Harley Quinn X Elvira #2 // Review
A clown girl from Brooklyn and a mistress of the dark from Southern California are watching the sunrise over Coney Island. It’s a beautiful moment, but things are far from beautiful in the building beneath them. There’s a big problem that’s going to need to be solved with the kind of money that can only be made quickly in the shadier side of the market. Thus begins the adventure in Harley Quinn X Elvira #2. The lovable writing team of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti continue a fun, little absurdist comedy serial with artist Juan Samu and colorist Walter Pereyra. There a two-page dream sequence that’s deliciously drawn by Conner, who also handles the colors for those two pages.
If their plans are going to work out, Harley and her crew are going to need to get quite a lot of money. But their usual line of work isn't really generating a whole lot of money. So they need to step up what they're doing. And that's going to involve doing things that are possibly a little bit in over their head. Thankfully, Elvira is more than happy to help out where she can. With any luck, things don't get really crazy. Or maybe they just need to be the right kind of crazy.
The basic run of the story seems to be moving along quite well. Harley’s anxious fawning over Elvira it is not without its charm. That I like, made me feel a little bit forced in places, but it's really enjoyable throughout. The central dynamic between the two title characters drives much of the story. The adventure that's being brought to the page isn't nearly as interesting as the interaction between the two of them. This isn't really a huge problem because the actual venture is sort of secondary to the main focus of the issue, which really is the relationship between the two title characters.
Samu cleverly renders the attacks of Harley's place. This is where most of the action takes place. Elvira is having some difficulty settling into someone else's living space. But she's clearly happy to be there. All of the little details that the artist throws in around the edges of everything end up being really interesting. Of particular note is Harley's obsession with Wonder Woman, which manifest itself in little bits of decoration and merchandise all over her place. It's a charming recurring joke.
Given enough time this could be a lot of fun if it were allowed to run open-ended. They're definitely doesn't seem to be a gradually evolving dynamic between the two title characters that could be a lot of fun in the long run. Connor and Palmiotti definitely have a salad emotional drowning to all of the craziness that's going on on the page. And it's a lot of fun seeing it develop. It should be interesting to see where this is going. Moving forward. It already feels more than a little weird. There’s no question that it will get more strange as it progresses.
