DC House of Horror 2017

DC released a comic just in time for Halloween - it contains several stories by several people, artists and apparently one creepy uncle (?!) but the one I'm going to look at is a story called 'Crazy for you'.
A Harley Quinn story written by Bryan Smith and Brian Keene (collect the whole set) while Kyle Baker does the art, colours and letters. The plot itself is by Keith Giffen.

First of all though.... what's with the cover here?

It's kinda cool but kinda abstract too. Like, Batvampire swooping down on Wereflash is understandable... if a little bit gross. Come on, Bats, don't get hair in your fangs! Meanwhile, Green Lantern has become Green Candle apparently because he seems to be melting all over the table. Is he drunk? Is he being crushed by the combined weight of the other heroes? Is he literally melting? He doesn't look very happy about his situation.

Frankenstein's Superman is lifting ... okay, I don't know what Wonder Woman is supposed to be. I would hazard a guess at a ghost but if she's a ghost, why the hell does Frankenstein's Superman need to lift her out of the way of the other melty-furry-blood crazed idiots?

Alright, so I honestly don't know what's going on on the cover here but I don't hate the cover itself.

If you're interested, here's a list of the included stories. I read some of them and called the ending for most straight away but obviously they're only short stories with little time for plot twists.














Right, so onto Harley Quinn's story. I was hesitant to open this comic because I was a bit concerned about *which* Harley Quinn would be making her appearance here.  If it's the solo/Rebirth Harley, well, that shit's scary enough as it is without being Halloween themed.


We open on some random dude who just stabbed a lady named Linda. That's all we get. We don't know why. We do know that Chuck is visited by or rather sees a vision of Harley Quinn who proceeds to talk to him about his options.
Love the less apocalyptic view quip.

Not loving the blood thirsty part talking about meat wagons (what a horrifying mental image) and dismissing deceased Linda for being too 'vanilla' for Chuck, and how she (Harley Quinn) is so much more of an upgrade because it reeks of the 'new' Harley Quinn's ultra violent and stuck up attitude for me.
I can kind of forgive the stabby stabby chat - it is a horror comic after all but yeah the vanity is just ugh.










Harley asks Chuck why he's so sad - after all, he's got Harley now! She reveals she's also dead, but more fun than Linda. Damn Harley, this corpse had two seconds of screen time, what do you know about her?

They flash back to how they met - at Arkham Asylum of course. Is there anywhere else to meet in Gotham? Like, seriously? Chuck's a maintenance man or something taking part in a demolition project. Turns out his co-worker Todd is an incompetent boob who missed like, an entire cell. Geez, Todd - get it together already!

After his boss forces him to clean up Todd's mess, he comes across a shower - which is in use by one Harley Quinn. Butt naked except for her headpiece..? But she vanishes so she's probably already a ghost just hangin' out at her own workplace. The art is a bit iffy at times.. after Harley vanishes for example, it looks like Chuck is being attacked by a plague of bugs or something.

Harley finds it romantic that Chuck could see her spirit so offers to flash him her ghost titties again.
Turns out this jumpsuit is a two piece. Hmm. Ah well, as we all know it could be a much worse costume. Anyway, Chuck freaks out and starts questioning if Harley was ever there in the first place.

Chuck's boss Paul does a full 360 and apologises for making Chuck follow up Todd's shoddy work. Of course, by now it's apparent that Todd probably sensed a ghost and freaked out before he could finish checking other rooms for wiring etc.

His flash back continues - while he second guesses himself, Harley's apparition appears on his car and handles rejection about as well as Chuck handles murders.

But wait - he's back in Arkham? It's unclear because we've got an messed up unreliable narrator and the art is ambiguous but we're told he's pretty much killed everyone.

Harley's just like get over it and take me on a road trip. Psychological advice at it's best, and cheapest too but it doesn't console Chuck one bit.

Now the next part I have some issues with.









Harley Quinn makes the assumption that Chuck is not over his murdering spree because he needs to knock women around before he kills them in order to get off. She tells him that because she's here, she can find him *plenty* of women to hit. Then she can watch because she likes that.

This is creepy..and kinda sad too because in case people have forgotten...... Harley is a domestic abuse survivor. A repeated domestic abuse survivor. She's been close to death several times.
Would she really be okay with allowing other women to be beaten to death while she watches?
She even assumes that the woman Chuck killed was a gift to HER. 
It stinks a bit too much of a perpetuating cycle, like when people who were abused as kids can sometimes grow up to become a child abuser themselves.

She's already a failed psychiatrist after falling in love with her patient and going crazy herself but really? Sticking her in *another* vicious cycle? How textbook.

Chuck eventually rejects Harley's murderous kinks and flees for his life. Harley just declares she likes games and thinks he's just playing hard to get even after becoming a murderer fairly easily.

Being dead, Harley can play the long game here and shows a bit of affection towards Chucky-boy.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Alright well overall not a bad comic - despite the concerns I mentioned above re: Harley and her woman bashing/murdering fetishes. The story itself seems like it's based on the classic Harley Quinn comics where she was a bit more love crazy and shows that when she obsesses she goes hard (and also home, in Chuck's case). 

So the mind games and ghost angle were a good idea - I mean the rest of the stories are like the standard horror fare but this one is more appropriate for Harley Quinn in my opinion. 

Now the art... I don't think I could do a full comic or series with this kind of art. It's very abstract yet detailed so it's not the kind of thing I prefer or would draw myself. Several times Harley's diamonds appear and then disappear and you're never really sure if it's because she's a ghost or because the art just skipped those parts. It does put me in mind of the other horror-esque Arkham Asylum comics though so maybe that's what they were going for. 

So, better than I expected but some parts could have been missed out for a more interesting story.

Wotta Comedian!

Harley's Ghost: I'd like a better view. Preferably one less post-apocalyptic. We can do better, Chuck. 

Harley's Ghost: I control the vertical. I control the horizontal. All your base are belong to me.

Paul: You don't like it - go stand in the unemployment line with the rest of Gotham's finest.