.... larger than life and certainly larger than her head! 

I first became aware of this comic from the Wonder Woman fan page on Facebook, and the majority of comments were "Why is Harley here? She's way over-saturated" which  is true, she really is. Combined with the fact that both the former writers and artist hail from the Harley Quinn solo series, there is not a doubt in my mind that Wonder Woman is going to get sidelined in her own series. 

The last time these two got involved it was like a really weird fan fiction where not only was Wonder Woman sidelined, but she was really out of character for the sake of having her team up with the Brooklyn Babbler. 

Well, I'm wearing my Wonder Woman shirt.. let's see if this issue is at least better than that time. 

Opening on Wonder Woman wandering through some city - we get some exposition about buildings collapsing randomly followed by some real estate fraud but it doesn't say where she is. I haven't kept up as late with the current Wonder Woman but she used to be based around Washington DC either for her museum or Dept. of Metahuman affairs, New York for her embassy or Boston for her agency.. 

I guess we're in generic USA City. Wonder Woman looks a bit like a strung out supermodel and because it wouldn't be a Conner/Palmiotti book without it, there's obligatory scenes of both gushing fan girls and authoritarian-stereotypical tough guys for the heroine to beat up. 

Suicide Squad New52 #20

Hello, Harley people!

This blog is going to be about, well, Suicide Squad #20. Duh, pay attention. Now, I did a review of this one aaaaaages ago, so here's a link if you'd like to read it in full. Otherwise, there'll be snippets of what I thought were apt or witty thoughts about it. These'll be in a different colour to the rest of the body, so if my paragraphing doesn't make sense... Y'know. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

It's important to note that from this issue and moving forward, the series had a new writer in Ales Kot. As you'd know from previous reviews, I had a few issues with Adam Glass' writing for this series. I'm not entirely blaming him for this dank ass series but he definitely had a major hand in it.
So, it's been a while. Was Kot any better? Let's find out.

July 2013
"Discipline and Punishment Pt 1 of 2"
Writer: Ales Kot
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Colours: Jason Keith

Y'know, I used to review these all the time before it became way too hard - it's a whole new level trying to type something when your arms keep getting thrown up in the air and my typist left because she thought I was swearing at her when I read this stuff. However, now there's a new brain-head doing the series I thought I'd give it another go.


The cover art here shows some wannabe flesh, a sad little skeleton still holding on to the freaking grenade. There are times in life where it pays to drop the ball. Or pear shaped object with a pin.
Around Skeletor is little photos of the Squad, in case we forget who they are. For a 'secret' team, there sure is a lot of this photo stuff going on. That's a problem for another day. Me? I can't get past Hardly Quinn's ugly piggy nose and the fact that Deadshot looks like a scrapped plan for a robot in a third rate sci-fi show.

Now as well as a new writer, we also have some new characters. We met the Unknown Soldier last issue but there's also new inmates (or inmates we didn't previously have the budget to see) as well as Waller's new minion. Waller is going all out, as she also has a plan to break in the current Squad because it took about 20 issues for her to realise that this Squad is useless.

Plastic Man #3 - with Harley Quinn!

Under the Cover of Darkness
#3 of 6
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Adriana Melo
Oct 2018

I haven't exactly kept my finger on the DC pulse lately so I wasn't aware that Gail Simone was penning a 6 issue mini of Plastic Man..

Now, I like Plastic Man. He's one of those characters that could be sooo annoying if mishandled, but when done right he's a fantastic foil against the super serious super heroes he hangs around.

Plastic Man is a former criminal who turned to the good side but never lost his sense of humour. He's pretty civil to bad guys (offering to babysit Circe's daughter) Plus, he's not afraid to call out dickish behaviour when he sees it.

And with Gail Simone involved you just know it's gonna be good.