Babe and Switch
Writer: Frank Tieri
Artist: Elonora Carlini
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Jill Thompson
Cover Price: $2.99
On Sale Date: September 6, 2017
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE
BOTTOM**
Okay, something funny is going on…the solicit for
this issue on DC Comics’ website became unsearchable until Tuesday, and Amanda
Conner hasn’t done the main cover. Is this a Harley Quinn comic from an alternate timeline? Let’s find out, in
my review for issue #27, right now!
Explain
It!
“Do you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
droned Sex Pistols’ frontman Johnny Rotten at their last ever show in Texas. On
its face, just another snotty statement from the poster child for smug
defiance. Yet knowing now about the ministrations of Malcolm McLaren, Sid
Vicious’ drug addiction, and other behind-the-scenes hoodwinks and flim flams,
we can assume that Johnny was referring to actively being cheated—the
performers, the audience, even the music industry, led to perceive a music
revolution that was, in fact, a codified and merchandised fashion show borne in
the boardrooms of uptight executives.
Of course, there doesn’t need to be a broad
conspiracy in order for one to feel cheated. The forgetfulness of a Starbucks
barista or brusqueness of a rush hour commuter can leave one feeling bereft of
what they deserve. Point is, I don’t think there was any diabolical plot by
Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner to put out a crappy issue of Harley Quinn. I think they genuinely
needed a breather from this grueling twice-monthly shipping schedule and the
burden of dangling plotlines. Thing is, you don’t make the situation better by
vacating the premises. And it becomes exponentially worse when you barf out a
fill-in issue that is a slap in the face to dedicated readers.
Our Frank Tieri-penned story begins with Harley being
overly violent at Roller Derby, something we haven’t seen her do in months. The
crux of the story is about the Penguin opening an Iceberg Lounge annex in Coney
Island, and this will obviously force Harley and her pals out. After some back
and forth between the two, which includes some pretty funny antics involving
some monster penguins running amok in Coney Island, Harley gets Cobblepot to
drop his real estate venture by frightening him…with a hologram of the Joker
projected by Sy Borgman. Is that the laziest “out” ever? It’s like something
you would see in a Golden Age Superman
tale. “Luckily, I have Vita-ray X that can solve every problem presented in
this story. So long kids! Eat your vegetables!”
And then, to heap even more crap on this shit
sandwich, there’s a whole in-joke epilogue that explains why we were given the
middle finger on this issue. It doesn’t make the comic book any better, and it
only highlights the fact that this series is dangling so many threads, it looks
like a prayer shawl. The cover for this is terrible and looks like it was done
while on the phone. The interiors…are okay. Not the normal style for this
series, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t love it personally, but
it’s well-rendered and everything is clearly plotted, so I can’t complain about
the mechanical components of this comic book. It’s the story that sucks.
Bits and
Pieces:
It's a fill-in issue, and a particularly poor one, at that. We might have done better to get a prequel issue, because pausing several extant storylines for this feels like an affront. If you're following this series, I suggest you avoid this issue because it is meaningless.
3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment