Harley Quinn Turns 30 in a Big Not-So-BatChat Roundup

It’s a busy time for the Gotham crew — whether or not they’re in the city itself.

First up, the Batgirls continue to investigate a serial killer in their midst — and they’re going full Library Mode in Batgirls #10, written by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad, drawn by Neil Googe, colored by Rico Renzi and lettered by Becca Carey.

Next, Blockbuster’s operations are taken down for good — with a little help from an unexpected quarter, in Nightwing #96, written by Tom Taylor, drawn by Bruno Redondo, inked by Caio Felipe, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Wes Abbott.

Selina Kyle and her current partner in crime make their way to the ski slopes for a little snowtime subterfuge to put certain financial dealings on ice in Catwoman #47, written by Tini Howard, drawn by Caitlyn Yarsky, colored by Jordie Bellaire, and lettered by Tom Napolitano and Josh Reed.

Finally, we celebrate our favorite clown princess of crime on her 30th anniversary with the appropriately titled Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special, with a list of credits so long, we thought we’d save our poor fingers the trouble and just share the credits page here:

Armaan Babu: When the shadow of the Bat casts its reach far beyond Gotham’s streets, when the stories of Gotham’s citizens stretch too far for one man to cover alone, it is then that the Not-Quite-Bat-Signal is shone! For this night of coverage cannot be handled by the likes of average reviewers, we need the BatChat expert himself (Well, one of two) — Matt Lazorwitz!

Matt, you picked a hell of a time to join me on this column; we’ve got a lot of ground to cover! Could not be happier to have you here though. Are you ready to dive in?

Matt Lazorwitz: You know it! It’s not like I haven’t read every comic with a member of the Bat family for the past … thirtyish years. I might have a steep learning curve, but I’m up for it.

Bat-Girl Summer Clues

Armaan: I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Batgirls series so far. It’s just so friendly, welcoming and fun. I’m enjoying the hook of Barbara as the parenting Batgirl to the younger Bat-teens as they fight bad guys, solve mysteries and explore a decidedly more neon Gotham than we’re used to. Rico Renzi’s colors have really been setting this book apart, and while Nick Googe’s art is a lot more cutesy than I’ve come to enjoy from the book, it certainly doesn’t work against the cheery, young adult tone this series has taken. How have you been enjoying it?

Matt: Batgirls has been one of my favorite of the not-quite Bat books since it launched. It has a great balance of tone between the light, fun character interactions and some higher-stakes superheroics without ever getting to that point where you have to ask, “Why aren’t they calling in Batman/Batwoman/Robin?” which can be a problem in books set in Gotham that don’t feature Batman. Conrad and Cloonan also capture the voices of all three of their leads just right. It’s a delight.

Armaan: The Batgirls are dealing with a serial killer who, like the Riddler, has been leaving behind clues for anyone investigating to crack — which is why Stephanie and Cass spend much of this issue in the library, trying to figure out the cipher the killer left in a fake eyeball. They’ve managed to figure out that the message is a book cipher, but there’s no cracking that until they’ve found the right book, so it’s a full day at the library for them both!

I live for this stuff. Solving puzzles, doing the grunt work that’s usually handled off-panel, showing heroes who are smart but not the kind of omniscient detectives the Bat family tends to be written as. I’m also happy for Stephanie, who manages to get an assist from potential romantic interest Kyle Mizoguchi at the library. The Bat Girl Summer arc has been giving us a great look at the Batgirls just being people, as much as they’re also superheroes. They socialize, they read for pleasure, they get together and solve puzzles with ice cream. It’s lovely.

Matt: I love that it’s Cass who cracks the code, though. We’ve been watching Cassnadra get more and more interested in reading and the expanded world that getting new communication and literacy skills gives her, so it’s great that she gets to use those skills to help move the case forward.

Armaan: One scene that really stood out to me in this issue was Batgirl’s conversation with the new GCPD Commissioner, Renee Montoya. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but Batman hasn’t been maintaining quite the same relationship with Montoya as he did with Gordon, right?

Matt: Nope. Since “Joker War,” Batman has been pretty on the outs with the GCPD in general. Mayor Nakano was pretty anti-Batman, and even though the end of “Fear State” repaired some of those issues, Batman is still pretty removed from the cops right now.

Armaan: Part of the reason for that is that Renee Montoya seems to have a … complicated relationship with superheroism. As she states, she’s been one, but for now it seems she’s focusing more on the badge than her mask. She seems to believe that Gotham’s best way forward is to do things by the book, while being aware of the practical reality that more often than not, Gotham needs rulebreakers to save the day. She makes it clear to Barbara that the commissioner-Bat family relationship isn’t going to be as open as it was under Gordon’s reign, but it’s not entirely closed off, either. It’s a more nuanced take than we get, and I’m curious to see where the creative team wants to take this particular plot thread.

We also get a very cute scene between Barbara and Dick Grayson. Fans of this particular couple are getting a wealth of lovely scenes right now between this and Nightwing (more on that in the next section). 

Matt: Renee is in an interesting place right now. She is appearing in costume over in I Am Batman, but even there, she seems to be looking for a better way to police Gotham. I think all of this is laying the groundwork for John Ridley’s GCPD: The Blue Wall miniseries starting next month. And frankly, where American society is right now, it’s hard to paint the police, especially major metropolitan police departments, as the bastions of good they once were. Then again, Gotham’s police have never been all that upright, so Montoya’s uphill battle might be more uphill than usual.

Armaan: The Batgirls get in a bit of a slapstick scuffle with Killer Moth and piece together the next clue: visit the bat enclosure at the Gotham zoo, and we get our first real look at the man behind everything: Mr. Fun. 

I was a little confused by this reveal. Just after Barbara wonders about who leaves riddles like this — seemingly implying the Riddler is involved — we’re shown a rather plainclothes man, surrounded by green lighting, who I was fairly sure was the Riddler until his final line revealed his uninspired superhero name. I guess it’s true that all the good villain names are taken if “Mr. Fun” is the best this guy can do. 

Matt: Yeah, Mr. Fun is not one of the most memorable Batman foes, having appeared only a couple times before. Maybe this will be his breakout appearance. But I kinda doubt it.

Busting Blockbuster

Armaan: I’ve been covering Nightwing ever since this new run began, and while readers — and you, as my editor on those reviews — know my thoughts on the series, I’m curious about yours. How have you been enjoying the book so far?

Matt: I really enjoy the character interactions in Nightwing most of the time. Taylor gets Dick and Barbara, he gets Dick and Wally, and I like the dynamic between Dick and his sister, Melinda. But as you have often pointed out in your reviews, when Taylor starts to get into issues, and boy howdy does he love issues, that often comes off as preachy and simplistic. Which is why I enjoyed this past issue’s massive takedown of Blockbuster’s operations. That’s some exciting superheroes.

Armaan: You join us right at the tail end of the arc that takes Blockbuster down. The fight’s not going so well. Nightwing’s trapped in a burning building, having endured a brutal beating at the hands of Blockbuster, and to make things worse, the crime lord has just removed that tiny little domino mask and figured out that Dick Grayson and Nightwing are one and the same. Fortunately, it looks like all Nightwing really needed was to catch his breath, because Blockbuster proceeds to take a hell of a beating from Nightwing almost immediately.

It’s a delightful set of panels done as only Bruno Redondo can. Clean, crisp action, almost comedic in its simplicity. Nightwing bounces all over the place, uses his electric escrima sticks, all while preaching to Blockbuster about what a terrible man he is. I could have used less speechifying, but I did enjoy Blockbuster getting hit in the face with a copy of Moby Dick — a great callback to #79 about Blüdhaven’s belief it can take on monsters, no matter how big they may be.

Matt: As I said above, the speechifying is where Taylor falls flat. If Taylor is going to take on issues, it’s better done subtly. If you’re going to point out the problems with the privatized carceral system, for instance, it’s best to work it into the plot.

Armaan: Another thing I really enjoyed was Batgirl’s (Barbara Gordon version) contribution to the fight. While Batgirl could have easily just fought all of Blockbuster’s henchmen into submission, she instead reveals that Blockbuster owns several private prisons — including ones many of these criminals have suffered abysmal conditions in. I love seeing things like this — glimpses into the lives of everyday henchmen, and the sheer pettiness that comes out in them. Not to belittle the kinds of things prisoners go through, but I find it incredibly funny how pissed Brutale and Executioner are, and how they hang around just to give Blockbuster the finger (blocked from our view by the Comics Code Authority for a little extra gag).

Also, as mentioned earlier, we also get a lovely Barbara and Dick scene. With his identity revealed, Dick enters brooding mode, afraid he and Barbara can’t be together for her safety. She laughs that off like the joke it is with a “@$#% that,” as I wish more people would do in this situation. I enjoy Redondo’s pacing here. He really sells the fun in Barbara refusing to take any crap from Dick when it comes to noble self-sacrificing, which is something a guy like him really needs in his life.

Matt: I am not much of a shipper in comics, but I have always been a fan of Dick and Barbara as a couple. They bring out the best in each other. Dick usually takes the edge off Babs, who can be too serious at times, and she balances out his devil-may-care attitude. But here we see that she can also be a light for him when he channels a bit too much of Bruce.

Armaan: We end with yet another tease for Heartless, as he sucks out Blockbuster’s heart with a special … heartsucker gun. I gotta admit, I’m tired of these teases. They’ve done nothing to build Heartless up as a villain, and he’s shown up far too many times and disappeared without any follow-up for me to care about this guy at all. Are you similarly jaded, or is this just me?

Matt: Nope, not just you. Heartless is a paper tiger. I get that him killing Blockbuster is supposed to make him more threatening, but he has proven too ineffectual before to make me really scared of him. Not to mention, thanks to continuity hijinks, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this Blockbuster get killed, and he went down just as easy there. Oh, and fun fact: That wasn’t even Blockbuster’s original heart. He got a heart transplant in a Nightwing/Birds of Prey crossover. In Gorilla City. So that, my friends, is a super intelligent gorilla heart taken out of the chest of a supervillain by another one. Only in comics!

Armaan: I’m almost sad you told me about this, because this is amazing and if this doesn’t become plot relevant down the line, I’m going to be very disappointed!

Previously, in Catwoman …

Armaan: I’ve been enjoying Tini Howard’s run on Catwoman immensely, and I enjoyed this issue no less. However, I have never been more desperate for DC to include recap pages in its comics. Keeping track of the criminals Catwoman is interfering with is a lot of work, and I’ve been following the book month to month. It doesn’t help that they don’t have big, flashy supervillain names or looks aside from Black Mask. This issue, Selina and Valmont mess about with the finances of Finbar Sullivan and his family, and I had to look two out of those three names up just to write that sentence.

However, whether you take the time to sift through all the exposition or just sort of skim past it (which I did on my second and first readings, respectively), this issue hits all the hallmarks of a fun Catwoman romp. Bisexual flirtations, Selina in luxurious outfits, high-speed chases, bank heists and Catwoman slipping into places she’s not meant to be like a shadow through sunshine.

Matt: Great. Now I have two writing partners begging DC for recap pages. That has been one of Will’s pet causes for … however long we’ve been working together. 

Armaan: We’ve got a theme emerging here. Catwoman may have the head of one of Gotham’s crime families, Sullivan, under her thumb, but in doing so, she’s placed a target on his back from Sullivan’s brother and sister-in-law. Catwoman’s been messing with the status quo, and those loyal to the old ways are at odds with those allying themselves with Catwoman. Finbar’s financier is the first target, but in this issue we also have Catwoman’s closest crime-family ally, our guy-in-the-chair Dario Tomasso kidnapped by his former flame, Noah. Noah replaced Dario as the heir to the Tomasso crime family throne, and the Tomassos are none too happy with Dario’s shift of allegiances.

There, DC, would that recap really have been so hard?

Matt: Howard is working a pretty intricate plot here, with lots of shifting allegiances and a lot of characters. And while only a couple of the mob bosses are really fully fleshed out (Blask Mask and Eiko Hasigawa), at least she is trying to make them distinct. I don’t know how well it works, since they’re mostly still generic Gotham mobsters, but at least they all have their own domains and motivations

Armaan: Selina and Valmont’s relationship interests me. They’ve eased into a kind of tentative partnership — they get along great on the social side of things, as flirtatious friends and romantic interests, but as professionals, there’s not a lot of trust shared between the two. Catwoman feels like she’s constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it doesn’t help that Valmont plays his cards close to the chest. A lack of trust certainly keeps things fresh, and while Valmont has been a fun ally to grace the page, I’m curious as to when the spotlight is going to move on him and we find out a little bit more about what really drives him.

Matt: Yeah, I haven’t really warmed to Valmont. That might be the fact that he feels too similar to Ghost-Maker in look and demeanor, and that’s a character I have at best mixed feelings about. I am with Selina on expecting him to turn out to have some much more sinister motivations as the book progresses. He strikes me very much as an “ends justify the means” sort of guy, and while Selina can be that way, at her core she has a much softer center. Something she definitely shares with Batman.

Armaan: While Jordie Bellaire always does a fantastic job on coloring, bringing the book’s sense of mood and tension to life, I’m of two minds on Caitlin Yarsky’s art. In some places it’s a little … cutesy and simplistic, in a way that pulls me out of the story. The expressiveness of people is great, though — there’s a lot of variety to the personalities on display here. The art isn’t consistent, but there are a few places where Yarsky picks her moments and they really land. That one page of Catwoman descending from above is a fantastic image. Not many people are that suave and confident hanging upside down.

A Happy Harley 30th

Armaan: A lot of ground to cover with this here anthology, but before we dive in, I wanted to talk about something I find uniquely interesting about this Harley Quinn anniversary celebration. I don’t think there’s any other fictional character out there who has had such a clear and ever-relevant break from the version audiences first knew her as. There are two main Harleys — the one who was Joker’s moll, constantly under his thumb, and the Harley who broke out from under that to make her own way. (There’s an Arkham-games-inspired Harley in the middle of that who occupied the early days of the New 52, but we’d all rather forget about that Harley, I think). 

It’s weird, because the former Harley is not one you can just ignore or laugh off when you’re celebrating the character’s history, unlike other superheroes who get to have unfortunate aspects of their past retconned and forgotten. The Harley of today is tied to the Harley we first met as inextricably as Batman is tied to the death of the Waynes, and it’s interesting to see how an anthology like this navigates that.

Matt: There is much less of that original Harley in here, but it is definitely here. Stjepan Sejic addresses it most directly in “Submissive,” and we get hints of it in Stephanie Phillips’ and Mindy Lee and Terry Dodson’s stories, but those are minimal. It is interesting how very little of the Joker is in here. He appears on maybe four pages throughout. There’s more Ivy and Catwoman; heck there’s more of the Suicide Squad than Joker.

Armaan: Now, considering the length this column has gotten to already, do you want to go through the stories one by one or just pick out your favorites?

Matt: I think we pick our favorites, just for expedience. Of the 10, I would spotlight three:

“Submissive,” which I mentioned above, is set in the same world as Sejic’s Black Label miniseries and deals with Harley’s psychology in her relationship with the Joker. Sejic’s work is very much focused on BDSM relationships, so this is the author working in his personal oeuvre. And boy it’s pretty.

“How To Train Your Hyena” from recently departed Harley creative team Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo is a ton of fun. I love Rossmo’s take on Bud and Lou, and it was great to see the hyenas again.

Armaan: I was particularly fond of seeing “How To Train Your Hyena” reuniting a team that’s really grown on me.

Matt: “A Legend is Born” is an Elseworlds story of a fantasy Harley. The story is fine, but it’s the Erica Henderson art that sings for me. I’m a huge fan of Henderson, and with the hint at the end that this might be continued somewhere, I am looking forward to seeing more of her work on this character.

Armaan: “Siren Soiree” was an absolute delight for me. I love the Gotham City Sirens, I love the fun this story has, and I am always delighted by the gag of DC villains and heroes having off hours in which they try to just act like people. 

“Uncommon Bonds” was the perfect starter for this anthology. A lot of the modern Harley we’ve come to know and love can be attributed to Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, and while the series itself got a little too zany for my tastes, I had a fun time in a bite-sized short story like this.

“The Last Harley Story” is another Elseworlds tale. I’m not sure if the idea has legs beyond its basic concept, but as a done-in-one short story, I was surprised by how much it got to me.

As a last note, I wanted to say that while I did enjoy every one of the stories in their own way, “Criminal Sanity” did absolutely nothing for me. Harley Quinn as a no-nonsense investigator does nothing for me.

Bat-jacent Thoughts

• I love seeing Gotham Academy characters show up. With Kyle in Batgirls, is Maps joining the team far behind? Probably, but I can dream.
• This is why I need you on this column, Matt. Mr. Fun and Kyle are pre-existing characters? This is all news to me!
• Cassandra’s “Always, and never” in response to whether she’s expecting someone got me right in the heart. It’s a perfectly Cassandra line.
• Red Tool as a tortured Deadpool riff that only tangentially makes sense is a joy only because of how hard they stick to the ridiculous bit.
• Great seeing Alfred again in a story.