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When You Wish Upon a Fart
Writers: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Artists: Amanda Conner with Chad Hardin, Otto
Schmidt, Ben Caldwell
Color: Paul Mounts, Alex Sinclair
Letters: John J. Hill & Dave Sharpe
Cover: Amanda Conner & Paul Mounts
Cover Price: $4.99
On Sale Date: January 10, 2018
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE
BOTTOM**
Hey, here’s a thing we weren’t expecting! It’s the
issue that came with some special Loot Crate last year, plus an extra comic
jammed in at the front! So if you were a Loot Create subscriber and already had
this exclusive issue, say goodbye to your exclusivity. And if you’re a rabid
Harley Quinn collector looking to scrounge every last appearance of the
character, prepare to acquire this one again! Everything’s coming up Harley in Harley Quinn: Be Careful What You Wish For
#1! And I’ve reviewed it, right here!
Explain
It!
The timing of this is kind of weird, huh? Right when
Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner are ending their epic run on Harley Quinn—the very day that their last issue comes out, in
fact—this extra Harley Quinn book
pops up out of nowhere. Lord knows that there’s nothing new about extra Harley comics, but there being no
fanfare or specific tie-in does ring a little strange. I’d never read any of
this before, so it’s new to me!
My comp didn’t come with the new material available
in the one available on the release date, so I can only review this older
story. This involves old red-n-black Harley, hanging out on the Coney Island
boardwalk with her buds, when through a series of ridiculous events she comes
upon an ancient lantern that houses a genie named Jimm Salabim. I’ve actually
seen this character in Harley Quinn
comics before and wondered where he came from, but figured I’d missed or
forgotten something along the way. Well, his origin story is here, in this
one-time Loot Crate exclusive issue, which is a pretty mean, smart trick if you
ask me. A genie at her whim, Harley sets to making a bunch of gratuitous
wishes, and…well, just read the title of the book and you can probably figure
it out.
The issue ends up being a pretty cool showcase for
some oddball ideas that probably didn’t warrant their own issues Harley makes
wishes for: big boobs like Power Girl (she falls over), to make her stuffed
beaver come to life (his real-life injuries kill him painfully on the spot), to
make the Joker into a nice guy (he comes a polite dentist that turns Harley off
with his crying), to join the Justice League (she kills Lex Luthor and is
jailed by Wonder Woman), to have the ability to talk to animals (turns out this
is annoying and creepy), to meet a male version of herself in prehistoric times
(this doesn’t work because opposites attract), to meet a fella that is nothing
like her (turns out this is Kamandi…and he’s brought all of this
anthropomorphic pals), to be a baby again (this is far grosser and humiliating
than adults assume), to direct a movie about her life (she clashes with the
talent), to turn invisible and eavesdrop on the Justice League’s meeting on the
Watchtower (they bust her), and a few other silly instances when Harley says
she wishes he didn’t have powers…and then he’s just a fat, bald Middle Eastern
guy. Absorbed into Harley’s crew, he’s promised a job and a place to stay and
we see him hanging around in the background for in-panel group shots from time
to time.
With three great pencillers on the book, it’s also a
sampling of some oft-used Harley Quinn
“styles.” And while I’ll never turn down an opportunity to look at Otto Schmidt’s
artwork, I’m still kind of scratching my head as to why this thing exists.
There’s nothing wrong here, some good fun to be had, but it seems too little,
too late to plug in this gap in continuity of which most people were not aware.
Harley completists will need to have
this in its bags n’ boards, but casual fans might want to avoid this based on
the price point alone. Maybe the extra content is so value-added, that five
bucks is a steal—but I haven’t seen it and can’t comment on it.
Bits and
Pieces:
A reasonably pleasant story from Harley Quinn's pre-Suicide Squad (The Movie!) days, with a nice roster of artists and some appropriate hijinks. It's just a little superfluous, being that Conner and Palmiotti are leaving the book and the asking price is five bucks. It ends up being a pretty good value, though.
7/10
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