Harley knows how prison works.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Xermanico
What They Say:
Harley Quinn butt-kicks her way out of her prison in Hell and discovers the real manipulator behind the scenes!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes the roundabout path takes you where you need to be. Such is the case when it comes to Harley Quinn and her life in general, but even more so with her current arc in this Injustice: Gods Among Us season. She’s had some fun early on in the book, even amid the chaos and the way things are going quite bad for the side she’s on, but it all kind of went south when she got killed and sent to hell with a boat ride that included Billy Batson and Hippolyta. The fun of storytelling is always bringing different character dynamics together in new situations, or familiar situations, and seeing how they go up against each other. I don’t think this combination has ever spent time together, which makes for some real amusement along the way.
Though there are sizable events going on in the world of the living, this little adventure proves to be a lot of fun now that the trio have arrived in Tartarus, courtesy of Charon’s boat. Harley, being true to herself and her pop culture aspects, knows that the best way to establish a rep here is to be the meanest one around, so it’s no surprise that she goes and gets into a lot of fights quickly. It kind of freaks out Billy in a fun way, especially since she doesn’t take the green pill of super strength and does it all on her own. The best though is that as the numbers start to pile up we get Hippolyta getting involved with her in the fight. The two make for a great combination and Harley’s multiple Mad Max references delight me to no end. Of course, she has to take it a few steps further with what she faces and that goes so far as to make Billy puke, which I suspect she finds even more adorable.
With this installment dealing entirely with this trio it also takes us to a bridging point with the larger storyline and what I figure will be the focus of the fifth year. As they get closer to getting out, realizing that Harley was just doing this for the fun of it, the arrival of Ares has them on the defensive since he does have a good bit of power to back up his words. What makes it fun is that we get some of the usual creative hero elements in getting away, thanks to the Mother Box that Billy grabs, which again just reaffirms who the big bad in the background orchestrating things now is. If this series was going to go on for any length of time past the beginning, you know Darkseid was going to have to make an appearance and a real play at things. And could potentially be the element that unifies it all again, even if briefly. Putting this trio on Apokalips is beautifully done with the reactions as it’s a whole frying pan and fire kind of gimmick.
In Summary:
While I won’t say Harley Quinn is an easy character to write, it’s one that I imagine provides a writer (and artist) a lot of the unexpected with how it’ll all go once she starts to take shape on the page. She does dominate this installment and does so in a good way while also playing very, very, well with Hippolyta. Billy takes the back seat for the most part but it’s all in service of getting him to his destination. Xermanico really has a lot of fun in capturing the underworld here and Rex Lokus with the colors gives it some great pop without eliminating the great line work and details that are put into it in this somewhat rare installment of Xermanico pencilling and inking it. Buccellato continues to have fun with all of this and while I see the threads coming together easily enough I suspect there’s a couple of curveballs coming in our future, if not some real dead bodies.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 8th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
