Batman: Arkham Knight - Batgirl and Harley Quinn #1

"Caged Animals" 1/2 2015

Writer: Tim Seeley

Pencils: Matthew Clark

Inks: Sean Parsons

Colours: Rob Schwager

Letters: Travis Lanham

This comic is based on the Batman: Arkham Knight game series and opens with Batgirl cornering Killer Croc and his comical way of skipping leg day in a sewer. There's a sort of time skip where we don't get to see what happened before but Batgirl's in the gross water like substance so I assume it's not going well. 

Then Batman comes in and flashbombs Croc before kicking him in the face and telling Batgirl she's an absolute disgrace to him and was only going to get herself killed. She's like well I found this scaly jerk didn't I? Batman sticks to his parental guns - saying that she's been warned several times about getting in his way. 

Can you imagine someone saying that to Batman - especially when he started out? That would only make him more determined, yet he somehow thinks this angry speech will make Batgirl go home and burn her costume? Um, no. 

As it is, I'm pretty sure she flips him off. 

 Next we visit Arkham Asylum where it's completely miserable weather even though it was fine in the sewers.. well, a little too red in the sky if you know what I mean but I guess Arkham Asylum has a clause about certain weather outside for them spooky asylum shots.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel pleads her case for Joker's transfer out of the high security wing in order to better his mental health.




Sounds legit, right?

Not surprisingly, she's shot down by the board because they seem fairly competent at their jobs.

Injustice: Gods Amongst Us Year Five Annual

January 2017

Writer: Brian Buccellato

Artist: Mike S. Miller

Colours: J. Nanjan

Letters: Wes Abbott

Cover art: David Yardin

Secret tales of the final year! The only thing I don't like about this cover is the weird ripped crop top Harley Quinn's wearing. I know it's the Insurgence outfit from the Injustice game but it just doesn't seem to be meshing with the rest of her outfit. It's like she got up one day, coordinated the ever loving heck out of her outfit, like she really put some thought into it and was nailing it... but then the shirt that went with the outfit was in the wash and she couldn't wear it so she just grabbed some scrappy reject of a shirt and drew a smiley face on it saying 'yeah, that'll do.'

Which is just absurd to me. In my heart I know that it's just an excuse to show off her cleavage, midriff and show off her g-string and that pains me because this is the outfit she has chosen to wear into battle. I mean, her previous costume was pretty impractical but it seems like it was just her everyday outfit. This particular rag - the kind that you'd probably use to wash your car with and looks like it would tear irreparably after a light breeze.. is what she's chosen to fight in.

Did this in turn 'inspire' the shitty torn shirt from Suicide Squad or did they JUST steal it from Blondie? It's just weird.

Anyway - the actual comic features a few different stories from the perspective of different characters. The first one, and the one I'm going to be looking at is of course the Harley Quinn arc.

We open on her flashback - she's reflecting on the time that's passed since Superman went nuts. Look - I had problems with her original Injustice outfit when it was first shown but since then it's grown on me. It's unique and jestery and the character fits it well.

That said... this opening shot of her tits about to fall out and the fact that each one... is about as big as her head... plus the fact that her outfit would not offer ANY protection should there be an accident.

Hey, I cringe when I see dudes zip by on motorbikes wearing naught but flip flops, boardshorts and a T-shirt but this.. thinking of extreme gravel burn on boobies puts me in places I don't want my mind to go, DC!
\


That said, it's a nice page, the Gotham cityscape looks fantastic, the headlight is well done as while she drives along stoic as heck you see a wide array of emotions over her flash backs.

The Injustice of Harley Quinn's costumes

For those who haven't been paying attention,
Oh, just like the people who made this train wreck!

This morning while mooching off some free Wi-Fi, I come across a news article about an alternate costume for Harley Quinn in the Injustice: Gods among us game.

To be completely honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to click the link. I mean, Harley Quinn, massive fan favourite with a costume that made sense to her character and her name - has suffered greatly at the hands of game developers and DC  New 52 'artists' who assume that a re-model has to be WORSE than the original, as well as trashy and un-clownlike.

Why, hello there!

MASSIVE CUPCAKES!
HELL YEAH!!!

This is not to say that Harley can never have a new outfit ever - alternate outfits and disguises through out the DC universe have worked wonderfully for her. There was the alternate universe Harley in her Thrillkiller outfit, the gal-in-waiting from Emperor Joker, every new day in Gotham City Sirens.. the Ame-comi series of figurines.. um, this monkey of death thingy.. -->


Even if they were a little weird, we knew it was only for this issue/TPB and then things would be back to normal.