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.

Batman and Harley Quinn 2017 - A Review

Well, I've watched it. It can't be un-watched. Is that good or bad?

What I will say about the film Batman and Harley Quinn is - it's not that bad. 

Honestly, I was extremely worried when I read the reviews yesterday but even though it's a movie that you don't *need* to see and you could easily forget it, it's not as soul cripplingly terrible as say...

Oh, I don't know.. Suicide Squad? 

I will never stop bashing that useless brain fart of a movie! Never!! Never!!!!

Yeah, that's exactly Harley Quinn's character. Margot definitely killed it at Harley Quinn. 

WELL SHE KILLED SOMETHING OF HARLEY QUINN ANYWAY~!!~

*ahem* *wipes off rage spittle and readjusts tie* 

Batman and Harley Quinn first reactions

My friends, I come to you solemnly, dipped in regret, eating tacos and reading headlines.
What headlines? You don't come here for the news, you come here for the sass and you know it!
Well, I remembered that the Batman and Harley Quinn movie was due to be out - or was out... I may have lost several weeks recently but that's a story for another time when I get nachos and vodka.

No, what I saw today in my search for a fond trip down memory lane was a bunch of ominous news headlines.

Which frankly sucks because even though I knew it was just going to be a slapped together cartoon cashing in on Harley's popularity boom...
Even though it was blatantly a re-do of the classic BTAS episode 'Harlequinade'...
Even though I'd been warned it wasn't classified as BTAS universe continuity..
Heck, I was wary as funk about Bruce Timm's involvement..

That dude just seems to write the characters like it's his own dream diary.

But I was still looking forward to it because it was classic animated Harley Quinn in her classic suit, she wasn't spray painted white and pretending to play vigilante cop buddy slash over powered super bad ass slash someone pretending to play roller derby, she looked like she had moved on from the Joker and was bitter about it and her life now, reduced to playing 'herself' at a dodgy superheroine hooters to pay her bills...

I was genuinely keen to see this version of Harley Quinn.

The Lego Batman Movie

 Great news, fellow Quinntets!

I finally got around to watching the Batman Lego movie!

I know right?

This is perhaps the one movie featuring anything Batman related in recent history that I knew wouldn't suck or be weird in any way.
After all, who didn't love the Lego movie?

It was well crafted, had morals, humour, appeal for all ages and was interesting to look at as well.

Oh hey, it's fresh as well! Lookit dat.

The same applies for the Lego Batman movie. 

Two seconds into the movie and everyone's already in stitches but there's enough of a glimpse into Batman's personal life to show that everything is NOT awesome at home. Every character is shown the same amount of fan-love though (except some of the lesser known villains maybe) all the best Bat-eras get a look in and there are plenty of jokes, Easter eggs, throw backs and things going on in the background that it really feels like an involved, well thought out universe even if it is making fun of itself constantly.

Harley Quinn in Top Ten Characters list

Just so you know, this is going to be a re-post of someone else's blog. It is not mine, and if you want to check out the author's original post, there is the link below.

Please check it out, because they're a lot more well written than I am most times and they're really good at articulating their thoughts.

The reason I'm going to re-port the entire part about Harley Quinn is because of how close to home it hits and it's something I want to put more out there - and save it so I can go back to it and remember I'm not alone in my despair over Hardly Quinn.

Please don't forget, when we talk about Harley Quinn being a shitty character, I mean the new Harley Quinn as portrayed in her monthly comic, not the classic one, the animated one or any of her game versions etc. Heck, even the one depicted in the Suicide Squad comics are the lesser of two evils. How did that happen???

The Top Ten Worst Marvel and DC Characters List by B List Defender.

The entire list is comprised of (highest to low) Cable, Bane, New 52 Lobo, New 52 Wonder Woman, New 52 Superman, Batman, New 52 Starfire, Gwenpool, Deadpool and Harley Quinn.

Birds of Prey episode 2: Slick

Thus begins our recap of episode two of Birds of Prey. 

Above, we have the cast as predominantly featured in the comic series. 

Barbara Gordon and Black Canary are the main characters followed closely by Huntress. The roster usually varies but here we have Lady Blackhawk (Zinda Blake) as well as Hawk and Dove (Hank Hall and Dawn Granger respectively) 

As you might remember, the television show is only loosely based on this series and I think that's partly why it didn't go over so well with audiences that weren't ready to comprehend alternate universe Bat-characters and bad special effects. 

Barbara Gordon - former Batgirl and current Oracle survived the transition pretty seamlessly. Huntress here is actually the offspring of Batman and Catwoman and is meta-human. Which means she's got half of her mother's random cat powers and all of her dad's gloomy attire and punchiness. 

Dinah is the most random.. she's super young and has mental based powers. 

Suicide Squad Theory

If you haven't seen The Fangirl on YouTube, then you really should.
I get annoyed at people who always bring up conspiracy theories and hidden messages all the time (like anyone who's been shown the same Disney 'connections' over and over again) but I can watch The Fangirl without getting angry. Plus her voice is very soothing.

Her Coraline theories are excellent and show a lot of creative thinking and different perspectives so when I saw she had a Suicide Squad theory I was drawn in.

Click the link here to go to the video I'm referencing.

Even people who like the movie have to agree that there are a lot of plot holes and unexplained hoo-hah in that pile of flaming dog doo-doo and anyone that thinks they can make sense of it deserves a listen. Unless they worked on the movie, in which case you can ignore them forever. 

"Now picture this hand is your last few movie choices - I want to see disappointment.. sadness and.... PERFECT!"

Action Comics #765 A clown comes to Metropolis

May 2000
Writer: Joe Kelly
Pencils: Kano
Inks: Marlo Alquiza 

Superman Action comics?

Joker and Harley Quinn?

No Batman? No Gotham?

Luthor's bodyguard's name being used as a pun?


Oh my yes.

Ladies and Gentlemen - this is one of my absolute favourite Joker and Harley Quinn comics.

OF ALL TIME!















The opening set up of Metropolis is great - showing you the city and how the residents go about life in this hyper-techno city.

I also like how we have two women with different shapes and different faces.

This is something you'd see if you looked outside the window, read a magazine, watched television... yet so many artists struggle with this.

Kano - probably not the same as the one from Mortal Kombat - does this easily and the facial expressions are ace. The techno-poodles scare me though. To be honest, normal poodles do that too.










Unfortunately, these residents are so absorbed in their own lives they don't realise who they've just crossed paths with until it's too late.

Suicide Squad New 52 #4

Well this cover is interesting. Definitely not a fan of the art here. Everyone's skin looks like they're decaying, Captain Boomerang's namesakes are flying around like no tomorrow and are apparently electrical. Deadshot's little projectile shooter makes it look like he's pointing at this Basilisk character and saying "No! Bad Basilisk! Down! Down, girl!"



The actual comic opens up with a bunch of nameless mooks getting murdered.

Deadshot kills his mook with tried and proven not really true method of the neck snap.

Harley Quinn shows a savage glee in garrote wiring her victim while soothingly whispering to him/her.

King Shark has apparently eaten his allotted person but the artist is too lazy to show it or can't stomach actually drawing it.

It's annoying to see how easily the writers have turned Harley Quinn into a wanton murderer.








We've been told part of her backstory involved killing and then playing with the corpses of several lawyers. In all of her pre-52 life, she was never shown to be an outright murderer... and by that I mean she DID murder people but either was too mentally ill to realise that's what she was doing or was more of an accessory to murder as her beau obviously had the higher body count.

Harley Quinn did not get into this life because she wanted to or enjoyed killing people - she got into it for love. So while I would believe she would kill because he wanted her to or because there was a 'humorous' side to the death, I do not believe she would just murder directly like this because she'd been shown previously to not actually give a shit about being a bad guy.

And furthermore.. how effective would garrote wire be against whatever armour this hench person has on their neck? And also Harley's ear looks weird.

Gotham City Sirens #4

Another lovely cover - Harley's baby blues are striking. Ivy's her usual cheery self and so is Catwoman. Not sure why Ivy's hair is constantly standing on end these days but all the better to see your butt with my dear. I do like her lacy looking vine arm thingies. So chic. 

Remember this bit that's been teased over the last few issues?

Yes, we'e finally going to see what Harley Quinn's been up to.
Also, this TMZ for superheroes/villains is terrible. What sort of cow cheers when a superhero like Power Girl is decked one? That's when you go 'oh crap - this could be the end of my existence too!'

Still, it's a refreshing change from the ass kissing we normally get on real life celebrity shows.

And wow, Ultra Humanite? There's a blast from the past!

But I digress.

Now who do we know who owns a purple extend-o-gloves (and who also can't watch their favourite tv shows anymore) and has two white thumbs?? 

This guy!