I’ve recently been spending a good deal of time with somebody who likes to describe things as “camp”. As in, a lot of things. At first, I had no idea what exactly he meant when he used the word. After my strategy of waiting around to see if any sort of pattern revealed itself failed, I finally mustered up the courage to outright ask: “so, in your mind, what exactly does camp mean?”

He paused for a moment, delighted, before finally telling me: “You know it when you see it.”

After reading this first issue of DC’s relaunch of Gotham City Sirens, I think I’ve seen it.

Gotham City Sirens was a 2009 three-way team up book between Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. It was created by BTAS writer and Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini and artist Guillem March and, after having achieved a modest critical and commercial success in that odd, amorphous period between the events of “Batman R.I.P.” and the launch of the New 52, has earned itself a place in the minds of loyal DC readers with a legacy of “Oh yeah, that’s something that happened.”

Given that Harley Quinn’s status has only soared to greater and greater heights in the ensuing years since that first GCS run, it was only a matter of time for DC to revive the title.

This go-round, the book’s creative team consists of writer/artist duo Leah Williams and Matteo Lolli. Williams recently has been writing Power Girl, and Matteo Lolli is most known for his work on Marvel’s Deadpool. This combined pedigree of fun, spunky characters has, one issue in, lent itself fairly well to this romp of a miniseries.

We kick things off with a chase: White Rabbit is being pursued by… masked, shirtless cowboys on horseback through the city streets of Gotham. Jaina is able to split off the corporeal form of White Rabbit and allows that form to run off in one direction and escape, but Jaina, running off in another direction, requires a rescue from Catwoman.

Meanwhile, Harley Quinn is out for an evening stroll with Bud and Lou when they’re seized upon by a herd of stampeding buffalo (are you noticing a western bent here?) being chased down by more cowboys (unmasked and wearing shirts and riding ATVs this time). Harley fights them off before they can do much damage to the quiet park, but she ends up with more questions than answers as the “cowboys” log themselves off/out of what ends up being some sort of radically immersive, real-terrain video game experience; these cowboy personas being mere avatars. Oh, and those stampeding buffalo are animal-cyborg hybrids. Both Catwoman and Harls flee to Poison Ivy for help, and the three of them agree to try and get to the bottom of just what on earth is going on.

Before wrapping things up, however, the reader is made privy to just who exactly has been pulling the strings so far on this most strange of Gotham evenings.

Leah Williams’s script is unashamedly leaning into a specific intended reader reaction, one I alluded to above. Namely: “Just what on earth is going on?” It’s not a terribly novel approach in comics, but there’s enough camp at play here to keep things moving along and to leave a reasonable amount of curiosity for the reader regarding getting some answers. There’s a motif of gaming and streaming culture that this particular reviewer would typically find a little odious, especially when handled finger-waggingly, but as it seems to be clashing with glorious asynchronicity against the whole Cowgirl/Western thing, I’m reserving judgement.

Matteo Lolli’s art is largely a great fit for this trio, and his expressions and fight scenes are more than capable. They lay the groundwork for what should be a solid artistic outing on this four-week miniseries. His backgrounds and incidental panels, however, can feel a little neglected, as if the reader is expected to forgive such sloppiness in what is intended to be a pretty fast-paced, hit-the-expositional-ground-running issue. It’s nothing egregious, but it’s nothing stellar, either.

The revival of Gotham City Sirens is trying a great deal to convince you that you’re having a good time. And sometimes, that was the case for me in this first issue. And even in the moments when it was not exactly the case, I couldn’t help but feeling happy for everyone involved in the silliness on display. That’s camp. It’s camp. I know it now that I see it. Just how much I am going to be “here for the camp” remains to be seen.

Recommend if…

• You too are searching for a working definition of “camp”
• You’ve been enjoying the momentum of the Sirens’ solo books
• You’re curious to see a Marvel artist take on a higher profile DC title

Overall: Gotham City Sirens is not going to break any new ground despite the veneer of zeitgeist. This shouldn’t necessarily turn anyone away, however. It’s setting up to be standard fun Gotham fare.

Score: 6/10