An exhausting team-up.
Creative Staff:
Story: Amanda Connor, Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Inaki Miranda
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Travis Lanham
What They Say:
During a run-in with a villainous crime syndicate, Wonder Woman learns about a hit list whose biggest target is a familiar name – Harley Quinn! Can the Champion of Paradise Island track down the Clown Princess of Crime before it’s too late?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As more stories are pulled from the line of DC Giants that were sold initially just to a couple of big box retailers, I’m getting to enjoy some solid one-off tales, particularly from creators I don’t get to read often. I’ve enjoyed a lot of what Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor have done over the years, though Power Girl remains my favorite, so getting them on both Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn is nice. The bigger win for readers here I think is Inaki Miranda. I’ve seen some gorgeous books from him in the last few years, such as the Ragman book, that getting him on anything means we’ve got great looking characters. And Hi-Fi on the color design only elevates it, which works with the two lead characters here in breathing even more life into the costuming.
The premise is one that has Wonder Woman coming to the big city in order to investigate a number of buildings being destroyed recently. Each of them had different real estate developers come in and scoop them up afterward for a fraction of the price, which isn’t a surprise, but they’re all owned in secret by Simon Wickett. That’s got Wonder Woman wanting to meet with him and find out what’s going on but Wickett’s prepared for that, going so far as to blow up his own building in order to get it even cheaper in the near future. It’s amusing watching Diana as she deals with the guards at the building but also watching Wickett and his aide wondering what crime of his she’s actually there to deal with him over. The buildings weren’t even on his list. Of course, he does all this by remote so it’s pretty easy to keep some distance and just watch his plan come together.
Unfortunately, he also mentioned sending four assassins to deal with some psycho over on Coney Island and she knows that means Harley, so she has to go and help her. Which, in turn, has Harley coming along for the ride since it means dealing out justice against assassins. The two are definitely fun to watch together as Diana is pretty straightforward and honest in how she dals with things, including Harley, but she does try to modulate it a bit. Harley’s still a little starstruck over Diana as well so she’s in an aim to please mode, which is what makes things worse since she’s a bit over the top. The assassins are pretty low-rent comical types that have some minor abilities but it’s more fun in watching how they’re easily captured and brought to the police, who once realizing that Diana was not cosplaying, are all too happy to get help like this.
In Summary:
I enjoy both characters a good bit and the creative team here definitely understand them well. The story that we get, coming in at twenty-five pages, is a bit longer than it feels it should be, a little more drawn out than needed – even the last two assassins are quickly picked off together without really showing them much. It’s not a deep or rich story but it’s a fun one that pairs these two really different characters together but shows how well they can work together when needed. The story moves well enough and Miranda’s artwork is just fantastic throughout. The only real problem is that there are no characters besides the two leads to feel vested in as Wickett is largely a non-entity here and the assassins even less so.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 22nd, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
