Harley Quinn And The Birds Of Prey: The Hunt For Harley by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti (graphic novel review).
Making sure I hadn’t picked up another Harley Quinn volume twice, I was most surprised when ‘Harley Quinn And The Birds Of Prey’ arrived as its double the size of the normal DC graphic novel softcover. Whether this is a reflection of the original ‘Harley Quinn And The Birds Of Prey’ 4 part mini-series and Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red # 12, I don’t know, just a reminder about the size of your bookshelves.
The main story shows Harley Quinn forgetting to keep up with her payments to the Defoe Mortgage Company and caretaker Tony gets beaten up and the tenement burnt down, forcing her to take its residents into her other apartment building. She now has to find the money to sort things out, forcing herself to go to Gotham City and steal her ex’s secret cache. Her movements aren’t missed and the Birds Of Prey find themselves reluctantly helping her. After all, as they explain to Renee Montoya, Harley’s no longer a criminal having been given a pardon from Amanda Waller. Of course, the Joker does wind of her presence and the trouble escalates.
There are some nice moments where Harley spends some time recovering in Wayne Manor. Bruce Wayne is away but Alfred makes a nice foil for the beaver joke and goes some way to give the wooden doll some much needed repairwork.
If there is a criticism, it’s the second time that a godlike figure and a satan-like figure have revealed that neither of them want her and you do have to ask if she’s that dangerous to their realms.
Oddly, the Birds Of Prey don’t do as much as you would expect in a shared volume, although I did wonder how long before Harley meets Catwoman, when you consider the presence of nearly all of Batman’s villains wanting the $20 million for Harley’s murder. Didn’t I mention that? Seems the Joker is someone prepared to hold a grudge, although you would have to ask the sanity of the other villains prepared to let him hide their ill-gotten gains. Come to that, you would have thought that nice Batman chap would have at least asked one of them where they hid their swag.
Considering the popularity of Harley Quinn because of the bad language, you shouldn’t allow your pre-teen sprogs from reading this book. The violence alone is far more than in previous volumes but after the Suicide Squad films, that shouldn’t be too surprising.
Amanda Conner’s art is good as always and writer Jimmy Palmiotti matches her with dialogue.
I’m less sure about the 12th issue of ‘Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red’, mostly because its short, a small team-build and doesn’t really go anywhere really. Maybe I’m missing something, like the previous eleven issues.
GF Willmetts
July 2022
(pub: DC Comics, 2022. 160 page graphic novel large softcover. Price: I pulled my copy for about £10.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-77951-504-9)
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