The Verdict is in…and she’s making her presence felt in a big way. After Gotham’s newest villain massacres a bar full of mobsters in a Harley Quinn costume, Harley’s hard earned Robin-Hood-esque life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Harley Quinn #13, written by Stephanie Phillips, penciled by Riley Rossmo, inked by Jay Leisten, colored by Ivan Plascencia, and lettered by AndWorld Design.
Twice, yesterday, people I’m writing about comics with mentioned how good the issues we’d be reviewing are, and both times my brain just glitched out, frozen. It had been a long, tiring day. I knew I had a lot of thoughts about both those comics, and I was ready to get into them. I knew there were moments I enjoyed, moments I didn’t, moments I felt had room for improvement and moments of absolutely gorgeous craft. What I wasn’t able to tell, for the life of me, was if either of those comics were good. My mind just blanked at the question, and still is, a little bit.
After a good night’s sleep an adequate amount of rest was cobbled together and I’d gotten some breakfast in me, I opened up Harley Quinn, falling back into its warped, high-energy, heart-catching world, and I gotta say:
This comic is good.
Black and White and Red All Over
Last issue was a pretty good conclusion, or at least resting point, for the life Harley was trying to build for herself, at a pretty decent tradepaperbackable #12. This opening here feels like the start of a new season, and what an opening it is! Verdict springs out of a cake dressed as Harley Quinn and proceeds to spend several pages murdering, monologuing and mutilating mobsters who manipulated the system in their favor.
It’s a great action scene. Verdict doesn’t appear to be particularly acrobatic, has no gadgets or powers, just absolute murderous conviction and glee in her brand of justice. From the moment she bursts out of the cake to the one where she pops out her target’s eyeball and exits the scene, the pages are pure chaos. The way the air is suffused with a bloody orange by Plascencia when she starts firing off a tommy gun is hypnotic. I love Plascencia’s colors, but his oranges are always my favorites, and make a hell of an impact on the page.
Verdict’s wearing the older version of Harley’s costume, the classic red-and-black harlequin jumpsuit and floppy headdress. I always take note of when that costume’s brought back – when the Joker does it in the animated series, Keepsake’s attempt to, and now Verdict doing the same. I mean, it could be a practical choice, it’s an easier costume for Verdict to disguise herself in, but it feels like it’s more than that. It’s the costume that Harley Quinn spent years in as an ill-treated sidekick and desperate love interest to the Joker. It’s the version of herself she’s trying to escape from. It is, in every sense of the word, confining—and Harley keeps having to fight people who want to put her back into it.
Verdict isn’t just someone who finds people guilty and murders them for it—that kind of character’s a dime a dozen (even if you do bring in ninjas and change his skull logo). Verdict’s someone who refuses to let people move on from their past. Which is the very opposite of what Harley’s been trying to embody.
The Bat Gotham Deserves
The lettering gets the whole opposites thing. We get an immediate contrast between Verdict’s white letters on a black background caption box and Harley’s black letters against white—though both of their caption boxes have that red outline. To say nothing of their tone. Verdict’s vengeance, Harley’s a sk8r girl, could they make it any more obvious?
I love that they brought Harley’s roller derby look back, and it leads to one of my only real complaints about this issue. While it gives Derric Chew an opportunity to give us an absolutely electric variant cover, there’s a page where Harley’s chasing down a food truck, her dyed pigtails leaving vibrant trails of pure energy in the air behind her much in the way the Flash leaves trails of lightning but with far more pink. Word balloons, unfortunately, cover most of it. It’s a shame, because it’s a hell of an image and I’m like, 80% sure it spells out “Harley Quinn” and would have looked iconic.
Alas.
In terms of redemptive paths, Harley’s in a pretty great place. She’s stealing unused food from high-end restaurants that would ordinarily be thrown away, and delivering it to those who need it. Armed with little more than a pair of skates and her trusty bat, Harley’s putting a lot of work into helping her community; it’s inspiring to see.
While she’s been helping people, and riding off the warm and fuzzy highs that come with, she’s been heavily neglecting her own needs ever since Poison Ivy wandered off into her own miniseries. Harley’s apartment is a mess, second only to the mess of broken feelings Ivy left Harley with. She opens up to Kevin about all this, and the two get to share a beautiful moment of openness and friendship before…sigh. The cops show up.
When You Can’t Tell Guts From Marinara
We get a somewhat significant amount of page space for the cops investigating the horrendous mess of a crime scene that Verdict left behind—all, it would seem, to introduce us readers to GCPD rookie Jaylin Shaw, indicating that Jaylin may be a key player in the issues to come. Jaylin is, by all appearances, a by-the-book cop looking to make their mark on Gotham crime, still new enough to be unable to hold their lunch in at the sights (and smells) of spilled guts. Nothing that really stands out yet, beyond the panel space they’re given, which is just enough to intrigue me.
This issue does raise a lot of questions about law enforcement in Gotham City, though. I realize, yes, that this is just a comic, and one that leans sillier than most at that. Nothing actually gets in the way of the story, or pulls me out of it; they’re very much the kind of questions comics aren’t meant to answer, so I will be cramming them all into square brackets below because it’s going to bother me if I don’t. Feel free to skip ahead.
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[Are Batvillain costumes so signature that the police don’t even take into account the possibility that someone else could put on the costume to frame, or even homage someone else? What’s Harley’s legal status when she steals food trucks with no hint of a disguise but also the police know where she lives and pays rent? Does Batman not share any of his files with the GCPD so they know when an Arkhamite of Interest has been adopting a whole new look for at least three multiversal reboots and relaunches? Are red and black bras a standard prison issue option? ]
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Because of recent events in Gotham, there’s not really an Arkham to send Harley to, which means she’s slumming it with the less colorful criminals over at Blackgate Penitentiary…all of whom seem to want to make their mark going up against a bonafide Batvillain. Harley’s in trouble, but me? The idea of Harley in a less Arkham-like setting for a bit is intriguing.
There was a lot of comic this issue. A new villain, a new supporting character, and a new setting Harley’s trapped in. A new season, of sorts, for Harley Quinn. The series has hit a new level of consistence that I’ve been really enjoying. It’s on my list of comics I look forward to every month—it’s a good read.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
