This will be my last review for the Harley Quinn ongoing for a while. I’ve been needing to take a little step back from comic reviewing to work on other projects. Therefore, I will be dropping Joker (yay). I will also be reviewing this Harley Quinn book every 6 months in trade paperback. Meanwhile, I will continue to cover Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn: Black, White, and Redder.

However, I really don’t think I’ll be missing anything with this book in the meantime. I’ve come to the same conclusion that I did with Stephanie Phillip’s run. Mainstream Harley Quinn books are unreadable, and there’s nothing being done to change that. The reasons why have been spoken about by critics and readers ad nauseam, so what else is there to be said at this point?

Unreadable

When I say these books are unreadable, I mean it. Last week, I gave an incredibly high score to Harley Quinn: Black, White, and Redder #2, to the point where I worried I was being too charitable because the book still certainly had its flaws in terms of Harley’s characterization. However, going from that book to this was like jumping into a pool of ice water after baking in 100 degree weather. Ouch it hurt. 

Tini Howard writes Harley like a screaming llama who spouts middle-aged fart jokes. Yet, we are still supposed to find the character endearing somehow. Page after page is filled with this kind of dialogue. Tini Howard somehow makes Harley and Ivy’s relationship even worse by writing Ivy as if she’s Harley's mother as well as her lover, making Ivy give Harley soft kisses, gentle guidance, and special home-cooked meals as if she’s her child, that is, in between their make-out sessions (weird). 

Harley Doesn't Want to Be a Hero...

The main thrust of this comic is taking Harley on a nightmare journey where she sees that being a superhero is not the life that could ever be fitting for her. With that, we get the only good idea in the book which is to portray Harley in a Golden Age-styled comic book adventure that pokes fun at those old comics. I enjoyed the nod to thought bubbles which had been used prominently in comics, but now I guess they’ve become “thought boxes.” There’s some good, classic, 2D comic artwork by Hayden Sherman here that is nice to look at as well. But it is quite inconsistent. Why does Harley look like a man sometimes?

As for the story of Harley realizing she can’t be a hero? I wasn’t going to be fooled by that for a second. All DC has done for the past 7 years is to have Harley achieve true confidence in herself. Then they’ll give her a little self-doubt so she can go on an arc where she rediscovers her confidence and resolves to be a hero. Then they’ll do the same story over again, and again, and again.

"DC's Weird Girl"

Sure enough, this book ends with Lady Quark FORCING Harley to be a hero, even though she doesn’t want to be, so that Harley can save the multiverse. First of all, this makes no sense. Lady Quark told Harley she herself would destroy the multiverse over Harley being “crazy", and now she wants to make Harley become a hero to save everything? We don’t even know what Harley’s “craziness” is, despite Tini Howard saying she wants this to be a series about mental illness. 

Tini does manage to remove even more elements of Harley’s character by claiming that Harley was “born crazy”. Harley Quinn is clearly a character who Tini Howard has no understanding of but was hired to write because that’s DC Comics for you. That was pretty obvious to me in her first interviews for the book where she kept referring to Harley Quinn as “DC’s weird girl,” something I’ve never heard anyone refer to Harley Quinn as, ever.

...DC Will Stop At Nothing to Keep Harley a Hero

As for Lady Quark forcing Harley to be a hero even though she doesn’t want to be? That felt unintentionally meta. First, everyone has been clear that they don’t like Harley Quinn as a superhero. Second, Harley Quinn has not had any major financial success as a superhero, unlike a character such as Venom. Finally, Harley Quinn herself does not want to be a superhero in this comic. However, DC keeps forcing the character to be a hero anyway. Why would anyone read a garbled, annoying, nonsensical comic with an iconic character who continues to go against everything people liked about her in the first place, written by someone who clearly doesn’t understand her and who hasn’t proven to be a competent writer, period?

Everything DC Has Done Wrong With Harley Quinn

DC’s problems with Harley Quinn run deep. They mishandled the character when she first transitioned into comics by keeping her generally separate from Batman comics and trying to make her a solo character. Then they fumbled her again by trying to make her a half-naked, bleached, child-murdering psycho in the New 52. Then they turned her into Deadpool for the rest of the New 52. Despite the interest in that going away as soon as the DC Rebirth started, they still haven’t taken notice in 7 years. In the midst of this, they had the foolish idea of ending the core trait of her character, her obsession with the Joker, so she’s had no real identity or direction as a character since. 

It’s their loss, really. Harley Quinn could have been developed legitimately as a character and been popular and sought out to this day. But I’ve seen Harley go from a fan favorite to the character everyone hates. That is on DC Comics and their refusal to ever listen to their critics.

Back-Up

Oh yes, there is a back-up in this book as well by Leah Williams. I honestly was confused by the plot though. It was about Harley floating through time, seeing past versions of herself, and trying to escape a vortex. There was a lot of pretentious dialogue about the past and dimensions, but the story ended too abruptly to explore such big topics. The edgy, futuristic artwork by PJ Holden was also very inconsistent, like it had been done in a rush. Why does a book like this need a back-up anyway?

Recommend if…

• You want to read something that’s the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
• You wanted another example of why Harley Quinn is a destroyed character.
• Tini Howard’s writing is your favorite.

Overall

All I can say to you is: don’t buy mainstream Harley Quinn comics. No, don’t even buy a variant cover even if you think it looks pretty. They’re a waste of money. DC doesn't deserve payment for continuing to beat the dead horse that is Harley Quinn. Tini Howard isn't even writing a story here; she's writing a collection of half-thoughts and ideas strewn together. What more can I say?

Score: 3/10

Disclaimer: DC Comics provided Batman News a comic of this comic for the purposes of this review.