Jester ’ nother gal trying to get by
In her new title, Harley Quinn gets to chill out a lot. Oh, and there are zombies!
WELCOME to the Rebirth of Harley Quinn! Please fasten your seatbelts, keep your dog ears off the pretty pages ( get a bookmark, you philistine), and forget everything you thought you knew about Harley Quinn!
On second thought, don’t forget anything, because you’d have wasted all those little grey cells you spent forgetting it. There’s a handy recap in the first 10 pages of the comic, after a gratuitous prologue featuring Harley and Poison Ivy lounging in a spa that doesn’t seem to do much for the story beyond giving us a look at how two sexy female super- anti- heroes look like lounging in a spa.
Anyway, Harley Quinn # 1 pretty much continues where the previous DC New 52 series left off, with our lovable anti- hero settling nicely into her now Joker- less life.
She is the landlord of two buildings; has found a new tool to squeeze red, er, I mean, found a new squeeze in Red Tool; and has more friends and allies than the entire Batman, Inc. roster.
Oh, and she’s also pals with Power Girl and is part of the Suicide Squad. Talk about multitasking, man.
Right after the 10- page reintroduction of Harley and her pals, we then skip to a page where an alien crash- lands on Earth and, thinking cows are the dominant species, shapeshifts into one, only to be turned into sausages and eaten by a lot of people.
Why is this happening? Because it is a totally legit reason to get ZOMBIES into the story! YEAH! And so the rest of the story is about Harley and her tool, ahem, I mean, Harley and Red Tool fighting zombies. THE END. Oh wait, there’s more to come? Hooray!
Harley Quinn # 1 isn’t so much a rebirth than a recap. After all, Harley had been reborn long before DC came up with the concept of Rebirth. She’s ditched the “Joker’s squeeze” angle, and become her own super- anti- hero, sort of the Deadpool of the DC Universe, if you need an easier analogy.
But just because Joker’s gone doesn’t mean that the jokes are gone, too. The numerous solo Harley Quinn titles so far have been rip- roaring, outlandish and funny adventures, ranging from her conning Power Girl into thinking she is her partner, to fighting a Popeye parody who gets stronger by eating green gunk.
Harley Quinn # 1 does start off slow, with the whole spa and cast introductions dragging a little long and a little too wordy, but once the zombies come into the picture and the fighting starts, Quinn’s quips and quirks quickly perk things up.
If you liked her before, you’ll probably like this. If you only found out about her from the Suicide Squad movie, then hey, this is the perfect introduction to Harley Quinn in the comics.