Sometimes you just need to get away – but when you’re Harley Quinn, and your one true love could collapse the city with a thought, is the city ever going to really let you go? As the Fear State descends on Gotham City, Harley finds that sometimes, even the great outdoors is no escape. Harley Quinn #7 is written by Stephanie Phillips, drawn by Riley Rossmo, colored by Ivan Plascencia, and lettered by Deron Bennett.
Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia are back. I’m so happy.
Even though this issue is a mess. Even as it feels like it’s crossing over with an event that has another version of Harley Quinn entirely. It doesn’t help that, continuity wise, Harley Quinn seems to be in a very different place than the Harley in Batman is. That Batman seemed to be setting up a thread for Harley that this comic was following up on, only to find out at the last minute that this comic actually precedes the event opening Fear State: Alpha. As a tie-in, this comic is not working at all; at least not yet. But it holds up pretty well on its own, and the art is a large part of why.
Not that I know the inner workings of the Bat-Office, but I blame editorial for how confusing this all feels, because Harley Quinn has enough of its own elements to make it a more self-contained part of the “Fear State” event – between Keepsake and Hugo Strange, there’s enough villainy taking advantage of Scarecrow’s chaos to keep Harley’s hands quite full. Or, alternatively, there’s enough setup in Batman to take over the Harley Quinn book for a bit, let it play around with that story for a few issues in an entertaining detour that then returns us to our regularly scheduled group clown therapy issues.
Neither of these things is happening very smoothly, and it feels hard to fault the book for that. Harley Quinn is one of the fringe Gotham books, and I feel it’s pain. Here I am, writing about this book and Nightwing while Matt Lazorwitz and Will Nevin have left me completely out in the cold, enjoying all the real Fear State fun over on Bat Chat without me. I am deeply disheartened.
Perhaps I should pull a page out of Keepsake’s book. He’s not content to team up with more established Gotham villains, he’s gone ahead and put together his own superhero team! Keeping with Keepsake’s theme, they’re all knockoffs of better villains, and all dressed in a garish orange and black ensemble. If a hero is defined by her villains, then the very existence self-styled Caucus of Corruption is definitely knocking Harley down a few pegs…but it feels about right for the kind of Harley we’ve been seeing in this book.
I’m glad Keepsake is getting a team, spreading that spotlight around a little. The recent annual did nothing to endear me to the character; he’s an annoyingly petty man, but his gimmick makes him fun when he’s played off other people. Plus, with Rossmo’s art, his Halloween colors and Jack O’Lantern head do make quite an impression on the page.
In fact, the villains seem to really be making most of the issue. After manipulating Keepsake into following Harley in her search for Poison Ivy, Hugo Strange furthers the Fear State along by dressing up as Batman to terrify Gotham’s citizens, and he does NOT hold back. There have been a lot of Jokerized Batman images showing just how chilling a Batman who smiles can be, but the art here makes the Hugo Strange smiling Bat one of the most terrifying of all time. Glowing eyes light up a glee that would be childlike if it weren’t for the malicious curve to their shape. Wide, open body language – this is a Bat who is proud of the violence and fear he can bring to the man on the street. No mystique. All terror. It’s chilling.
It’s sad to say, but it’s the Harley portion of the book that’s the least interesting. Harley spends a lot of it in her head. I’ve spoken before about how the wordiness of things can pull one out of the story, and this issue’s a good example of that. Exposition mixed with musings about Gotham and fear don’t make for the most interesting reading. What does, though, is the argument that breaks out between her and Kevin. Harely’s head is not in the game, given everything else she has to worry about, and everything that the current crossover will drag her into – and Kevin can’t help but feel somewhat upset that Harley might not finish what she started in terms of helping clowns like her on their path to redemption.
It’s a legitimate point he brings up – Harley’s taking on a lot of responsibility, something she isn’t known for handling very well. I just wish this conversation wasn’t so throwaway. It’s a momentary blip between everything else this issue is filled with, a moment that’s quickly interrupted by an admittedly impressive bear roped into a stale joke.
Harley Quinn’s “Fear State” arc has had a rough start, and I couldn’t tell you by the end of it how closely it’s going to be tying in or whether it’s going for a more standalone story. If you can get over the dissonance of DC seeming to have two separate Harley Quinns (now that I think of it, that would work just fine now we have two Poison Ivys) and not think too much about the crossover, you might be able to enjoy them as separate things. They just do not work well together.
