Hatin’ Gentrification
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Alisson Borges
Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Guillem March and Tomeu Morey
Variant Cover: Frank Cho
Assistant Editor: Andrea Shea
Editor: Alex Antone
Group Editor: Brian Cunningham
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: August 15, 2018
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE
AT THE BOTTOM**
Harley
is back from Apokolips and ready to settle back into her cozy, Coney Island
life…except her apartment building is being demolished! And they’re not going
to erect a statue of Quinn in its place. Find out what happens by reading my
review of Harley Quinn #48,
commencing now!
Explain It!
After
a brief respite with Petite Tina on some sandy beach, Harley (and Tina) return
to Brooklyn at Coach’s behest to find her building is slated for demolition!
Coach has staved off the imminent threat by chaining herself and various of
Harley’s pets to the front of the building, but the issue persists: Harley
Quinn is way behind on her mortgage. Little wonder at that, considering she’s
been on Apokolips for three issues, and before that she was living in Manhattan
for a while, not to mention her frequent trips to Florida for some fun and sun…point
is, she’s been lax with her finances. So there’s only one thing for it: Harley
Quinn has got to get a job!
Never
mind that job she did have, the therapist at an old-age home—apparently, she
burned that bridge and now has to take a variety of menial jobs: short-order
cook, makeup salesperson, birthday party clown, taxi driver, coffee barista and…skywriter?
Does she even have a pilot’s license? Then again, she does write something
about Lex Luthor that’s pretty readable, despite a misspelling, so maybe Harley’s
more capable than I gave her credit for. Unfortunately, her basic ineptitude at
every job leaves her with less than ten bucks profit—and only one more day to
pay off the mortgage! There’s only one thing Harley Quinn is good at that will
bring in the big bucks: murder for hire! And her first job is a honey of a
peach: Lord Death Man!
Dressed
in assassin’s black, Harley scopes out Lord Death Man and his crew of skull
mask-wearing cronies. They’ve stolen an arcade game that is very dear to Death
Man, so dear that he severs the arm of a hoodlum that tries to touch it. Harley
sends an innocuous pizza to the crew, and they fill the delivery guy full of
bullets, but on the inside cover is a picture of Lord Death Man’s father,
naked, and this gives him a life-ending heart attack. Harley removes his heart
as proof of his death, and even purees it in front of her employer to show he’s
not coming back—then Lord Death Man shows up and drinks it down like a Jamba
Juice! He came back!
This
issue was the most like a Bugs Bunny cartoon than I can recently remember. I
liked a lot of the wacky stuff: the inclusion of Petite Tina and her shocking,
monstrous form; Lord Death Man showing up; Harley working several menial jobs
in an attempt to save her property. This issue lacked, however, any real focus
and had a lot of convenient moments to set up various gags. Which,
incidentally, is not a bad way to write the book, it’s just new. Previously,
there would have more of a mention of Harley’s therapist job; here, it can be
cast aside so Harley can be a typographically-challenged skywriter. The
plotting of this issue was way clearer than what we saw for the previous three,
and the postage stamp-sized panels aren’t a problem here. This issue is sort of
like I imagine it is to attend Burning Man: a load of fun in the moment, but
one week later it’s tough to recall exactly what happened.
Bits and Pieces:
Harley Quinn is on the case to save her Coney Island building from the wrecking ball, and it involves her return to a live of crime! I mean purposefully-committed crimes, not the ones she does accidentally why trying to be heroic. This issue is enjoyable, but is more a series of silly incidences than it is a story. Still, you can have a lot of fun with silly incidences.
7.5/10
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