Officer Pulaski works for the GCPD. She’s had a hell of a time keeping her daughter out of trouble. It’s hard enough keeping ANYONE sane in Gotham City. Didn’t help that her daughter had chosen the Gotham City Sirens as a role model. Now she’s locked-up and the officer in question wants to clean-up the streets. She wants the vigilante at the center of it all and she’s going to use a certain semi-reformed clown girl to help her out in Harley Quinn #41. Writer Tini Howard continues to cut a clever path through Gotham City in another issue brought to page and panel by Sweeney Boo.
Harley’s got to wear a wire. She’s got to be serious. She’s got to make it look normal, too. If anyone suspects that she’s working with the GCPD (with or without her full consent) she’s going to be in a whole lot more trouble than she already is. If she’s going to be able to get info that could lead to the apprehension of Batman, she’s going to have to have a little talk with Robin first. It’s not like HE isn’t some kind of incredibly sharp detective. She’s going to have to find some way of getting him to trust her...
Howard throws an interesting melange of different elements into a script that continues to explore the latest chapter in Harley’s life. Her gradual move away from criminal chaos finds her dancing a very fine line that requires a dazzlingly coherent frame of mind. Howard does a brilliant job of forcing her into a very clever kind of focus without betraying her central nature as a kind of a wild card. Through it all, she remains remarkably mature emotionally. She’s fighting Robin...she’s fighting alongside Robin and she genuinely cares about the guy. There’s quite a bit of nuance there.
Sweeney Boo’s slickly clean lines and cool colors continue to give Harley a very slickly-produced Neo-neon sort of a feel. Action hits the page at impressively dramatic angles as every punch, jump and kick feels deliciously exaggerated. Harley’s end of the DC Universe has always managed to be a bit more rubbery and technicolor than much of the rest of it...but Sweeney Boo goes further than that...making it look like a really fun place to hang out. It’s so visually refreshing on so many levels.
Tini and Sweeney continue to have a great deal of fun hanging with Harley, That fun continues to transfer off the page remarkably well in a way that feels distinctly unlike anything else on the comics rack right now. The rubbery comedy of the action playfully serves as a counterpoint to deeper emotional connections being made deeper in and within the heart of a really fun and engrossing story. There’s nothing necessarily all that original about what Tini and Sweeney are doing. It still manages to be a great deal of fun, though. And with Harley...that’s all that really matters.
