She's Growing On Me
The New 52 Harley Quinn, I mean. I loathed her in Suicide Squad. Sex with Deadshot and the re-envisioning of her origin, as well as the sad attempt at crossing over her original costume design with the turboslut look in the Arkham series of video games left me cold. The fun seemed to have been squozen out of the character.
So, after I read the 0 issue, I was even more concerned that it was going to turn into the bastard lovechild of Byrne's She-Hulk and Deadpool, using metafictional elements and digressing outside the fourth wall. The series immediately stepped away from that direction. After reading the first issue, I told my friendly neighborhood comic retailer that I wasn't ready to add it to my pull list, but I'd give it the four issue test*.
"No sweat," he told me. "I've ordered enough extra copies that you can keep checking it out until you've made a decision."
I picked up # 2. Without too many spoilers—this is a review, after all; not a rant—I can say Harley Quinn, not unlike one of Poison Ivy's babies, is growing on me [Please call help; a vine is tickling my kidney...it didn't get there the good way]. This issue was lighthearted, but did not digress too much from the central conflicts established in the first issue. There is extremely overt lesbian banter between Ivy and her "cute little psycho," and while one can make the case that the jokes are out of Harley in need. They do sleep together, but there's no indication that there was sex, and the physical contact between them is chaste affection. These demonstrations of intimacy and respect allude to feelings deeper than just promiscuity, and establish that there's a deep emotional connection between the two characters rather than the one-dimensional girl-girl relationships in books like Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose. This is extremely satisfying characterization for me, and contributes to selling me on the book. The dynamic between them in Gotham City Sirens was unbalance by the presence of Catwoman, and the original coupling in B:tAS was watered down because of the cartoon's younger audience. This seems more genuine.
More, there's the promise of mystery. Someone is still out to kill Harley, and there's no clue who it is (though my $ is on Madame Macabre, desiring the building for herself), and the book ends with the impending intrusion of another new character in Harley's chaotic life. Building suspense is appealing to me, rather than picking up the issue after such elements are introduced and BAM! Mystery solved.
Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti's writing and Chad Hardin's art are a winning combination for this book, like chocolate and peanut butter or Power Man and Iron Fist. I only allotted three stars because some of the story does kind of stretch the ole suspension of disbelief, and fiction is supposed to be moving towards authenticity, right? Also, the taxidermed beaver that maybe no one else can hear or maybe they can (like Stewie in Family Guy) doesn't really do anything for me than offer set-ups for p*ssy jokes. Finally, I like the Danzig-looking little person. Maybe a Rollins doppelganger will show up and they can beat up fans together?
*-By end of fourth issue or first story arch on new books that I'm wary of, if I'm not engaged, I drop it.
