It’s time to off some octogenarians.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner
Art: Chad Hardin
What They Say:
What happens when a bunch of Harley’s enemies show up to kill her dead? She kills them right back, of course.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After spending some time with Harley having fun with her main day job of being Dr. Quinzel, we got to see just how bad she is at that job in a sense. Her working with Mrs. Rubenstein plays to the traditional aspect of Harley in that she doesn’t think things through or follow it to the right conclusion before acting. Which is what Harley has largely done when it comes to capers, so it wasn’t a surprise and it played out in a humorous way with her kidnapping a family to torture them into doing the right thing. The right thing they were already doing that Harley overlooked because said patient she was treating wasn’t altogether there. So naturally, when Mr. Borgam requests her help in killing eight bad men from his past that could harm the country, she just dives right in.
And, naturally, doesn’t do her research. Her time with Borgman is certainly amusing as the two practically speak different languages in a lot of cases, and Borgman is the grumpy old man type that doesn’t take guff from anyone at all, easily putting them in their place with his “plain speak” and the like. So while the two go over the basics and prepare, he also gives her files on seven of the targets to see what they’re like. Naturally, she instead goes to a burlesque show that Tony is the emcee and doorman for, which goes horribly wrong since she can’t tell a play from reality, and then the combination of the foods she ate that evening puts her into several pages of dream state material that shows us more of her inner workings and overall view of indestructibility and self importance.
So when the two “team up” to go after these old folks, it has that sense of a disaster waiting to happen. With comical approaches to the first two targets – Borgman on a wire – we see that the first guy is practically dead and Borgman is convinced that he’s just playing at being in a coma. That Harley literally blows his brains out is hysterically awful, but it also firmly sets the tone as to what to expect. The second target just gets things started since she’s actually awake, coherent and capable, but the fun here is just in seeing the dynamic between Harley and Borgman since she’s so seat of the pants in doing things and he’s more military style precise in how he wants it all to go down. Which means nothing goes according to play outside of the big points, namely taking down the target.
In Summary:
With this plot likely to go on for at least a little bit, it certainly has its humor and it nudges the assassination attempts into the background a bit, which isn’t bad. Harley’s the type that loves these kinds of capers and the kind of freewheeling approach she can take with it, but it doesn’t play well against the more serious Borgman. The two as a pair are certainly comical, but Borgman doesn’t really entertain that much and his mission here is one that certainly sounds reasonable from his point of view, but you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. There’s some laugh out loud moments here and some disbelief as well, but it all has the feeling of just getting started with some potentially fun directions ahead.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 16th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99