Gotham City Sirens #5

Out of the Paest
Dec 09

Can I just say how awesome this cover is? My only quibble is Harley's twisty ass and tits torso and what one of my old work friends used to call 'mono-boob'. I think you could put a pencil under one side, and lift the entire set equally. It's a disturbing notion, yet somewhat tempting. Hmm.
Apart from that though, the dynamic background, the nice work with the shadows and lighting effects, the sweet cane pose and the pop gun... it's just a nice cover.



Anyway, where we last left of in Sirens, a horrifying Joker car-drone had just driven into their hideout and exploded. Selina and Ivy are alarmed by the sudden appearance of fire while dear Harley Quinn - ever on the ball - simply gets peeved that Joker didn't try to finish them off with a funnier gag.

Ivy - a woman of entirely plant parts and wavy hair - leaps dramatically from the fire, into the frying pan. Which is also very much on fire. She quickly grows and then sacrifices one of her budding cacti which is enough to extinguish the fire but can't avoid creating another kind of damage.

Needless to say, the other Sirens aren't exactly pleased with
Harley's dismissive and unhelpful attitude.









They decide enough is enough, this Joker's gotta go. Harley, true to form - doesn't seem to want him dead and offers anything apart from that - plant shopping trips, getting a restraining order...
Finally Ivy gets through to her by telling her what she wants to hear and then smacking her in the face with reality.

The girls hire Jenna Duffy - AKA the Carpenter from the Wonderland Gang to rebuild the hideout. If you're squeamish about wallet breaking estimates, here's a good time to look away.
Or flip the page until you come to a horrifying image of Joker with bendy ass legs, a hangover and joking about breaking his back.

He believe's he's seen the end of Ms. Quinn and prepares to bring Gotham back into his old fashioned comedy club but then spies the Sirens sneaking into the old hideout.
Harley figures it's the best shot they have because she knew this was where he stashed the car/Jokermobile. But, something's been bugging her about that.

While Harley's reminiscing, Joker sneaks up on them and shoots at them until Poison Ivy's vines smash their way through to intercept him.

Joker makes some terrible puns and Harley realises that something is definitely wrong. She tries to warn the others but they assume she's trying to protect Joker from certain doom and detain her.

Joker goes for some old roguish community spirit but it's not working. He then suddenly spits some vitriol at Harley for ruining everything and throwing a spanner in the works at the same time. As I always say, don't leave a spanner within hurling distance of the works if you don't want idiots wrecking your shit up. But I digress.

Joker goes out on a high note. By which I mean, he screams and shatters the funhouse mirrors lining the hideout. Ivy and Catwoman are a bit taken aback by this but quickly put an end to it by knocking him over.

By this time, Harley's managed to free hers mouth and just in time to voice her concerns about this Joker's true identity.

It's Gaggy! Or Gagsworth A. Gagsworthy.

Joker's original sidekick, who is not happy about Miss Harley Come Lately and her aforementioned spanner throwing abilities.

He makes surprisingly quick work of the Sirens though.








He drops Catwoman into a put with some evil looking hyenas... turns out she didn't land on her feet either. My my. Ivy meanwhile, is lured into a false sense of superiority by laughing off some itching powder before being suffocated by some weird flesh tone bubbles that harden fast.

Ivy didn't bother to completely de-vine Harley so now she's stuck fending off Gaggy alone.
Go team?

The Good

* The Siren's faces and poses are a lot more varied in this issue which is great
* The inventive use of colour
* The way that Gaggy isn't exactly hidden, even though the issue is obviously not wanting to blow their secret, it isn't treating the readers like idiots either.

The Bad

* Selina not landing on her feet? I mean, really?
* Sometimes I think either the artist forgot Gaggy was on stilts or else Gaggy is just a freakin' pro at using them.
* The fun house mirrors could have been done better. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on and the art varied a lot, not entirely sure if that was intentional or not?


The Ugly

* Ivy's condescending attitude to Harley. Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of this ship?
* Another Dini character sneaking in there with Jenna Duffy.
* A punk teasing the Jokermobile with hair like that?

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

All in all a very fun issue. I like the detail it went into with the Joker/Harley relationship when in the end it wasn't even Joker anyway. It added another layer to the whole 'is this relationship only in Harley's mind' idea. Still, the throwbacks here are excellent. I'm glad I didn't see Selina scoffing at the Jokermobile because I'm pretty sure someone had a Catmobile back in the day!

This issue dealt with changes.. the change in relationships, the old vs the new, the new team dynamic.. and it was a good read. It was nice to see both sides of Harley and Joker's relationship. There are many reasons why someone would go back to an abusive partner and love is one of them despite what people seem to think.

Issues like this just make me so wary of the Gotham City Sirens movie because I severely doubt anyone involved with the project has even read or understands any part about the series.

Wotta Comedian!

Ivy: Where is he, Harley?
Harley: I dunno! We had a lover's tiff...I shot him.... it was a while back.

Joker/Gaggy: Shh! Be vewy, vewy quiet! I'm hunting wascally wenches!

References:

Harley shooting the Joker - see this review.

Don't know who Gaggy is? Click here.

For more on the Jokermobile, you want this.

Disbelievers of the Catmobile? Reveal the truth!