Not content with her own comic empire, a successful Gotham City Sirens run and a miserable attempt to encroach on the Birds of Prey universe via cinematic vomit, DC has decided to combine all three of these elements to make this Birds of Prey: Sirens of Justice - The inclusion of one Harley Quinn.
Sigh.
At least going from the cover art and the involvement of one Gail Simone, this should be better than that hideous movie-comic tie-in we had before.
As much as this cover is actually visually appealing - I'm a bit concerned that Harley is basically wearing as knock off version of Canary's outfit. Remember that old design guideline where it was basically law for any TV show/movie/comic etc that had more than one female, that they all had to wear a different style top etc? Anime fans would be familiar with uniformed school girls having extremely varied socks - same kinda thing.
They even go as far as to include fishnets on Harley's get up though - like.. a blonde wearing fingerless gloves, jacket, booty shorts with the same belt, fishnets and then the matching mid-calf black boots? COME ON. That job's been taken already!
I really wish they had taken a page from some of the other outfits Harley has worn, like Arkham City, Assault on Arkham, Gotham City Garage, Joker TPB, Injustice and even the rare Suicide Squad where she has pants and a functional looking outfit..
The interior art is very much a step below the cover. I'm not really a fan of Miranda's art. At least here there is a bit more to differentiate Harley and Canary, although I stand by my previous comments about Harley needing a better outfit because she looks ridiculously out of place compared to the people she's with, to the extend someone could have poorly photo-shopped her in.
The background work is very nice though, so points for that.
Happy about Simone being back in the saddle - her dialogue between the Birds seems natural and fits their respective personalities, plus her Harley sounds less like an inbred hick and more like someone who genuinely has a bit of an accent/dialect.
My first issue with this first issue though is that it opens on "Later. Ten blocks away and thirty stories up..." which could work for the intrigue aspect but it just happens way too often in comics. Like, flitting between then and now is fine, but didn't we used to just have the comic open and THEN have the later/earlier sequence pop up? This reeks of Conner/Palmiotti. Ugh.
Next issue is immediate.
Harley Quinn is making all the decisions for a team she's not even in and everyone else just goes with it, while making vague comments about her mental capacity.
Miranda's faces and bodies aren't the best but at least there's a good sense of motion with some of these poses. Not sure what Harley's trying to achieve with the edge of the world dancing though - I would get it if she was trying to put someone else off balance but girl, you sat here with the G-D BOP! If ANYONE in Gotham is afeared of heights or dangling from grotesques, these guys would be absolute LAST on the list. Also... why is she explaining to these two what Gotham's all about? Was there another retcon where Canary and Huntress never lived in the city or something??
Besides, all this talk about "later" and "oh by the way a sinkhole ate a hospital" makes me think I've missed something integral to the story.. but isn't this issue one? What's the go with the Penguin and Riddler related safety violations - is this a random call out or a reference to a prior tale??
Also the whole Harley with them business... how did she contact them/get their attention? Why are they talking like she's up for team inclusion when they keep noting her criminal connections? Harley doesn't even seem to know their names. Plus, where's the usual gang of hard hitters?
Anyway, story jumps to a "later that evening" where the trio are checking out the sinkhole. Kind of like how Canary's parting jumps sides too. She looks fine compared to Harley though.... what happened to her face in the second panel!?
Harley stays mum on her "mysterious source" but then we see her cross her fingers behind her back - GASP - she may not be on the straight and narrow!! Shock and horror, folks.
Also not sure why Harley has to be the tag a long in all of these adventures instead of like, the Birds taking the tip off and investigating by themselves? She literally has her fingers in every team and/or Pie in and around Gotham.
Naturally Harley ditches Canary and her logic and goes on a rampage (while spouting some weird one liners that I think are supposed to be funny because they're random? "Hot soup! Look out everyone!") with Huntress following close behind. Canary is ticked, not just at being "Batmanned" but because the goon they missed set off a warning. Guess I'll take her word for it because we don't actually see this happen.
The trio decide to break into the office and find a few offscreen clues and well laid out unseen exposition about the evil deeds when none other than Poison Ivy rocks up and Harley takes a few panels to squee about it... even though... I mean, Ivy was her source, right? She knew she was gonna be here, yes? .......why is she so surprised, like this was a one in a million chance meeting?
Not really a fan of Poison Ivy's look here - I kinda dig the outfit and the fact that her torso looks like a gnarled tree trunk but it also looks.. kind of... off? Like she's got some really mismatched proportions, it looks like one of her dead looking vines is about to strangle her and someone really wanted to use every shade of green they had for her.
The fight scene that follows is also really strange.. immediately Huntress and Canary are like "you set us up!" and prepare to fight Ivy - which is understandable given a) her reputation and b) the fact that Ivy came out with her strangle vines in motion and her best Grumpy Cat impersonation, c) not one attempt to persuade the BOP that she's here to help and veiled threats about getting them to put their weapons down followed closely by d) derogative terms for non-green and non-plant folk.
Come on Ivy, this is 2020. Get your act together!
Also Harley just stands there watching this whole thing escalate and does nothing until Canary gets in her face and asks"What the hell??"
I also asked this question, because the very last page of this issue is crammed - actually crammed with exposition about how this whole thing, the hospital being built as a cover and eventually threatening to devastate the plant life in the harbour got Ivy's attention, then Harley vouched for the BOP to get their aid in the matter.. I think I would have much rather have seen this play out instead of the awkward forced drama and fight scenes between Ivy and the Birds then the subsequent awkward team up.
Comic ends once again on Harley needing to fill her guts with food. At least somethings in DC never change/get retconned, I guess.
While reading this, I got the impression that Simone didn't really have that much control over the story she was writing. Like, DC jumped on damage control after the Birds of Prey movie also starring a shoe-horned in Harley began to flop, and flop HARD and somehow got Simone - perhaps the penultimate Birds of Prey writer - to come back after they screwed her over in the past, gave her the outline but the page was covered in several post it notes with passive aggressive micro-managing tidbits on it about AGAIN making the all mighty Birds bow down to the whims of one over saturated clown girl.
I mean that almost literally too - what is going on with Harley's colours? The interior art is pretty mediocre for the most part but at least three characters have definition and shading and what have you... Harley looks like someone put her in the too hard basket, and just did all of her colours in Microsoft Paint with the paint bucket tool and called it a day.
This is probably the BEST looking panel of all the characters together and Harley still looks like she was photo shopped in awkwardly.
Should be noted that she's missing her eye make-up but given how the art fluctuates between light pastel-like tones and absolute pink eye contagion, this isn't a complaint.
It is very unclear what's going on here as well - as in, IS Harley actually being considered to join the Birds of Prey or is this what it should be - a one off job where she's sought them out for help?
We'll have a little look into this at the end of this post in a fun new game, but personally I hope it's the latter. I know Batgirl's currently an active character in her own right, but there's still something so offensive in running the Birds of Prey without Oracle or at the very least a Batgirl...
Plus, now we have Harley in her own adventures, Suicide Squad, whatever event DC runs or needs a cameo on (lookin' at you, Wonder Woman) and now more than likely she'll be a regular in this group too. I mean, come on! At least we can believe Batman can be everywhere.. the only reason I can believe these Birds will put up with Harley at little bit is that at least she's not as annoying as Maggot Roblox.
Canary: You know that friend you want to trust, but still don't, somehow? Steals your jewellery, flirts with your boyfriend? We have someone like that. Her name's Harley Quinn.
Harley: Oops! Sorry, lost what's left of my mind for a minute there.
Huntress: Not the biggest loss.
Canary: Dang it. They pulled a Batman...
Huntress: Well, no point in stealth for the rest of this op, huh?
Harley: I can crack it. I...uh... learned at camp.
Sigh.
At least going from the cover art and the involvement of one Gail Simone, this should be better than that hideous movie-comic tie-in we had before.
 |
| Fight or Flight May 2020 Writer: Simone Cover: Lupacchino and McCaig Interiors art: Miranda |
They even go as far as to include fishnets on Harley's get up though - like.. a blonde wearing fingerless gloves, jacket, booty shorts with the same belt, fishnets and then the matching mid-calf black boots? COME ON. That job's been taken already!
I really wish they had taken a page from some of the other outfits Harley has worn, like Arkham City, Assault on Arkham, Gotham City Garage, Joker TPB, Injustice and even the rare Suicide Squad where she has pants and a functional looking outfit..
The interior art is very much a step below the cover. I'm not really a fan of Miranda's art. At least here there is a bit more to differentiate Harley and Canary, although I stand by my previous comments about Harley needing a better outfit because she looks ridiculously out of place compared to the people she's with, to the extend someone could have poorly photo-shopped her in.The background work is very nice though, so points for that.
Happy about Simone being back in the saddle - her dialogue between the Birds seems natural and fits their respective personalities, plus her Harley sounds less like an inbred hick and more like someone who genuinely has a bit of an accent/dialect.
My first issue with this first issue though is that it opens on "Later. Ten blocks away and thirty stories up..." which could work for the intrigue aspect but it just happens way too often in comics. Like, flitting between then and now is fine, but didn't we used to just have the comic open and THEN have the later/earlier sequence pop up? This reeks of Conner/Palmiotti. Ugh.
Next issue is immediate.
Harley Quinn is making all the decisions for a team she's not even in and everyone else just goes with it, while making vague comments about her mental capacity.
Miranda's faces and bodies aren't the best but at least there's a good sense of motion with some of these poses. Not sure what Harley's trying to achieve with the edge of the world dancing though - I would get it if she was trying to put someone else off balance but girl, you sat here with the G-D BOP! If ANYONE in Gotham is afeared of heights or dangling from grotesques, these guys would be absolute LAST on the list. Also... why is she explaining to these two what Gotham's all about? Was there another retcon where Canary and Huntress never lived in the city or something??
Harley just throat punched the English language and there are visions of IT Crowd swimming in my head.
Besides, all this talk about "later" and "oh by the way a sinkhole ate a hospital" makes me think I've missed something integral to the story.. but isn't this issue one? What's the go with the Penguin and Riddler related safety violations - is this a random call out or a reference to a prior tale??
Also the whole Harley with them business... how did she contact them/get their attention? Why are they talking like she's up for team inclusion when they keep noting her criminal connections? Harley doesn't even seem to know their names. Plus, where's the usual gang of hard hitters?
Anyway, story jumps to a "later that evening" where the trio are checking out the sinkhole. Kind of like how Canary's parting jumps sides too. She looks fine compared to Harley though.... what happened to her face in the second panel!?Harley stays mum on her "mysterious source" but then we see her cross her fingers behind her back - GASP - she may not be on the straight and narrow!! Shock and horror, folks.
Also not sure why Harley has to be the tag a long in all of these adventures instead of like, the Birds taking the tip off and investigating by themselves? She literally has her fingers in every team and/or Pie in and around Gotham.
Naturally Harley ditches Canary and her logic and goes on a rampage (while spouting some weird one liners that I think are supposed to be funny because they're random? "Hot soup! Look out everyone!") with Huntress following close behind. Canary is ticked, not just at being "Batmanned" but because the goon they missed set off a warning. Guess I'll take her word for it because we don't actually see this happen.
The trio decide to break into the office and find a few offscreen clues and well laid out unseen exposition about the evil deeds when none other than Poison Ivy rocks up and Harley takes a few panels to squee about it... even though... I mean, Ivy was her source, right? She knew she was gonna be here, yes? .......why is she so surprised, like this was a one in a million chance meeting?
Not really a fan of Poison Ivy's look here - I kinda dig the outfit and the fact that her torso looks like a gnarled tree trunk but it also looks.. kind of... off? Like she's got some really mismatched proportions, it looks like one of her dead looking vines is about to strangle her and someone really wanted to use every shade of green they had for her.The fight scene that follows is also really strange.. immediately Huntress and Canary are like "you set us up!" and prepare to fight Ivy - which is understandable given a) her reputation and b) the fact that Ivy came out with her strangle vines in motion and her best Grumpy Cat impersonation, c) not one attempt to persuade the BOP that she's here to help and veiled threats about getting them to put their weapons down followed closely by d) derogative terms for non-green and non-plant folk.
Come on Ivy, this is 2020. Get your act together!
Also Harley just stands there watching this whole thing escalate and does nothing until Canary gets in her face and asks"What the hell??"
I also asked this question, because the very last page of this issue is crammed - actually crammed with exposition about how this whole thing, the hospital being built as a cover and eventually threatening to devastate the plant life in the harbour got Ivy's attention, then Harley vouched for the BOP to get their aid in the matter.. I think I would have much rather have seen this play out instead of the awkward forced drama and fight scenes between Ivy and the Birds then the subsequent awkward team up.
Comic ends once again on Harley needing to fill her guts with food. At least somethings in DC never change/get retconned, I guess.
The Short End of the Jester Schtick
While reading this, I got the impression that Simone didn't really have that much control over the story she was writing. Like, DC jumped on damage control after the Birds of Prey movie also starring a shoe-horned in Harley began to flop, and flop HARD and somehow got Simone - perhaps the penultimate Birds of Prey writer - to come back after they screwed her over in the past, gave her the outline but the page was covered in several post it notes with passive aggressive micro-managing tidbits on it about AGAIN making the all mighty Birds bow down to the whims of one over saturated clown girl.
I mean that almost literally too - what is going on with Harley's colours? The interior art is pretty mediocre for the most part but at least three characters have definition and shading and what have you... Harley looks like someone put her in the too hard basket, and just did all of her colours in Microsoft Paint with the paint bucket tool and called it a day.
This is probably the BEST looking panel of all the characters together and Harley still looks like she was photo shopped in awkwardly.
Should be noted that she's missing her eye make-up but given how the art fluctuates between light pastel-like tones and absolute pink eye contagion, this isn't a complaint.It is very unclear what's going on here as well - as in, IS Harley actually being considered to join the Birds of Prey or is this what it should be - a one off job where she's sought them out for help?
We'll have a little look into this at the end of this post in a fun new game, but personally I hope it's the latter. I know Batgirl's currently an active character in her own right, but there's still something so offensive in running the Birds of Prey without Oracle or at the very least a Batgirl...
Plus, now we have Harley in her own adventures, Suicide Squad, whatever event DC runs or needs a cameo on (lookin' at you, Wonder Woman) and now more than likely she'll be a regular in this group too. I mean, come on! At least we can believe Batman can be everywhere.. the only reason I can believe these Birds will put up with Harley at little bit is that at least she's not as annoying as Maggot Roblox.
Wotta Comedian!
Canary: You know that friend you want to trust, but still don't, somehow? Steals your jewellery, flirts with your boyfriend? We have someone like that. Her name's Harley Quinn.
Harley: Oops! Sorry, lost what's left of my mind for a minute there.
Huntress: Not the biggest loss.
Canary: Dang it. They pulled a Batman...
Huntress: Well, no point in stealth for the rest of this op, huh?
Harley: I can crack it. I...uh... learned at camp.
Is She or Isn't She?
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Play nice or play dead! Harley Quinn's rules!