It’s freezing here in New York City. Unseasonably low temperatures, even for the end of January.

Harsh winters can be a time for cozy, unchallenging reads.

Luckily, with this 47th issue of the ongoing adventures of Harley Quinn, I can tick one of those boxes.

We’re back to the square run of this new run as we begin this issue.

Harley’s Destructive Agency’s Client of the Month this round is a cook at a pretentiously high-concept restaurant in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. The cook wants the neighborhood restored to its working class, immigrant roots, and is willing to enlist Harley’s help, even if it means sacrificing his paycheck. Harley’s task is simple: destroy the place and get out with its cash.

Things get un-simple when Harley crashes the private dining room and finds that it’s occupied with a family reunion of every Clayface iteration active in the current continuity of DC. Harley is outmatched, and it’s an enjoyable battle with some genuinely funny moments of supervillain family bickering. But seeing Harley schlep herself back to her apartment afterwards deflates the issue.

While this reviewer is somewhat relieved to be breaking out of the personified-gentrification-symptom-as-supervillain-of-the-month-parody pattern (this month’s client does have a trick up their sleeve that I was a genuine little surprise), the larger formula of Harley’s Destructive Agency is growing tiresome. Writer Elliot Kalan’s attempts at larger narrative elements feel like an afterthought and haven’t taken any significant steps in a few issues now. If we’re telling a Sherlock-Holmes-esque detective agency story here, it feels like we’re not sure whether we want this to be a novel or a series of short stories.

I think the Holmes comparison here is useful for thinking about narrative structure. Conan Doyle originally published his famous detective short stories periodically, in magazines. The experience of the British readership at the time would have been quite similar to that of a modern comic book reader: you wait for the next installment and return to its formulas upon publication. It works because each story is meant to stand on its own rather than continuing any larger narrative.

But in a continuing series like the ones we have with modern superhero comics, I would argue that there needs to be a more satisfyingly developed narrative throughline to supplement a formula. Formulas are fair game, but formulas are meant to yield a sum. This is a series that keeps starting back at zero.

I do want to take a moment and shed some light on this month’s artistic outing. I have bemoaned Mindy Lee’s unfocused pencilling in past reviews, and I stand by all of that. But this zany Harley vs. The Clayface Family fight scene is a highlight of this new run. The Clayfaces’ (literally) fluid, erratic range of motion pitted against Harley bouncing off the walls as usual is a situation perfectly suited to Lee’s output. The Faces Clay blend and blob together with intention, leading to an effectively enveloping enemy for Harls that never overwhelms or confuses the reader.

That aside, this issue continues the trend of being let down by this series. I think Elliot Kalan’s political messaging is worthwhile and is certainly something to be usefully explored in the pages of comics set within Gotham City, but it is time for a more engaging narrative to reveal itself.

Recommend if:

• You need a headcount of all the Clayfaces in the current canon
• You’re tired of pretentious restaurants
• You want a more comedic version of the one-vs-many fight

Overall:

This is a middling filler issue while we wait around for a bigger, better story. Is that bigger, better story actually coming? Who knows!

Score: 4.5/10