Every year, my New Year’s Resolution is to travel more.
Then I remember that traveling on a student budget is impossible in this economy.
So when I escape into a comforting comic book and see an undeniably hard-working character like Harley Quinn take a personal day and hide away in nature for a rest and reset, it can be a rewarding and vicarious experience.
This month we get a not unwelcome reprieve from Harley’s destructive adventures in de-gentrifying Gotham, a formula which is quickly growing stale. We instead get the long-awaited reunion of Harls and Ivy in Ivy’s swampy love nest. They have a heart-to-heart, in which Ivy tries to get Harley to see the drawbacks of trying to get everyone to like her all the time (a curious analysis of Harley’s recent behavior, I must say, given how much she’s been blowing stuff up and smashing bourgeois infrastructure… not exactly people pleasing ways.)
Things of course get complicated by the sudden arrival of Professor Pyg’s Dollotrons who subdue the two lovebirds and drag them to Pyg’s (presumably) nearby lair. Pyg has devilish plots for a being as powerful as Ivy…
I generally cringe whenever someone who isn’t Grant Morrison tries to write Professor Pyg’s dialogue. Morrison’s unique brand of madcap horrifying literary flair is totally irreproducible. Kalan’s efforts are not a total failure; Pyg’s perpetually disturbing fixation on his “Mommy” is adequately portrayed and is not out of place in the pages of an issue of “Harley Quinn”. I for one would have liked to have seen Pyg’s inclusion in the last run as part of Harley’s therapeutic crusade, if only for the image of getting Pyg’s to sit still and talk about himself for a moment instead of what Mommy wants.
It also makes no sense for Pyg to drag Harley back to his hideout and is clearly only doing so out of plot convenience so that Harley can be in on the ensuing struggle. In my reviews, as well as in my own personal discussions with friends on superhero media, I make a concerted effort not to fixate on plot holes or narrative contrivances because I think such criticism is unhelpful and in bad faith, especially in these genres wherein suspension of disbelief is so critical. But this particular instance is pretty egregious; this story beat just makes no sense whatsoever and pulled me right out of the reading experience.
On a lighter note, this might be my favorite artistic outing so far from penciler Mindy Lee. Their body compositions and facial expressions seem sharper and more well defined and the fight choreography here in this new setting is a bit more entertaining than what we’ve gotten in the streets of Gotham. Their slight indulgence in breaking the constraints of the art team’s own panel construction is perfect for HQ. This is perhaps the first issue of this new run whose art I have enjoyed.
We’re not on any kind of ride here, we devoted readers of Elliot Kalan’s Harley Quinn. We seem to reset at the end of every issue before venturing back into the narrative fray at the beginning of the next one. We all live our lives this way, of course. Life is not exactly any kind of grand, sweeping, all-encompassing adventure, at least not for anybody I know. That’s why we have comics; they’re escapes for when the travel budget is thin. And right now, Elliot Kalan is not exactly captaining a great ship.
Recommend if…
- You dyg the Pyg
- You’ve been waiting for Ivy to waltz back into Harley’s life
- You’re into the swampy side of DC’s landscape
Overall: This is another general misfire in a generally uninspiring run for Harley Quinn. Coming off of the bizarre Clayface family reunion, it feels as though DC editorial is haphazardly cycling through Gotham’s rogue’s gallery for characters to pit against Harls. Outside of some artistic highlights, I really can’t recommend anyone jump on board unless you simply have to see this all out.
Rating: 4/10
English (US) · 