“THE MORNING AFTER”
Creative Staff:
Story: Liz Erickson
Art: Tom Derenick
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
Harley is absolutely determined to give Boxing Day the over-the-top celebration it deserves, and small considerations like “knowing what Boxing Day is” aren’t going to get in her way. But when a low-down crook steals an entire orphanage’s worth of presents one day after Christmas, you’d better believe she’s gonna get in THAT guy’s way…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With just four works including this one under her belt at DC Comics, I had liked her story in the Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace book well enough. Tackling Harley is a whole other thing and while I think she largely got it right here with this particular kind of Harley, it’s one that doesn’t do too much for me combined with too much holiday slapstick. I had spread out the three books that came in out of the blue so as to not overload but I still felt that by the time I got to this one. Tom Derenick is, as mentioned elsewhere, a longtime favorite of mine and one skilled at the digital-first run of books in the last few years. He’s got an easy handle on Harley’s design here and with the coloring makes it work well with Ivy and the other areas that gets that dollop of color along the way.
The story has Harley and Ivy spending some holiday time together but it comes with Harley taking Ivy to a number of different things she wasn’t exactly looking for, including a pretty bad club where she did have some fun. With jokes about Boxing Day and Christmas abound, there is some enjoyment in watching them take in the quiet sights and sounds of the city. But the reality is that Harley’s taking them to the orphanage where Sister James Xavier isn’t thrilled that Harley’s come to help with the problem. She’s waiting for the police but Harley’s the one that shows up first, engages with the kids, and discovers that a Santa that they had retained for an evening has ended up stealing from the orphanage. And the sad tale is very sad.
That sets them on a chase, though Ivy isn’t all that thrilled by it, but Harley’s doing her best to keep her entertained and using sad orphans isn’t beneath her. Of course, the Santa is easily found and it turns out he had stolen the gifts for money because he’s in hock to some bad dudes and they’re off chasing him. It’s a lot of chaos and some amount of silliness along the way and it works well enough. The opening pages were the hardest to get into as it uses a lot of narration and rhyming to get things going as any holiday story tends to but it just didn’t click for me and felt more grating than anything. This pairing for Harley and Ivy just felt distant as well in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on and the disinterested aspect of Ivy, a definite part of her character, just felt weak as well.
In Summary:
With a fun little trio of holiday stories to finish out the year after the initial fourteen-issue run, Harley Quinn with the Black+White+Red material definitely worked overall. While these aren’t my favorite stories out of the overall run, it’s a cute way to cap things and I’m not opposed to more coming out whenever over the course of the year as it’s a fun concept. This issue was a bit rougher for me to connect with and get into but it definitely was pure Harley in all the right ways and is bouncing all over the place chaotically as you’d expect.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: December 25th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
