New creative team for Harley Quinn!

Guess what?

I have just heard that Conner and Palmiotti are officially off the Harley Quinn reins!

Woohoo!!

It's no secret that I was never a fan of their work. Yes, I did start collecting the issues when they first came out because initially I was overjoyed that there was going to be a different Harley Quinn than the mess we got in Suicide Squad.



The novelty of 'collecting' the multiple covers for issues that never felt.. quite right soon dissipated and I told my local comic store to take my pull list for that series and shove it - right up DC's keister. They said it was a little hard for them to do that being so far away but they've done a good job of keeping my comic depository clear of shit comics so there's that.

This Harley came across as super arrogant and up herself TBH

It also felt like while several storylines were being juggled... nothing really happened?
There was a surprising focus on Harley's professional life but this was soon sidelined in favour of her zany tenants, multiple hangers-on, Bat-cameos and all of their wacky wacky antics.

As well as that... it wasn't making me laugh.

The classic Harley Quinn solo series did that. Sure, some bits were hit and miss but for the most part there was a lot of humour whether it was visual sight gags, ironic humour, actual puns - you name it!
The calling card of the Hardly Quinn solo was an assault of scatological humour, over use of exaggerated accents, fourth wall breaking and a large amount of T&A.

Sometimes a few all at once. 

Critics said that this was DC's female copy of Deadpool and it's hard to dispute that except that Deadpool for the most part is funny (and has a coherent, funny movie too).
Just goes to show that when you take the girl out of the jester costume.. she gets less funny but for some reason the crowds are eating this drivel up.

So why are Conner and Palmiotti scarpering?

Every time I picked up one of their issues

 "Officially" it's because they're overworked and wanting to leave on a high to go have a honeymoon.

Read between the lines and that says to me that they know sales aren't what they used to be and they're jumping ship before they jump the shark any further.




And what a fitting time to leave too.. with all the hullabaloo tied into Harley's 25th anniversary. They get to go out looking like they single handedly revitalised the Harley train and while that train will inevitably derail... they'll be at the next station laughing into their money bags.

Were they good though? For the longest time, I thought I was one of the few who hated their series because every review I read was positive and calling it hilarious and well drawn.. 

I was like, you gotta be jerkin' my chain - especially when I read favourable reviews about that Lobo issue of the Little Black Book series. 

So I investigated a bit deeper - going to I guess non-mainstream pages, forums or sites where reviews aren't paid for and a lot of those were a mixed bag. A lot had the same issues I had, some liked it, some were a bit more even handed in saying they liked certain parts while others could choke on a donkey's... yeah. 

Anyway, these two are out as of issue 34 of this room with some dodgy cliff hanger planned about someone Hardly cares about dying. Yes, please kill off some of her excess entourage.

Personally, I had been hoping we might get the Dodsons back... you know, the GOOD husband and wife team to work on Harley Quinn but apparently it's going to be written by Frank Tieri and inked by Inaki Miranda. 

Well surely a new start can't be worse than what we had already right? I'll just Google these two and..

Oh. Well, Frank Tieri worked on that stupid side series of Gang of Harley's...

Aaaaand had an interview with Palmiotti where they both said 'screw you fans if you don't like that Hardly's got a new outfit!' both being jerks and entirely missing the point..

There's also a lot of terrible reviews for Tieri in general. 

Okay well this bodes ill. What about Inaki? 

 Alright, done a lot of work on Coffin Hill etc.. art there varies from decent to weird funky...

The character sheet for Catwoman looks alright though. Maybe we'll get someone who can make Hardly look good and hell, if they can draw men's faces better than the last schlock job we had then they're already doing better.

I'm just really hoping they move away from what C&P were doing with this character because it pains me when I can't read a character I want to enjoy but literally can't.




I still think the Dodsons should come back to the job. As you can see, I used their covers at the top of this post because it soothes the pain.