All Aboard the Harley Train
Written By:
Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art By:
Chad Hardin, Alex Sinclair
Lettered By:
Dave Sharpe
Cover Price:
$2.99
On Sale Date: August 3, 2016
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
For those that missed the first number one issue that
came out around four years ago, here’s your second chance to own a Harley Quinn #1! This time, it’s
attached to the Rebirth event, but
she doesn’t get her own Rebirth
issue…and indeed, there’s no change to the book’s creative team, or setting, or
cast of characters. I think that’s because, when DC was coming up with Rebirth on a Friday afternoon in late
April or early May of this year, they looked at what needed to be changed in Harley Quinn and determined that it
should be nothing. Harley Quinn has
been a huge success for DC Comics, and I’m not sure anyone at the company and
possibly on the creative team can adequately explain why. If you’re interested
to find out, right here is the best place to hop on. But if you’re even more
tentative with your three-dollar investments, then give a look at my recap and
review!
With all this Rebirth
business flying around, one has to wonder if Harley Quinn #1 will pick up where the last issue left off, or if
it will subtly change some of its elements to fit the new DC Universe. Well,
wonder no more, dear reader, because this issue begins with Harley Quinn and
Poison Ivy taking in a spa day, sponsored by Harley, as payment for restoring
some Brooklyn wetlands in the last issue. If you are new to Harley Quinn, you will find that the
comic doesn’t do subtle. Foreshadowing, yes. But you’ll never wonder what it’s
getting at or if a particular exchange implies something. Harley Quinn is a
blunt beeyotch. While they go through massages and treatments and scenes of
squishy side boob, Harley Quinn details her situation: owns a residential
building in Coney Island, works at a nursing home in her guise of Dr. Harleen
Quinzell, has way too many pets. Later, Harley Quinn literally takes the stage
at Coney Island and lays out her entire life. Like I said, not subtle. She goes
through everything: her childhood, her work at Arkham Asylum, her relationship
with the Joker and eventual break up, the move to Coney Island...all stuff that
happened in the first volume of the series. Harley even has the entire cast of
wacky characters—and I mean the entire
cast, including the Gang of Harleys and her roller derby crew—come out on stage
to her introduction. If you’re a prospective reader looking to get into Harley Quinn, now is the best time. The
first third of the book is a Harley Quinn
primer.
The actual story begins when we pan out from Harley,
now alone on stage, and see that only her murderous admirer Red Tool and recently
freed and de-powered genie Jimm Salabim are watching from the balcony. Quinn
collects the pair and strolls out to the street, informing Jimm that she’ll
need him to work at Madame Macabre’s wax museum four days a week, while the
Madame and her son are in the eyewitness protection program. Then, a bunch of
flesh-eating zombies show up.
Seems that around four days ago, a wayward teenage
alien crash-landed in a cow pasture somewhere in Oklahoma. As some
shotgun-wielding humans came running, the alien shape-shifted into a cow, in
order to blend in with the other bovines chewing cud. He was eventually herded
into a barn, where he chilled out for a while until he was eventually
processed—and by “processed” I mean murdered, drained, and flayed—and his
carcass was shipped to a meat factory, where it was whipped into a paste and
extruded through sausage casings in order to ultimately become a shipment of
frankfurters to Nathan’s Nateman’s hot dogs on Coney Island! Everyone
that ate them that day, which was a crap ton of people, got zombied out. And
let me tell you, on a warm summer weekend day, they push a ludicrous number of
hot dogs at Coney Island. Like, the entire enrollment at West Virginia
University amount of hot dogs.
So now Red Tool and Harley Quinn are fighting off a
bunch of zombies, and doing their best not to kill all of them since many are
local residents. Tony runs out and essentially joins their huddle against the
oppressive onslaught, which really starts to upset Harley because she was
friendly with all of them! Red Tool announces that they might get infected if
bitten, which is a pretty big leap to make but does confirm with Zombie Logic,
and to illustrate his point he gets bitten on the arm by a punk rock zombie!
Harley helps out and severs Red Tool’s arm at the elbow!! I mean holy crap!
That escalated quickly! Tony, Harley, and Red Tool retreat with his arm up to
the roof, where they put Red Tool in the scatapult (yes, it is what it sounds
like) with the plan to pitch Tool towards the hospital with his arm in a
cooler, and he just has to stagger in and get fixed up. The streets are lousy
with zombie types, so they take the chance and launch Red Tool, but he faints
dead away right after taking off!
So second verse, same as the first…if you liked Harley Quinn, it’s going to be more of
the same. If you wanted to start reading Harley
Quinn, welcome aboard! You will become an expert in one issue. Though, come
to think of it, I don’t think I saw Sy Borgman. But anyway, though the first
third was necessarily exposition-heavy, the rest of it got right back to the
business of Harley Quinn, which is to be an intensely wacky fun time. And guess
what? The art, as always, is great. I feel like a broken record here. This is
one of the most consistent comic books I read, but it is an acquired taste.
Slavish devotees to the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Harley might bristle at some
changes to her origin, detailed here. Whatever the formula is to Harley Quinn, I have no idea. But it
works. And it could be what you’re looking for in comics, too.
Bits and
Pieces:
Despite the renumbering, this issue makes it perfectly clear that nothing has changed in Harley Quinn and things have picked up directly from the previous issue. Pretty much everyone makes a cameo in this issue, but the actual story is mainly dedicated to three members of Harley's massive cast of characters. Due to a big explanatory section at the beginning, this is the perfect spot to jump on the series. Longtime fans won't have to feel cheated because the story is classic Harley Quinn fun. A win-win for everyone!
8/10
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