DC Universe Harley Quinn #63

July 2019
Writer: Sam Humphries
Art: Otto Schmidt
Cover: Guillem March
"Death becomes Harley"

The final trials of Harley Quinn have begun…and the stakes have never been higher! Will Harley succeed in becoming the Angel of Retribution? Or will she fall short, only to suffer the same fate as all those before her?
Plus, a mysterious new comic by M. Clatterbuck appears…in which Lex Luthor makes Harley an exciting offer!
This cover is advertising the tie in for the "year of the villain" event, which is fine I guess, but I mean... going with a cross eyed Harley isn't the image I would have chosen. Plus, I thought the series was pushing the agenda that Harley is no longer a villain? Eh, who can keep up anymore? Especially when she either has hyenas or doesn't or only does when it's convenient like when she needs to sass an anthropomorphic personification of death.

The variant cover artist is Frank Cho who I have criticised before for being
kinda stuck in his ways. Here he's gone a bit different and done an oil painting.. or two. Which, yeah is hard and does take some skill but also.. I don't know if I like these. The first one is okay - but then he changed it to the final cover of just Harley doing her Maggot-Miley impersonation, which then apparently got super pasty white for production and now looks worse. I reckon he should have stuck with the peace sign/Vogue-ing one.





This issue opens with some random hero guy called The Coney Champion - who has sworn to take down Harley for her reign of terror - getting absolutely nerfed by Death. And not the fun Death, like Discworld, but some lazy skeleton who just throws this dude into a truck and kills him.
Which probably the worst part about is not the laziness, not the new character introduced and killed off because he posed a slight threat to Harley, the fact that it had nothing really to do with the story but probably the fact that this guy driving said truck appears to have vehicular manslaughtered before.. and assumes he's at fault even though this other guy hit the SIDE of his truck. What the heck sort of intro is this?

DC Universe Harley Quinn #62

Alright, this one I've been putting off for a while because just reading this comic exhausted me. More on that later.

Anyway, first cover is fine I guess, but the Enchantress' face is scarier than I think the artist intended. Plus, is Harley offended at being called an idiot or is she so far removed from being a jester now that she has no idea what 'fool' means in context?

Cho's cover is a lot better than normal - actually fits the comic's theme and does a good job. It's still weird seeing Harley in the classic costume but not wearing her domino mask. It's like leaving the house not wearing shoes or something. Weird. Doable depending on where you're going, but still like... weird. Also Catwoman's helmet straps dangling seem like an unusual liability for her.

So - why am I exhausted?

Well....

This is page one. 

Did we not get rid of this million speech bubbles bull crap already? And for good reason? 

I'm not the kind of person to baulk at reading - I love reading, and I read fast. I read comics, novels of fiction and non, magazines, blogs, newspapers, flyers, cereal boxes, the really small fine print you get in contracts, HELL - I'm that person that actually reads the pamphlets that come with medication! 

So it's not just the sheer amount of words that are a problem, it's the obnoxious way it's shoved in our faces, complete with randomly sized and differently coloured key points so you don't fall asleep reading the damn thing. 

So, to break it down - Harley - talking to us via the fourth wall - recaps the WHOLE last issue again. She does this while literally being burnt at the stake because PRIORITIES, clearly. Then the whole thing is supposed to be her 'testimony' to Tina, trying to prove she's not crazy. Harley's supposed to be smarter than this, like PhD smart, yet she can't take a second to read the room? She KNOWS people here don't understand her, yet she makes no effort, even when her life and the life of Catwoman is on the line, to pretend to be normal and speak clearly?

Would you talk the same to the CEO of your company as you would to a toddler? How about an astrophysicist versus a grade schooler? An English literature professor against an immigrant who knows only basic translations? Your best friend or your worst enemy?

NO. 

New52 Grifter vs Suicide Squad

So for a change of pace, thought I might take a look back at the earlier incarnations of the New52 Suicide Squad and their tentative steps into the world of cross overs. I am not a Grifter fan, in case you were wondering. I don't know anything about him apart from his cheap Spidey-Poole costume, fondness for guns and a code name that implies he's dodgy as a backstreet lung.

Feb 2013

Action packed cover. If you're wondering why the artist forgot to draw a bunch of arms holding those guns, it's because Grifter is telekenetic... because of course he is. Still doesn't excuse his lazy costume.

Opening up on some sort of briefing which we're later shown is a recording being shown to Waller alone, we're shown a red haired girl with green eyes and told this is the target, and she's joined some sort of alien cult because how else would she spend her Saturday night?

Anyway, the first picture of the girl is her in a green singlet, then the rest of the panels show her singled out in the middle of the room, then there are two more panels with a girl with red hair and green eyes, yet sitting at the front here and with a different dress.

Plus the people she's sitting next to are swapped out. Soo.... is the red head the same girl the whole time? Is the first image a stock photo and the rest is the 'live' scene? It's confusing. The art's not too bad though.





Waller gets chewed out for a past mission failure and then we're back into the action, watching Grifter run and monologue at the same time. Oh, and also dodging bullets. I wonder who's shooting at this guy? Could it be....

Yes! It's Shooty Robot, Fire Skull and Emo Levitating clown!
Oh lawd, doesn't Harley's face remind you of that time Dc released all the 'Arkham City/Harley's Revenge' tie ins and promos, and she was just constantly either crying or having dripping eyeliner? Wait, is this a nod to sad clowns? Well, either way her pose is stupid and she looks more wannabe emo than a dramatic-comedic persona. Also, Grifter and Deadshot have the same pose more or less.
Also Harley's quip would probably make more sense if she wasn't from Gotham and had a history of breaking into Arkham herself.

Still, as much as Harley's pose and face freaks me out... it's not as bad as the next page.

DC Universe Harley Quinn #58

Standard cover here was to be expected - every time Harley catches up with Batman and ISN'T attacking him without provocation, she's trying to be a Robin of sorts. So, par for the course here. It's okay, but predictable and overdone. Variant cover is visually stunning... although riding a purple bike covered in Joker stamps and wearing a 'Puddin'' collar probably isn't the best way to spend the issue immediately after you spent a lot of time declaring yourself Joker-free.



Also, I feel like a good chunk of Japan just got stereotyped and hard. She also loses points for the shoes, not wearing a helmet, not looking where's she's going, presumably having other tattoos a la Suicide Squad, animal cruelty and for littering those playing cards everywhere. Still, at least it's unique, I guess. Couldn't help but notice one of her eyes has changed colour.... aaaaand they've added purple eye-shadow to her already quite convoluted colour scheme. I do find myself quite liking this cover as a one off though.

Now.. where we left off, Harley was being apprehended by Batman because she's a suspect in a murder. It rather looked like a parent putting a child in time out, but worse because she's a grown woman who just attacked Batman with a bat, man, because she was too impatient to listen.
 Then... She's not even handcuffed in the Batmobile? Then... she's just allowed to run free in the Batcave? Like.... did I miss something? Oh right, normal rules don't apply to Harley Quinn.

I mean, at first it looks like she's released to help solve the case, but that can't be right because she later suggests that she helps solve the case and Batman shoots her down. This is Batman - why is he suddenly relaxing his strict protocols? Then he lets himself get handcuffed to Quinn? Why is Batman being written as totally incompetent?




FYI - saying "No body no crime" doesn't exactly make it sound like you're innocent, Harley.
Neither does dismissing motive, opportunity and physical evidence at the scene as 'flimsy.'

First step of the investigation - visiting the murder victim's home... which for some reason, Batman didn't do as a first step by himself. Then he lets Harley do the talking. Clearly, they're going for a second rate buddy cop schtick here so to even get through this I'm going to have to let a lot of things slide. Which, surprisingly isn't an issue for other comics that generally involve super powers. So, that's a thing that happens now.

They meet up with the deceased doctor's house-sitter, who no one bothered to tell that the home owner is dead. Then they go to the crime scene where Harley touches the crime scene and eats a cookie crumb, declaring that suddenly she is a member of a cookie fan club and can note the complexities of the flavour even though they aren't available in her country. So, that's pretty convenient. Not to mention the main murder suspect ate the only evidence and could therefore just make up whatever bullshit she wanted.

Fortunately for her, this leads Batman to a warehouse on the docks that a) imports illegal goods and b) is registered in the dead doctor's name... because that's a smart business move that clearly doesn't warrant any further investigation. It also houses Smylex... because that's a thing that happens and they now label a concoction made by the Joker clearly. Well, points for WHS&S... but only given if they ever cover up that vat that he fell into in the first place with an actual safe cover.

DC Universe Harley Quinn #57

Alright, getting back into this. I've put it off for so long, I began to lose sense of self, sense of time, sense of smell... boy, it was pretty harsh. I don't even remember what happened in the last issue... unless it was that Christmas one, in which case it can go die in a fire because it sucked harder than any other made for TV Christmas special.

Right.. first cover, Harley looking guilty, covered in blood and her one redeemable tattoo from Suicide Squad - about to be attacked by Batman. Oh, sorry. HUNTED. HUNTED by Batman. I feel attacked is better, because how much hunting would it take to track down some gal covered in blood, standing over the corpse and holding the smoking gun as it were, when there is nothing else in this cover universe apart from Harley, Batman and the corpse? Second/variant cover is just Harley doing some random 'hey I have a gun! 'Murica!' pose and doesn't include Batman at all. Which means either the artist can't draw Batman, couldn't think of a good cover that made use of Batman or this cover was just a generic one someone pumped out that could have been put on any issue.

Both covers look okay though, I guess. Especially compared to the interior art.

I mean - in a nutshell - this is why I can't stand Timms.
This whole page.

First up the SUPER splash page with elongated Harley... and her obligatory thousand of speech bubbles exposition dump or waxing lyrical about some star or something while feeling so sorry for herself. Is she supposed to be praying or wishing on a star?

 Then, two smaller panels. One with her sort of looking around at something that we have no idea is there - there are no visual clues or sound effects to cause her to look around - and the second small panel I feel is redundant, it should have been included in the first small panel (along with a valid reason for her to butcher the English language) because she's basically doing the same thing - she hasn't even turned her head.

If I'd drawn this same page - I would have had maybe two larger panels instead of the splash. One with Harley talking to herself, not some stupid star - about how tough she's finding it and that she needs a break/isn't sure what to do etc. The second panel could be a continuance of this, but in the background - maybe we see something like a shooting star. This catches Harley's eye and prompts her to (in a long, single frame at the bottom) turn around and go "whoa, what was that?" which would lead up to her seeing what it was on the next page.

Or, if they were going to stick to their stupid star light star bright stuff because of what happens in the issue, why not show a shooting star in the sky behind her on that large splash?

I mean, it's not rocket science.

They can't even get her colours right, still. Sigh. 

Batman and Harley Quinn issues 1- 4

Alright, remember that Batman and Harley Quinn animated movie that came out? Then the prequel comics that came out? Then these ones that came out at pretty much the same time? Yeah.. it's a bit confusing. Even I get the whole Batman and Harley Quinn or Harley Quinn and Batman titles mixed up a lot. 

Geez, even DC is getting confused because they're selling the 5 issue prequel and the 7 issue sequel as 'Batman and Harley Quinn' and advertising it solely AS said sequel in a collected graphic novel. 

Let's have a look. 

So already we can see that the art style is basically the same - as in Batman the Animated Series but just bad enough so we don't get sued by WB. 

This issue opens with the suspicious note of '6 days since Harley lit the match' and the title of this issue is 'Busted' which ties into the Solit for the series which was :

Batman's been back in Gotham for almost a week, and that means someone is about to get "Busted"!
Wow! Is it Harley!? Nope. she ain't even in this issue. That's why I'm doing two posts on this run so I can breeze through the majority of it. The chump getting busted is Blockbuster. So.. is that a pun or what? Not sure.

DC Comics Red White & Black Harley Quinn Statue (John Timms vs Frank Cho)

Normally when I review a Harley Quinn volume 3 solo comic, I will place the standard and the variant cover beside each other and critique them. If you haven't guessed by the title of this post, I'm gonna do the same with some statues based on their artwork.

But wait, doesn't Guillem March do the covers now? Yeah, but I've already reviewed HIS statue and it's way out of these guys' league. So, we're stuck with John Timm (interior art) and Frank Cho (variant covers).

Already there's a huge difference between these statues.

YEAH, prepare to get butt hurt because  I'm talking about Harley's size!
 
I have mentioned that I'm not a fan of Timm's elongated, skinny ass butt-less wonder serial killer before.

This is not to be mean to women on the skinner side, but Harley - pretty much until the New 52 where she lost a lot of weight/boobs/muscles and started living in her lingerie - had always been drawn on the more slightly voluptuous side, but not like Cho's cheesecakey nostalgia art.

There's no happy medium.


Personally, I liked that she had a normal, not over-sexualised figure in her original form. It really helped lay down that Harley was - despite being a pro-athlete - basically a regular person who just fell into the criminal clown lifestyle. Like, Catwoman - you go around calling yourself a feline, you better be lithe and flexible! Poison Ivy based a large part of her schemes around attracting and duping men, so you better believe she's a bombshell. Harley was different. As long as she could flip around and be clown like, it didn't really matter what size she was.

The problem I had with Timm's interior art was that everything seemed to lose scale. Harley was always drawn like freakin' Plastic Man and her splash panels were always so, so stretched out (and crammed to the brim with exposition-ey speech bubbles) while she literally TOWERED over her colleagues like a slightly more colourful Slender Man and then there was her face.

I get that the art's not there to please me personally - I mean, it would be nice - but honestly Timm struggles with drawing faces. As in, the angles someone's head is turning, as in the crowd Harley is standing in has the exact same faces as everyone else, it's hard to tell what is hair and what's not plus Harley's nose is always red. This bothers me. Is it a cocaine habit? Is it cold? New found cat allergies? Is it too hard to find her nose on her pasty face otherwise? What?!

I think it was a carry on from Amanda Conner's stupid redesign - but I mean look how many years we've had of Harley doing white face and not having a ruby red sniffer? Even the New 52 didn't screw that up which is saying something! 

Cho meanwhile - is probably the nearest we've had to the Dodson's art from the original Harley solo run since Adam Hughes. Now they could do faces! Bodies! Humour!!! Oh, please come back to Harley Quinn -- Dodson team!

DC Universe Harley Quinn #55

*Sucks in breath* H'ooookay. Christmas issue. Here we go.

Right... standard comic character harasses Santa in a Christmas themed outfit. Well, she added baubles to her collar... like that wouldn't be impractical, itchy and awkward. Like her weird pom pom laces! That's nearly it's own death trap! Apart from that it's just her ordinary roller derby outfit. I really feel like this suit just doesn't get washed enough on a daily basis. Still, it's better than her weird Christmas rocket suit elf thing. Let's hope that monstrosity doesn't come back! Plus, this cover hurts me seeing things like 'plush toys for the hyenas that DC killed off horrifically' and the 'good old jester costume that my mom trashed a few issues back' on her Christmas list. Plus, how short AND wide is Santa's chair? All the better to hold your tiny hands up my dear. Other cover is basically Harley spray painting a snowman. It's okay, but I would have thought it would be a nice excuse to draw her nostalgic Christmas outfit instead of her wearing uggs and a scarf if it's soooo cold, right?

I like her jacket though, and how the interior quilt looking pleat is like diamonds.. I still don't get why she's got stars on her boobs like pasties, how do you screw up a deck of cards theme like you did her colours? You've got most of it in your logo, mate!

Ohh... yay... the space elf from Christmas hell costume.... it's made a reappearance.... whyyyyyy

Just like the weird Timms art and the zillion and one speech bubbles. This is going to be more painfully awkward than that time Rudolph asked Harley for his nose back.

DC Universe Harley Quinn #53

Well again with the serial comic posting.. I feel like every time I'm on here I'm looking at these instead of reviewing anything else Harley Related. This issue though..

I was actually enjoying the last two issues but this one is something else, but like, not in a good way.

First cover gives a good indication of what the story's about but I think it could have done without the speech bubble. Get it? What's better than seeing your parents naked or letting out a small fart? Why, increasing your chances of getting shot by playing Russian Roulette! Second cover... looks really familiar. Wasn't there already a cover out very similar to this? Running out of ideas, mayhaps?




Alright so it kicks off in some random school room where everyone stops everything because some kid's phone goes off. Teacher confiscates it but there's an outcry.

Yeah! It could be something important, like the kid's parents calling in an emergency, teach! Don't be so uncool! .....Oh no, wait, it's just some jerk off live-streaming.

Harley and Ivy meet Betty and Veronica #6

Okay - I'll come clean. I totally forgot about this issue. This comic isn't terrible, per se (it's just got questionable perspective and the Freaky Friday thing is a bit over done) but it doesn't make much of an impression either.

So... here we are.

Now I do like the first cover with Ivy and Betty.. Veronica is a bit hit and miss but oh Harley. We get it. You like baseball bats and ridiculous jackets you can't wear properly.
Plus.. 'Riverdale Sucks' ?

Uh, yeah.. creative. You had a massive splash panel - pride of place, even - on the cover and youuuu wasted it with your petty crimes and cheap eye make-up. You could have at least sprayed a pun on the wall! The second cover is a bit.. interesting.

Everyone is so pointy, skinny and angular with weird feet and elbows that it took me a while to realise that the strange thing is supposed to be what they're DOING, not what they look like. I just can't see Ivy going ahead with another stupid, reckless idea like Harley trying to fly with bat arm decorations, and looking so calm at that too.


Now for those playing at home - the big question is... what's the best way to incapacitate these four women? Is it...





A) Loosely tying them back to back with a cell phone in one of their pockets?

B) Loosely tying one's arms behind her back and hoisting her up above the others in a huge pipe so she can wriggle free and wash off the de-powering defoliant in the convenient lake beneath her?

C) Vaguely and probably loosely tying one to some port-a-potties with a chainsaw within reach of herself and the two numbskulls tied back to back.. and within kicking distance of the idiot in the pipeline?

Or.......... D) All of the above?

Yeah - players at home, if you picked D) - you're right! You also kinda cheated because the pictures were there.. but seeing as how D) is also the wrong answer, we'll let this one even itself out.

Good gravy, did these bad guys go to the Scooby Doo School of Dodgy Villains or what?

Suicide Squad New 52 # 18 - Harley Quinn branches out and Red Orchid pays the price!

"Death Blooms"
May 2013

Yeah, it's going to be one of THOSE issues, doing plant jokes to death. You would have thought that Harley had heard them all before... but then again they haven't even explained if her friendship with Poison Ivy survived the reboot. Probably not, like her on again off again immunity and her being so independent now in her new origins. Well, independent if you look past the fact that she literally has no agency in her own conception anymore or any female friends but hey!

Instead we have this... wait, what is she doing? Is she casually sitting on Red Orchid? Okay and her gentle cupping of Orchy's face is enough to render her powerless? Maybe Orchy's eyes are bugging out in fear of Harley's distinct lack of eyeballs. Wait, why are her feet so elongated? Why does she always lose her belt for these covers? Why is there such wasted potential in Orchy's plant hands?

WHY DO THESE COVERS TORMENT ME SO???


Anyway, where we last left these punks Harley was poisoned (although she's turned back to her ordinary dead clown whites now) and appears to be convulsing. Or showing off her boobs better, one of those. Yo-Yo was like any dude in this situation - thinking "oh no, my sister's killing my friends again!" Deadshot was also poisoned, but he's totally fine. King Shark and Voltaic are also there.

 Now, I can't decide which one I like more... Deadshot's choking face which makes it look like he's actually laughing and trying to get off panel so he can hide it, or Regulus and his ultra jerk smirk. Still not a huge fan of Red Orchid's bug eyes and insect arm eyebrows.


Shit, Digimon did better plant people than this. Although, for once DC didn't make a female character's boobs hang out 24/7. Hmm.... we have a conundrum.

(EDIT: I asked my husband what he thought Deadshot's expression meant and he said that he thought King Shark was giving him a bit of the backside rumpy pumpy. Now that's all I can see, making me wonder if Deadshot's 'joke' about kissing King Shark was actually a joke, and all those times he said he didn't care about King Shark... was it all a ruse for a secret romance?!)

Countdown 51-40

Now that we've been going back into the Detective Comics showing Harley hanging out with Holly at the Amazon shelters, it's high time we went back and had a look at Countdown. Countdown was another multi-comic event spanning 52 weeks but good luck finding a good synopsis for that amongst the hits you'll get for the New 52 comics.

Back in the day, I pretty much just collected the issues that Harley Quinn appeared in, comprehensive storyline be damned! I ended up buying the trades though because I thought the story was pretty cool and there were some interesting things going on, and for once the holy DC Trinity wasn't hogging all the spotlight. Which is kind of the point of the 52 Countdown... but anyway.

May 2007 - April 2008
AKA Countdown to Final Crisis

Synopsis:

The Great Disaster has occurred, and all hell breaks loose as all the story lines in COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS come to a climax, threatening Darkseid and Jimmy Olsen and Mary Marvel and the future of their Earth!

So we'll dip our toes in, running through the series but mostly looking at Harley Quinn's involvement because... well, it's a Harley Quinn blog you nitwit. Get with the program. I'll do a couple of issues per post. 

This one opens with Darkseid discussing depressing world views with Desaad and playing chess with  himself, figures of DC characters and apparently no rules. Fun analogy or sneaky advertising for merchandise? You decide! 

The first chess piece he moves is Duela Dent - AKA The Joker's Daughter. Her story was a big part of what I found interesting about this series and another reason why I was so disappointed with what the actual New 52 chose to do with her character. 

Here she is, appearing in 'flames' and honing in on her target, a young celebrity. After jumping out the window amidst explosions she tells Tracey to call her manager in order to fund Duela with some nonsequential greens or else she might just drop Tracey as they parachute over the city. 

Duela is cool, collected and slightly sassy. Jason Todd/Red Hood shoots a hole in her parachute and she has no hesitations about dropping Tracey to lighten the load but at least she does it politely. 

Naturally Jason stops her and saves Tracey. They get into a discussion about who belongs where in the grand scheme of things and how cool foreshadowing is, then Duela name drops some people before running off. 

Meanwhile we pop into the hospital where a powerless Mary Batson nee Marvel is leaving. She finds out Billy Batson has paid her medical costs and left her a note saying not to find him, which I guess is like a health care one night stand, so she's a little cut. 

Heatwave is regretting not installing a peep hole in his door but lets Trickster in anyway. He suspects the pretzels are booby trapped so he destroys them but it was in fact the beer. So now there's no beer and no pretzels. Not a good start to a party. Plus Heatwave's pants are ruined!

Suicide Squad New 52 #17 Twisted Up By The Red Orchid

April 2013

Oh my gosh that cover though.. I like the tree hands, that is cool but what is even happening with Harley Quinn? She looks a bit like someone made a paper mache version of her as she appears in the New52 Suicide Squad but then went and put Barbie doll clothes on her that don't fit as expected..

Well to be fair that costume never seems to fit her anyway but what I'm getting at is that this cover Harley looks quite a bit munted. As well as that, Red Orchid looks pretty docile and expressionless for someone 'twisting up' an entire Squad. I don't even get the name... have you seen orchids before? They're the most ornamental things ever, beautiful as they are. I guess you have to get in early to get all the good plant villain personas.

The comic itself jumps us into Chinatown where Harley, Deadshot, Yo-Yo, Voltaic and King Shark are busy doing full head shots and what's supposed to be witty battle banter. Yo-Yo makes a weird comparison between King Shark and Chris Rock. I didn't get it then and I don't get it now. It just seems like someone told the writers to chuck in a random pop culture reference. I don't think Chris Rock even did much in 2013 to be thrown in there as a one liner... did he?

The mysteries of the New52. Will we ever truly understand what drugs they were on? Mmmm....no.
Could be the same drugs that made them think that these dipshits could annihilate a bunch of Shaolin style gang members. Deadshot mistakes them for Japanese Samurais directly after referring to Chinatown in Cantonese.. but he's really not doing so well on the cultural knowledge front for a world travelling assassin is he?

Suicide Squad New 52 #16 Death is for Suckers!

Here we are again with the Suicide Squad. Now last time we saw them they were either doing some jungle thing with Basilisk or they were fighting Joker. Not even sure we can count either as proper continuity but whatever. Here they are in hospital at Belle Reve/Reeve. this can only mean one thing... oh no, FLASHBACKS!

Yep, now they're back in Mexico. Harley is all mushy that Deadshot shot himself instead of her and now she's demanding to carry his corpse back to base because reasons. King Shark talks a lot more in this issue but I'm guessing that's only because Iceberg and the others are a little out of it. He's also a bit nonsensical.

Captain Boomerang says one line and King Shark gets all uppity telling him to shut up before he (racial slur about Australians and BBQ's) him. Captain Boomerang's not worried - he lives in the Great Southern Land of the Great White Shark and he's used to sharks. To this King Shark replies that he's a Hammerhead and he eats Great Whites like Tic Tacs. Umm...

I'm not sure if King Shark is pointing out his species change from Great White to a Hammerhead - that we're still not sure why this happened - or if the writers actually don't know the difference between these two sharks.

Cute head, eats like rays and shit

Holy giant teeth Batman!

Yeah, um.. no. I don't think your species is gonna dominate Great Whites any time soon, King Shark. Try throwing your bravado around when it makes sense.
We just get past this nonsense and then Captain Boomerang and Harley have to blurt out some stupid line about spankings which just seems so out of place in the panel, like it was just crammed in there to be like "Oh, they're totally a team just hazing each other! Also, our token female Harley is kinky!" Blegh.

Grey Lora teleports in from somewhere and starts fronting like "I should'a killed youse when I had the chance!" Don't remember Grey Lora? Hey, I wish I was in that boat. She's not even wearing grey... like what the hell? Anyway, that editor I like sooooo much has put in a kind note about what issue we can find her originally in. Not that that explained anything about her apart from she exists and is like.. there.

DC Universe Harley Quinn 41

It's been a while since I checked out the recent Hardly Quinn. I've been so disappointed with DC comics lately that I just haven't been able to muster the strength to crack open a comic.
Especially since someone saw my classic Harley Quinn mug at work and asked me who it was.
I said this is Harley Quinn and they said oh, like Maggot Robbie?

No. Not like her. This one was funny and talented, not a useless, unfunny, looking like something the cat dragged out of Blondie's reject wardrobe, drugged out gangster ho, the butt-less wonder.
I could go on. The only compliment I can give Maggot Robbie is that her agent gets her juuust enough gigs that she doesn't have to rely on T&A.. which is good, seeing as she hasn't got any but gets her kit off regardless. Sigh.

Remember Harley Quinn? The character DC forgot how to write and just turned her into whatever the Tumblr generation thinks is cool at the moment?

Which brings me to this review. I've had a stressful week, and I want to take it out on something so here's my review on this month's crappy Hardly Quinn.


As usual, the Frank Cho cover greatly outshines the generic thug who eats pizza in weird outfits cover.
I shouldn't have to explain why I think this but good gravy the basic cover has Hardly so... POINTY.


How does she cross her legs without giving herself discount surgery?

 Discount bargain basement Barbie barbarian.





Oh, and this is the first advert they show.

Team Wisdom? That suits her about as much as 'Entropy' suits Batman. Geeez.

From Polygon:

And since he knows their enemy best, Braniac’s in charge of all the team rosters.

That’s a narrative hook that allows Justice League: No Justice’s creative team to indulge in some serious comic book “moneyball,” as Snyder calls it. There’s team Mystery, consisting of Superman, the Martian Manhunter, Starfire, and major villains Starro and Sinestro; team Entropy, including billionaires Batman and Lex Luthor, the assassin Deathstroke, the alien bruiser Lobo and the Teen Titans’ Beast Boy; team Magic, consisting of the mystical heroes Wonder Woman, Doctor Fate, Zatanna, Raven and Etrigan the Demon; and finally, team Wisdom, made up of the Flash, Damian Wayne (Robin), the Atom, Cyborg and, implausibly, Harley Quinn.

Truth be told, I found Dark Knights: Metal kinda lame and basically just skimmed it so sure, maybe Hardly Quinn is on team Wisdom because it's a plant eating entity and not because she's (or this Hardly at least) is anywhere near the smarts of Cyborg, Flash, Robin and Atom. 

Which is annoying because she could be, but she's not there for the empowerment, she's there because she fits the quota of 'at least one girl per team' and she's the resident cash cow. Yuck. 

So, probably won't be checking this out any time soon. The art looks nice, but the colour schemes stink of that time they decided to make literally everyone a lantern of some kind.