Harleen #2 // Review
It can be both painful and thrilling to watch a good person do bad things. It's one of the reasons why Breaking Bad is such a popular show, six years after its finale. It's also one of the reasons Harleen works as a comic, despite the oversaturation of Joker content at the moment--because it depicts Harleen Quinzel as a fundamentally decent person going down a dark path, one the audience knows the end of but Harleen herself doesn't.
Issue two of Harleen follows the title character as her work at Arkham Asylum hits a brick wall. None of the interviews she conducts with criminals at Arkham really support the thesis she's trying to prove. Gotham is in anarchy (as usual) with the disfigurement of DA Harvey Dent and the rise of a group of murderous vigilante cops. And Harleen can't stop thinking about the Joker.
Writer/Artist Stjepan Šejić does a great job of getting into Harleen's head, and of creating the building tension of the chaotic Gotham. He's smart to tie a pre-Harley Quinn Harleen into the tapestry of Batman's supporting cast, having her spend some meaningful time with James Gordon and even have a brief encounter with Batman himself. It's harder to make the Joker terribly intriguing. However, that may be a by-product of the glut of Joker media at the moment (Harleen is one of three Joker-centric miniseries being published concurrently through DC's Black Label, and the Joker film is still in theatres at the moment as well).
Despite his failure as a writer to make the Joker interesting, Šejić does a great job as an artist of showing why Harley is attracted to him. Harleen features the sexiest Joker you're ever likely to see. Harley herself is pretty darn foxy as well, which isn't a surprise if you've seen any of Šejić's other work. Aside from pretty men and women, Šejić also does a great job conveying the inner lives of these characters, from Dent's madness and rage to Gordon's exasperated exhaustion. Letterer Gabriela Downie does excellent work telling the story while staying out of the art's way.
Harleen #2 is a solid book, depicting the title character's descent into evil deeds, with a disturbing flash-forward reminding us of what's to come. It's also a deep dive into Batman lore, reexamining parts of the Batman mythos without radically changing them.
