Again with the two covers cash grab. This is a constant with Hardly Quinn comics, constantly milking their cash cow. The first one doesn't really work for me but I can appreciate the attempted humour. The classic style cover is pretty, but doesn't offer anything apart from the realisation that the outfit looks weird without the eye piece.
Yes, Hardly's Unusually Jewish Parents have come to visit for.. some.. reason that's crucial to the plot. I think.
They don't introduce them very well in my opinion. We don't actually know how much THEY know about their corpse like daughter and if they - like the rest of the friggin' world - seem to have forgotten that she was kind of an associate to a mass murdering psychotic clown and has put her doctorates to a great use behind bars.
Instead we get to hear about how much they experimented before marriage and how they think she's got a skin condition.
Now even if they didn't realise their daughter is a murdering whack job... do they not even recognise eco-terrorist Poison Ivy?
Fortunately, this appears to be just a dream for some reason and it's absurd I'm grateful for that - given how much I hate this comic's insistence that their dream or hallucinatory sequences are like, legit story-telling methods that no one will ever tire of.
So now we have these parents taking her to work in her spray tanned disguise for some reason. At least they put *some* effort into making these parents the ones I assume she had in Gotham City Sirens and not the abusive ones they forced on us in her New52 incarnations. Shit, her lousy brother is still in a band and has the same names for his children.
Those parents knew Harley was a criminal though.
These parents just want to update Hardly on her two too many brothers that she obviously hasn't kept in touch with, drink Slurpees, cart her around in their rental car and then mooch in on her job, for which Hardly isn't even rostered today she's paid someone off to make her look good. Ugh.
More Ugh - still forcing this vigilante-hero schlock down our throats is Chief Spoonsfarts who's all like Dude, where's my criminals and showing more lines on his face than a Jim Lee sketch.
Here's a smug attorney with a strange pose, weird bubble on her lip and just about showing enough skin to be a Single Female Lawyer.
This comic really hates female professionals - having her nearly flash her arse crack at Spoonsface and constantly bending over, touching him blah blah blah.
At least it draws the eye away from whatever it is on Spoonsguy's head. Is that supposed to be his head, a swimming cap or a yarmulke?
Nothing much of interest happens until Harley Sinn shows up and then everything gets bendy and weird.
Look at this panel. There are like two frames where you can clearly see they're supposed to be fighting but the rest are all elongated and obscured views of these knock offs doing something to each other.
Harley easily kicks Hardly's pasty butt and then asks for her help to bring down the mayor because reasons.
It's weird because I thought Hardly was eventually going to kill the mayor with the help of Spoonshead because how dare anyone oppose her, amiright.
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| Pfft, look at the Macabres in the fourth panel! |
I could re-read this panel a thousand times. Even though the fighting sucks and there's further shameless 'nudity' I just want Harley Sinn to keep going and thrash the crap out of this abbreviatin' trash talkin' annoyin' imitation.
This page also raises further questions - like how much is this building's water bill? Do Hardly's parents know she's pasty and gross or are they going to question why she's just washed off a probably expensive full body spray and considering she never really includes anyone in her unreasonably extensive array of background characters did she actually invite Goat Boy to dinner to be nice, he was just there or because she wanted to be all "lawlz look how random my life is".
A few points here - Hardly had clearly made no effort to follow up on Mason and Madame's kidnapping or to put pressure on Spoonsman to follow up. Instead of being so upset about the cannibalised homeless she cared sooo much about, she instead cheers about her hogging all the news about it and then worries about what sort of harassment it will bring from Batman.
The news called her an infamous miscreant from Gotham. Is it just me? Is this a crazy understatement or is the whole world completely ignorant of Hardly to various degrees?
This is a world where Hardly considers herself a hero so shit, this could mean anything.
So to recap - the parents Hardly was so worried about coming over have spent like two seconds here and look like they're on some serious relaxants. The writers wasted time on a dream sequence instead of actually introducing them. What a missed opportunity - there are so few parents in hero/villain comics it could be a division of Disney.
We still don't know what her parents know of her, and why she went to the elaborate lengths of getting spray painted for all of five minutes only to wash it all off straight away.
Her parents even try to tie in that awful 'backstory' about Bernie the Beaver relating to her first boyfriend (Mr I'm too young to drive but I'll throw you bodily out of a passenger window into a truck because that's a thing I can do and it's totally not hard or anything because reasons)
Stop trying to make Fetch happen, Connor/Palmiotti! The ONLY previous boyfriend we should care about is Guy Kopski, not your mini-knock off murderer.
Harley Loves Joker part 6
As much as I appreciate a villain catch up over tea during a heist - I feel obliged to point out that March Harriet has never met Harley in all their histories that I'm aware of and while Jenna did work for Harley and co during the Gotham City Sirens era she never had the patience for Harley at all.
Why would she? Classic Harley was at times stuck in a loop while Jenna is a reformed criminal just out to make a living. She's there for the money, not the funny. Besides, Joker once tried to blow Jenna up.
No doubt this cameo is an entry from Dini's ball park.
See? Even recounting that near fatal interaction gets on Jenna's nerves while Harley just laughs. Strangely, she doesn't get upset about it, but is more concerned that Joker paid her in pennies.
The other two mention Joker and subtly ask how things are going with the answers being a) he's not so bad and b) she's still alive.
I really hope this part of the series is going to level with us and explain if Harley's just delusional about the whole thing, much like her original solo run.
Joker casually takes a cab... because of course. He also casually infiltrates the police which Batman doesn't even pick up on - finding out that some Fox lady is the culprit of his pilfered crime scenes. Really trying to corner in the furry market there judging by how she doesn't seem to actually have a costume.
Was that crime scene thing a plot? Oh, guess that must have been sidelined something fierce.
Despite the joke shop being a crime scene, Harley forgets to lock up and is surprised when Jenna beats her there despite harping on about being in the middle of another job. Or does she mean the hotel robbery from the tea? Eh, whatever.
I guess I am expecting way too much from these comics but at the same time know I'm going to be disappointed with them. I can't even work up a scathing review right here, it's just so 'meh'. Which funnily enough is a pretty good review from me about this series.
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