Harley Quinn #46 – Sam Humphries, Writer; John Timms, Artist; Gabe Eltaeb, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The most fun and exciting Harley Quinn story in years continues in Harley Quinn #46, as Harley gets used to her new life on Apokalips with some growing pains. Okay, a lot of growing pains. Last issue saw Granny Goodness send her on her first mission as a Female Fury, to apprehend a fugitive known as Petite Tina, who turned out to be not petite at all. After a brutal early fight, it turns out that Tina is a former Female Fury who went rogue and now works to defend the lowlies of Armagetto. This is something Harley sympathizes with, as she defends the unfortunate and disenfranchised on Earth as well – but it doesn’t stop her from clocking Tina with her hammer. After dropping her off with the proper authorities and recovering Granny Goodness’ artifact, she questions Granny’s plans – and is promptly screamed at and threatened. Turns out that Harley’s standard sass and sarcasm isn’t exactly welcome on Darkseid’s world. This is where we start to see her early honeymoon with her new life wear off.
Harley, despite her protests, is essentially a good person, and the world of Apokalips is not made for good people. It’s a world where suffering and sadism is a way of life. This issue may not be 1/100th as brutal as the last issue of Mister Miracle, but it still manages to get across the hopelessness of the planet. Soon enough, Harley finds herself getting involved in the plight of the “lowlies”, especially when she finds out that Granny Goodness plans to use them to fuel the Subjukator device and use it to export the mind control of Apokalips across the universe. Plus, she can’t find a good hamburger anywhere on Apokalips, which was probably the last straw. Even though the situations in this issue are far out there, this feels like the same Harley we saw in the Palmiotti/Conner run. She’s just moved up to a bigger weight class of threat, and it shows when she tries to mount her rebellion against Granny Goodness and her forces. Let’s just say that it doesn’t look like Harley’s taking the next flight off Apokalips any time soon, and I don’t mind – this is the most entertaining the book’s been in a long time.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
