Harley Quinn #3 – Review

By: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Chad Hardin (art), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: It’s a bad day when a long-haired dwarf turns down a date with you.

The Review: I tried watching Dexter some years ago, back when it was new and getting wildly popular, despite all the controversy it generated.  I was enthralled by the first few episodes as much as anyone else, but at some point, I suddenly felt like I could no longer stomach the idea of getting entertainment out of murder.  It was less a moral reaction than a biological one; every time Dexter took out one of those microscope slides, I started getting slightly queasy.

There’s something like that going on here with Harley Quinn.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m getting less and less mileage out of the macabre humor of this title with every passing month.  Again, it’s not so much the immorality of Harley’s kills that disturbs me, although that does play a part.  I’m fine with her bumping off anyone who goes after her first, but brutally slaying anyone, even prison inmates, for actions they can’t help is a lot less justifiable.

Harley Quinn #2 – Review

By: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Chad Hardin & Stephane Roux (art), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Harley makes it clear that pet control will not be part of her landlady duties.

The Review: Does anyone remember Animaniacs?  Much as I didn’t care for Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, I loved pretty much every other segment and character on that show, and one of my favorites was “Good Idea, Bad Idea,” a recurring sketch that envisioned the hapless Mr. Skull carrying out the various good ideas (“Drinking fresh milk from the carton.”) and bad ideas (“Drinking fresh milk from the cow.”).  It was a weekly lesson on the value of execution.

I bring this up because Harley Quinn can really stand to take that lesson a little more to heart.  While almost everything that happens in this issue may have started out as a good idea in Conner-Palmiotti’s head, what ends up on the page is almost invariably a bad idea.  Let’s start with an easy one: Bernie, Harley’s charbroiled beaver.  Besides just being weird for no other reason than to be weird—and maybe to get the juvenile pleasure of having Harley talk about her beaver all the time—Bernie also has confusing implications for Harley’s mental stability.  Most writers see the source of her crimes as coming from a highly skewed perspective on life, not unlike her mentor and soulmate.  Talking to Bernie places her squarely into Crazytown.

Harley Quinn #1 – Review

By: Amanda Connor & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Chad Hardin (art), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: She’s like Marlo Thomas in That Girl, only with a criminal record!

The Review: I didn’t have plans to review this series, and I didn’t even check out the gimmicky and somewhat controversial #0 issue.  I’ve always liked Harley Quinn fine, but she never really interested me until Ales Kot had his way with her on Suicide Squad.  There, she had a razor-sharp intellect that revealed itself at her most bubbly, chaotic moments, not unlike the man who inspired her.  I’ll be honest; I had little confidence Palmiotti could capture that same duality.

And he doesn’t.  Instead, like most writers, he and Connor keep Quinn’s cunning under wraps, focusing more heavily on her comedic side.  It’s not a bad choice.  Her sheer vivacity has a lot of charm, and she takes such delight when giving in to impulse that it’s hard not to enjoy it, despite yourself.  Who else in the DCU can convincingly break out into song in a moment of pure joy, belting the first bar of “The Sound of Music”* as she twirls in her newly inherited apartment

Supergirl #23 – Review

By: Michael Allen Nelson (writer), Mahmud Asrar (art)

The Story: With her kryptonite poisoning hanging over her head, Kara finds herself beset by the Cyborg Superman, her memories, and; worst of all; blue lights! Silly Kara, everyone knows it’s red lights you have to look out for.

The Review: One of the facets of serialized storytelling is the need to entice readers to return next month. This means that every issue needs to simultaneously stand on its own and also serve as a teaser of things to come. Often this means dramatic last page reveals, but, useful as these are, they don’t come without some pitfalls. And sometimes that means that stories that have no business taking up a full issue are stretched to fit so that there can be twenty pages between one big moment and the next.

While it’s possible that Michael Alan Nelson just wanted to pace his story this way, it’s hard to ignore how awkward it feels. The issue spends half of its pages focused on Kara’s battle with her memories, but never fully justifies that decision.

The ‘battle against your allies’ trope usually goes one of two ways: with the protagonist either struggling with the concept of attacking their friends or insisting that these aren’t them. Kara falls awkwardly in the middle, working out her frustrations with her supporting casts while completely conscious that they aren’t really there. Admittedly, the sequence works much better if you read the specters’ accusations as manifestations of Kara’s guilt, but it often feels like Nelson just wanted to have it both ways.

Demon Knights #20 – Review

By: Robert Venditti (story), Chad Hardin (pencils), Wayne Faucher (inks), David Curiel (colors)

The Story: Another day, another sacred quest for the relic to end all relics.

The Review: If you’re a fan of this series—and let’s face it, if you’re even reading this review, you must be a real fan of the series—you’ve already heard the news about its cancellation in three months.  Considering that in March, it ranked at #160 on Comichron, the fall of the axe isn’t too surprising, but it does signal the end of all sword-and-sorcery titles out of DC, making it an even less diverse market than it started out as after the relaunch.

When these things happen, I always wonder how much the creators knew before we did.  Venditti probably didn’t agree to sign onto a doomed title, so when exactly did the higher-ups spring the news on him?  If I had to take a wild guess, it was probably just before he finished writing the first arc.  As eventful as the battle against Cain was, it did feel a little straightforward and truncated, a sign that maybe Venditti was forced to accelerate his plot faster than he planned.

Stan Lee’s The Traveler #1 – Review

By: Mark Waid (writer), Chad Hardin (art), Blond (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) and Dafna Pleban (editor)

The Story: A hero named the Traveler shows up in our time doing battle with some bad dudes named the Split Second Men.

What’s Good: I like the way Mark Waid writes the voice of the hero: The Traveler.  He gives him a voice that is simultaneously upbeat and weary with the world (“SIGH! I just fixed this mess.  Can’t you people keep the world straight without my help for 5 minutes?  Oh well…onward and upward!”).  It’s not a unique voice in the land of comic superheroes, but it isn’t one that is used all that much.  Traveler also has an interesting power set: He can manipulate time, so he can seemingly freeze things in mid-fall or move really fast.  But, he isn’t the Flash…he’s just warping time such that he is moving at a different frame rate than everyone around him.

There is also the mystery of who the Traveler is.  It is somewhat intriguing, especially because he has what appears to be the remnants of an ID patch on his chest with some key letters missing.  Clearly, who the Traveler is and why he is here will be explained in the future.  With minds like Stan Lee and Mark Waid behind the story, I have some faith that it’ll be a good explanation.

The art is like most Boom superhero books: serviceable.  There is nothing wrong with it, but it is pretty obvious that Boom is not trying to find the next JH Williams, III.  Or, if they do find him, he isn’t going to breakout on their watch.  This is just straightforward, very competent superhero art.

Age of Heroes #2 – Review

“Who Needs Gravity” by: Sean McKeever (writer), David Baldeon (pencils), N. Bowling (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colors) & Joe Sabino (letters)

“Heroic Rage” by: Brian Reed (writer), Chad Hardin (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Sotomayor (colors), Sabino (letters)

“Young Masters” by: Paul Cornell (writer), Mark Brooks (art) & Dave Lamphear (letters)

“Semper Fidelis” by: Dan Slott (writer), Ty Templeton (art), Jorge Maese (colors) & Lamphear (letters)

The Story: Marvel’s 4-issue anthology miniseries showing what various folks are doing in THE HEROIC AGE checks in on the C-listers.

What’s Good: These stories are all cute, fun and well written.  They really serve as a sampler platter for new books that Marvel has coming out and I really don’t mind that.  Heck, I’d much rather get a chance to see a few of these characters in small doses before committing to a few issues at $3.99 a pop.

I thought the best of these stories was Heroic Rage starring American Son.  I feel like I’m falling down on the job by admitting that I am not getting the “Amazing Spider-Man presents: American Son” but I did read the American Son story arc in ASM about 40 issues ago (or a year ago in ASM-time….I swear, it’s like talking about “dog years”, LOL).  Even though my favorite characterization of Harry Osborn is when he’s just Peter’s confident and slick buddy who doesn’t like Spider-Man, I really enjoyed this short (8-page) story.  One of the things the story plays up is that there seems to be some mystery behind who is wearing the American Son armor.  I had assumed it was Harry, but the reactions of the other characters made it seem that wasn’t certain. Plus, bonus points for tossing Norah the reporter into the story (she’s spunky and fun!) and having a cool scene where American Son stakes (vampire style) a bad-guy/monster with an flagpole complete with billowing American Flag.  The whole scene is very Mr. Suribachi inspired.

The art throughout this issue was really well done.  I didn’t see any pages or panels in here where I rolled my eyes.  Marvel also deserves credit for an accurate cover…..The C-listers on the cover are the folks in the comic!  Not sure if that’s a good thing, but….

Warlord #3 – Review

By Mike Grell (writer), Chad Hardin (artist), Mike Grell (colorist)

The Story: Morgan, Machiste and Shakira are traveling through the shadowlands and come across people who tell them of a heroic man who sacrificed himself for these strangers. The people tell Morgan that they seek the Warlord, who will protect them. This greatly disturbs Morgan. Meanwhile, Alysha Grant is still running through the Skartarisian forest, evading predators and runs into that same heroic man, Tinder. Morgan tries to close in on the strangers who have come from the outside world, but few plans survive contact with the enemy.

What’s Good: The story was fast-paced and the cover was great.

What’s Not So Good: The setting just didn’t work. It was too simplistic and cliché. Skartaris had little depth and its inhabitants could have been pulled out of any low-budget barbarian movie. The peasants display salt-of-the-earth nobility, and the slavers are plain evil, just short of twirling their moustaches and cackling madly. Everything looked just too clean and too beautiful for a primitive world. The peasants had flawless skin with great teeth and no dirt anywhere. It reminded me of what they used to say about the Tarzan movies in the 1950s: “He swung around in the trees with a $50 haircut.”

Moreover, the execution of the story didn’t do much better in words or pictures. If you take a savage, and have him say “everyone knows he stands for freedom and justice” or “everyone is entitled to something they can believe in,” you just get a mess. The art didn’t help much either, as the characters’ poses were awkward and unfortunately, unnatural; as if the characters were waiting around for the artist to finish drawing them before they moved on to whatever it is they really do when their pictures aren’t being taken.

Conclusion: In the end, I just didn’t believe this story. If you’re a Warlord fan, go ahead and pick it up. If you’re like me, where you haven’t felt invested in Warlord, this issue won’t be the one to change your mind.

Grade: C-

-DS Arsenault