Dec 2001
Story: Karl Kesel
Pencils: Pete Woods
Inks: Mark Lipka
Finally getting back into my retro reviews! Shaking off all the crappy new Quinn vibes!
Now this comic I will introduce a little bit because it's a slight departure from our usual fare.
This issue actually tied into an event named Joker's Last Laugh - in which Joker is tricked into believing he's dying and as such, devises a scheme to take the world down with him.
Being the Joker, this mostly involves gassing people or somehow making them Jokerised, but not enough so that they die laughing straight away. He basically organises an army.
Our comic opens up with a husband and wife astronaut team (Rick and Lana Jensen) where we learn their back story. Human during the day but during the evening they become mutated due to the radiation they were exposed to this one time.
She becomes a green alien called Lady Luna with flight powers, the ability to decrease gravity and travel through solid objects.
He becomes this grey, hulking rock monster called Moonrock.. and he is kind of the opposite to her where he can increase gravity, withstand a lot of things and is stronger.
They were kind of trapped in a force field at STAR Labs until a green haired red lipped loony walks in and Jokerises them.
Don't you just hate it when that happens?
Well, to be fair they were planning on double crossing the Joker instead of doing the favour he so kindly asked of them.
Anyway, following the fall out from her impersonating Batgirl shenanigans and losing her gang the Quinntets, Harley has commandeered a new Harley Davidson and has seemingly come to pick up Poison Ivy for a road trip.
Having finally finished her romantic mission setting up two of the Stooges, Harley finally agrees it's time to leave town.
I like that her bike's called 'Heartbreaker.'
Ivy is not so much of a fan though.
Harley defends her acquisition because it's life and death to her.
This bit appeals to me because it fits with her aesthetic of not being a criminal or committing crime "just because" she can, she does it because she needs to.
To her, it's not really a crime.
Here the thorn in the side of Harley and Ivy's relationship appears. Pardon the pun... but it is actually the plants.
Ivy has roots... and she can't leave her leafy charges.
This exasperates Harley to no end. It's not just that Ivy has gone back on her word, but Harley's risking herself by hanging around on this string Ivy's dangling her on.. and putting her flesh and blood pal at second best in favour of plants.
Harley points out that Ivy's plants already have the best set up they could possibly ask for and instead of going for the jugular, she encourages Ivy to come with her as a friend, as part of a team, somewhere Ivy could even get some more sunlight.
Despite all this, Poison Ivy turns her down. She's even pretty cold about it.
Harley is crest fallen, and seemingly gives up.
In a sort of call back to her slumber party of issue two, Harley explains how she likes Ivy, admires her, wanted to be like her...
but has come to the realisation that someone like Ivy doesn't need friends.
Harley peels out and leaves Ivy alone in the shadows. This is their friendship to a T - just as Harley often finds herself in a cycle with going back to the Joker and putting him above her own needs or ignoring her friends.. Ivy is just the same with her plants or Eco-terrorism.
It's amazing they can stay friends, it's a great dynamic.
As she's riding away though, Harley is almost struck by what she thought was a shooting star but is more like a laughing asteroid. She might have been killed but her motorcyclist skills save her life.
Moonrock and Lady Luna introduce themselves by telling Harley that Joker has sent them to get her.
Harley's face just lights up at this - was the previous talk about leaving Joker forgotten or was she lying? Doesn't really matter - this is the deep, intense hold he has on her. He tried to kill her and she stood up for herself, splitting up... but then one hint that he might still want her and her resolve just dissolves away until all she can see is her end goal of Puddin'.
The two aliens then jump straight into trying to kill Harley Quinn with their gravity based powers - but she by her own admission is more likely to barf.
Let there be several power based puns!
I do really like Harley's just natural humour even in times of stress, like here when she's literally being crushed and blaming her favourite bon bons for it instead of her opponent.
They reveal the reason that Joker wants Quinn dead - she's the only other person who can concoct or neutralise his toxic material so he needs to get her out of the way before she puts paid to his scheme.
This shows that the relationship is totally kaput because the Joker decides he needs to take her out instead of assuming she would be back by his side in a matter of weeks.
Harley takes advantage of the alien's bickering to flee back to Ivy's.. Ivy herself is pleased to see her back but this changes quickly when she realises she's only there on business. Harley initially searches for Ivy's anti-Joker goop but then realises that she can use her own blood to engineer something.
When Moonrock and Lady Luna burst into Ivy's abandoned flower shop, Harley is able to throw a tomato at them. Lady Luna phases it through her body but Moonrock eats it and immediately gets taken out and turned back into his human form. The sun is now rising and because Lady Luna is also turning back to herself Harley thinks that she's cured them.
Lana is overjoyed at the prospect of spending day in day out with her husband the way they should be but sadly... it is not the case because Rick starts to change back.Harley hastily points out that she wasn't working under ideal research conditions as everyone around her realises that all she's done is change the times that Rick and Lana become their alter egos... meaning that Rick will exist when Lady Luna is out and Lana will be around when Moonrock is.
Naturally, the pair is devastated about this but now they're at least free from the Joker inspired psychosis. Poison Ivy declares her boredom and uses the vines to cover her and Harley's escape.
The half alien half human couple decide to sort out their differences... sort of. Moonrock wants to get his partner back and Lana wants her partner back. They sort of decide to go back to STAR Labs, NASA or Lexcorp to try and find each others cure.
How that works out, I have yet to see.
Poison Ivy and Harley hash out their differences too. Harley bemoans the fact that she thought she was helping but in reality she may have made things worse but Ivy consoles her by saying that Harley did more than what she would have done. Harley fires back that Ivy could have created an antidote much better than hers but Ivy tells her that she doesn't do that... she doesn't save people. She's poison.
As Harley points out - Ivy has saved her before and just then.
This one page just expresses their friendship so well - it's such a unique relationship between two unique characters and it brings out all the good qualities of Harley Quinn without shoving it in our faces.
Poison Ivy is telling Harley Quinn - who at this point in the comic continuity was only just breaking out of the abused sidekick one note cameo role - that she admires her.
At this time Ivy hadn't yet devolved into semi-Swamp Thing with boobs so she hasn't completely renounced her humanity but she's not overly found of humans. As she points out, Harley's different.
Scenes like this really highlight why these two characters work - and why I can't stand the abrasive Hardly Quinn in her solo and her lobotomised sometimes girlfriend Preppy Ivy.
They definitely work better in this comic as friends than the terrible fan fiction-y shipping they crammed into the new solo.
Poison Ivy decides that she will join Harley after all - but ominously thinks to herself that Harley Quinn had better not let her down.
Next stop: Metropolis!
The Short End of the Jester Schtick
All in all a good issue. I liked how the cross-over story line wasn't obnoxiously shoe-horned in there. Yes, it's random and could have been done a different way I suppose but the true story still revolves around wrapping up the last issue's conclusion, her relationship with Poison Ivy and a call back to her relationship with the Joker.
It would have been easy to have made this a defeat the monster of the week type of story, but Harley goes to the other extreme - aiming to solve her problem by helping the antagonists but not in an overly hero-ish way. She was a doctor, she used to help people, this part of her character has not diminished despite of what's happened to her since she left the Asylum.
The art is decent - not too dissimilar to the usual artist but unique enough to be it's own thing.
Sometimes it looked like Harley Quinn was wearing a turtle neck collar - but then after thinking about it for a while I guess she kind of would be. I mean, it's a collar that goes over her ordinary costume, but it just looks thicker than usual.
The cover itself, not too fond of that. It gets the point across - here's Harley with two ominous villains but I feel like I don't understand what's going on with her head, like her mask isn't quite right or the angles are too much.. every time I look at it and think I have it, I look at it again and get another idea about it.
Getting away from that though - it's a nice tie in without going into too much detail about the antagonists or even Joker's plan so you can read it without thinking too much that you have no idea what's going on. Same for if you hadn't read Harley Quinn's solo series and only picked this up to follow the Joker's Last Laugh tie ins, you'd still know what's going on. The characters give you the gist of it without going into full exposition mode which is nice. You know Harley's trying to get out of town because reasons.. if you want to know more you can go back and read the series and if you don't care that much, well it doesn't really matter. She has to blow town. There you go.
On that note, it especially show cases the superb friendship between Harley and Ivy and why you should care, or at least why it matters. The dialogue - even when it delves into flowery superhero prose still sounds fairly natural and not forced.
Quotes
Harley Quinn: That Mistah J - he's a regular riot. Nice to know he hasn't changed...
...'though I was hopin'....
Poison Ivy: Typical meta-morons! Harley doesn't run! She's faced Batman! We both have!
Harley Quinn: Hey -- would Harley Quinn lie? To you, I mean?
Lana Jensen: I guess you could say a funny thing happened on the way to the moon.
The Joker: Open hailing frequencies, my techie Trekkie!
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