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.

 They suspected the Joker's manipulative ways had been used to great effect on Harleen and hey, they were right.

In trying to contain the situation, they removed Joker from Harleen's care but this only seems to escalate things as Harleen offers to help do what the trapped Joker cannot...

It's simple. We kill the Batgang!





Barbara Gordon is on her lunch break when a monkey dressed like Charlie Chaplin teleports next to her flask and offers her a flyer. He even doffs his hat to her.
She handles this pretty well. I mean, if a monkey in a little suit and spats came up to me I'd probably try to keep it but Barbara just goes well, alright... I'll have a look at your handbills lil fella.

It's a circus flyer! For some reason, Barbara and her father just think that an old school avant-garde circus is cool instead of realising they live in Gotham and any circus literally means death by clown.
At least Barbara is honest about her love of junky carny food.


These guys even have an old school steam train pulling their carriages.. wait, is the train parked or is it driving through town?

In any case.. a) how did that happen without rails and b) people are just hearing about this performance now?

I mean, the carriages clearly have wheels but the train seems to have one at the front, none towards the back of the engine and there are no visible tracks.



Damn you, incomprehensible comic book logic!


Barbara makes friends with a precocious child when a padlock explodes and causes havoc.
Which is fair enough. There are a lot of people running away that were not there before though.

Aaaand Harley Quinn appears. Boy, she sure got her outfit together fast. The cover has her wearing the outfit from the Arkham Knight game but here she's clearly wearing the outfit from her appearance in Assault on Arkham.

I don't mind, I like both. Harley's eyes look possessed though. They showed a little 'Mad Love-esque' name changing so the outfit makes sense because she's more like a jester than she looks in the official game outfit and I do like that she was wearing a diamond belt in her Harleen Quinzel persona and she still has that style as Harley Quinn. Not sure why purple domino mask though? Only thing I can think of is because she had one in Arkham Asylum... but that's supposed to be set AFTER Arkham Knight, isn't it? Ah, damn you all. Anyway, the tiger survived being blown up somehow.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Harley Quinn has always been one of those villains that are fated to be themselves because their parents named them something obvious but even though her last quip is pretty funny - she's basically telling the world that she's a doctor of some kind and is familiar to the Joker. 

She sort of didn't hesitate to jump into action when the Joker was incarcerated but the way her eyes are mismatched and dilated along with her weird grimace-smile makes me think she's on something potent - maybe to get the nerve up, maybe she was gassed by the Joker (even though I don't think Poison Ivy has given her any immunity..? I raise my fist at you again, comic book!)

The art's pretty good (except for Harley's creepy drug craze face) with the tiger especially being done well. Barbara also has some hint of expressions that don't really move past her eyes. The slack jawed carny is probably going to be a teeny bit offensive to some people.

It's a little unclear if Harley is actually part of the circus or just taking advantage of a conveniently timed parade but I guess that's what part two is for. I hope the monkey's okay.