Harley Quinn #23 // Review
Harleen Quinzel was dead. Now she’s not. One might expect her to be a bit upset about the whole thing given the fact that she was killed by somebody. Actually, she’s feeling pretty good about the whole situation. She’s even started her own cult, as seen in the wake being held in the opening pages of Harley Quinn #23. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues her “Who Killed Harley?” story with the aid of artist Matteo Lolli and colorist Rain Beredo. Harley’s personality is as playful and rubbery as ever in the shadow of her own death. It’s a fun adventure with some pretty heavy emotional drama weighing down the edges.
Harley was dead. She claims to have been in heaven with a whole lot of legends, but that could have been some kind of weird hallucination brought on by the dip in green goo that brought her back to life. She IS going to want to get to the bottom of who killed her so that she can get on with her life, but it’s going to be a tricky path to THAT, what with it being the case that she’s started her own cult, and there’s at least one guy who is more than a little concerned about her state of mind.
Phillips has set herself up for a hell of a challenge. Harley could have come back from the dead with some sort of major change in personality. She hasn’t. There IS a subtle change around the corners of her personality that suggests a deeper trauma. For the most part, though, Phillips is keeping Harley in a Harley state of mind through the end of a multi-part story. With the main character changing little in the face of death, it’s difficult to gauge exactly what the stakes are moving forward into the next few issues. It’s fun so far, but Phillips may have given herself an insurmountable challenge in finding a satisfying conclusion to Harley’s return from the dead.
Lolli manages a respectable balance between the playful chaos of Harley’s energy, the earthbound darkness of the criminal world in which Harley maneuvers, and the supernatural weirdness of a story involving weird semi-tangible forces. Lean too far in one direction or another with the art, and it will compromise the clever contrast that Phillips is working with. Lolli’s art plays carefully, amplified as it is by Beredo’s colors.
Harley is one of the few characters in mainstream comics who thrives on a wide range of different lives. So often a character has to have a firmly grounded status quo to gain the kind of momentum that lends itself to a big following. Having been through everything that Harley’s been through over the decades, it’s getting more and more difficult to find truly new surroundings for the chaotic clown girl. Phillips and company are doing an admirable job of throwing Harley in a new direction after her own death. It will remain to be seen whether or not they can keep the momentum going into Harley’s next big change.
