Ricky Church reviews Harley Quinn #1…
Die Laughing” part one! Welcome back to Harley Quinn’s crazy world on Coney Island…now get ready to wave goodbye, because everyone there just might get eaten alive! Harley’s gotta protect her neighborhood against an all-out zombie apocalypse! Break out the chainsaws, everybody!
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Harley Quinn #1 here
With Suicide Squad out in theaters (read my review here) now is a perfect time as any for DC to launch their Suicide Squad and Harley Quinn titles as DC Rebirth trudges on. Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti are really the only creative team that carried over from The New 52 Harley Quinn series to the Rebirth era and fans of their run should be quite happy with the new series as very little has changed. That fact, however, may be a slight detriment to the book though.
The pair of writers still retains the quirky sense of humour and fun. Though her relationship with The Joker is often the only thing people focus on, Harley Quinn #1 puts a spotlight on the many relationships Harley has formed throughout The New 52 run and prior. The opening sequence between Harley and Poison Ivy is entertaining with some fun back-and-forth between the characters and a nice look at their friendship. From there, Conner and Palmiotti give a recap of Harley’s history, including The New 52 run for anyone who didn’t follow that comic.
Though it was nice to have that introduction to the rest of Harley Quinn’s characters, it was a lot of information to throw at once and took me out of the book for a bit. Those pages where Harley introduced members of her own personal squad very much relied on knowing who each one was in Conner and Palmiotti’s previous run or the various specials and spin-off series Harley had in The New 52. It ultimately didn’t amount to much either as only two or three of those new characters stayed around to the end of the issue.
Chad Hardin’s art combined with Alex Sinclair’s colours make this a visually eye-popping book. Hardin’s illustrations are light, almost like a cartoon, and Sinclair plays around with a lot of different colours as he alternates between light and dark settings. Harley Quinn #1 is definitely a pretty book to look at and is fun, but there also doesn’t seem to be much of a change from The New 52 and the fact that its not entirely accessible to new readers somewhat hinders the enjoyment, but should still make for an entertaining read.
Rating: 7/10
Ricky Church
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=Ki3o_rmuMR8
Originally published August 5, 2016. Updated November 14, 2019.
