Harley Quinn's Secret Origins

I didn't know what to expect from this comic. This is the image I saw prior to purchase.

This is what I got when I forked over my cash.

It's not even a full Harley Quinn issue! I mean, yeah, cram in more comics get some more value but I was under the impression that it was going to be a full Harley Quinn issues. I will point out that I haven't followed the Secret Origins comics or else I probably would have known this.

Anyway, the cover I like. Oh sure, she's going for the tough-guy wall lean with weapon look but even the most New 52 loving fan would have to admit this could also be a bad area weird hooker wall lean. Having said that, Lee Bermejo handles the outfit well, it actually looks half decent and like a real outfit in his hands.



Her hair is a happy length, eye makeup consistent and not drugged clown looking, I adore the ruff/choker/necklace thing and look! Her gloves look so much classier now! Also her leggings and boots look realistic. I've always hated the weird stripey thermal legging look. She also looks fairly healthy, you can see muscles (for swinging giant mallets) her pants aren't completely up her arse crack, her boobs aren't disgusting water balloons falling out of her top because it isn't too short or undone all the way. I even like the belt.

That's impressive, because I still hate the New 52 outfit. I do like Bermejo's art though, I thought the work he did with Harley in the Joker one shot graphic novel was great.

Now as we all famously know, Harley Quinn's New 52 Origin back in Detective Comics 23.2 failed to hit the mark for many people. I know in my case, it was the hideous cover art, the horrible continuity and the fact that it wasn't so much HER origin but how she threw together her stupid outfit. This was capped off by the slaughter of the innocents because SHE'S CRAZY *AND* IN CONTROL OF HERSELF. It's a bit of a paradox, really.

This comic is what that comic could have been if it had an actual story. It's basically a re-telling of that story with little bits of her origin from other places mixed in but in a shorter time frame and without the fashion hullabaloo.

This is the cover to an issue of the original Harley Quinn run from 2001 containing the issue in which Guy Kopski was introduced and also killed off. He was Harleen's boyfriend in university and died in a strange circumstance involving a psychological test of love and a unique concoction which ultimately set Harleen on her course to become Harley. This comic has a similar set up only it's prior to university, and this guy (Bernie Bash) is mentioned as a somewhat homicidal crush. He even kinda looks like Guy, a long in the face brunette who'd do anything for Harleen. 

Bernie Bash

Guy Kopski

It even goes back to her childhood. For a comparison, here's 23.2 and Secret Origins Quinzel families. 

23.2 Quinzels

Secret Origin Quinzels

 Effort has been made to keep the family unit the same - three younger brothers one still an infant, a dad who's not the con man we saw in Gotham City Sirens and a mother who has figured out how to levitate cigarettes. Not much is made of the abusive bogans we saw in 23.2, instead they seem normal and the worst fate Harleen has here is being 'embarrassed and annoyed' by them. Which is good but I'm not sure if that's putting it down to better writers or the fact that there wasn't time to go into it in this short story. 

A lot more detail was put into the part where she 'transforms' herself and meets the Joker, which I approve of even though I prefer the 'Mad Love' origin. In 23.2, she just sort of looked at him in a weird way and they kissed and before you know it she's derping her way into the herping acid. Here, you see them talking and yes, kissing and more herping/derping but at least her clothes don't fall off in the tub. 

'I just love bad hair do's!'

'I just love deep psychological scars!'

                                              

There's no doubt, the writers are so much better here but there's not much laugh out loud comedy for a Harley Quinn comic save for a couple of one liners,  Joker clicking his heels while escaping and the inclusion of the beaver that keeps popping up in the Harley Quinn serial. Harley Quinn is still pretty violent here, during her escape, as a child and in the finale.

It's a definite improvement on the 23.2 tale, not as good as original Harley Quinn but the writers have done the best they could with the shitty New 52 material. It is a bit of a conundrum to call this series 'Secret Origins' when we've seen these origins before and the origins keep changing anyway. Harley Quinn even makes light of this herself and references a line from the classic Joker's origin story.

It's worth checking out anyway but don't raise your hopes too much. My biggest regret about the Harley Quinn revamp is the way they basically gave her a childhood sob story and then gave her the Joker dip and bam! Instant psycho. I really did like the way that she could just wipe off the greasepaint and forget that life, blend in with the rest of us but never did. It was HER choice then but it's not now. In other series like Arkham Unhinged for example, flashbacks show her in her original threads  but the New 52 took her clothing choice away too. If they'd have us believe every origin tale they tell, we're supposed to think that Joker just keeps a million shitty outfits like that aside for all of the sidekicks he's had and killed before.

Many of the pro-52 Harley fans that I've seen online just seem to think that this version is a stronger, bolder version compared to what she was but I don't agree with that. Yes, there were some dodgy comics that just showed her as a punching bag but there was plenty that showed her getting her own back. Plenty that showed the Joker using her and plenty showing her romance with him. 

I feel like the Harley Quinn that appeared in Suicide Squad was a weaker version of Classic Harley because she basically was a Joker clone with a bad outfit. Classic Harley was original and 52 Harley is just another psychopathic clown on the market. She wasn't in Suicide Squad because she was any good.. Even though she's been shown before as being excellent in operations she does tend to muck things up on other occasions or just do whatever she wants. She was put there because of her massive fan base, because of the controversy a cheap outfit would cause and because they needed a female character in there that wasn't important enough to be elsewhere on a better team (such as Poison Ivy, another Suicide Squad alumni from back in the day.)

This origin of Harley is a step in the right direction and I hope it continues going that way.

SECRET ORIGINS #4
Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Jeff Lemire and Peter J. Tomasi (writers)
Stephanie Roux, Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz & Ian Bertram (artists)
Lee Bermejo (cover) 

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