Harley Quinn 2024 Annual #1 – Erica Henderson, Writer/Artist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Tini Howard’s Harley run has been lifted by some seriously bizarre backups featuring a host of offbeat cartoonists and creative teams—and the most frequent guest has been writer-artist Erica Henderson, who gets her chance at a solo issue with this annual. What follows is the funniest, most chaotic Harley issue in a while. After kicking us off in the middle of a heist, Harley’s wound up in possession of some major money—and she did it the old-fashioned criminal way, rather than as a costumed vigilante. That makes her want to give being normal a try, so she decides to treat herself to a luxury cruise. But Ivy isn’t enthusiastic, so Harley winds up going solo (after some hilarious editorializing from Ivy on why no one should go on a cruise). Bored and not sure what to do with herself, Harley winds up looking into the entertainment—and discovers that her old frenemy Zatanna is performing on board.
This leads to a hilarious series of events as Harley discovers that Zatanna is using a magical double to perform her shows, scamming the ship—and when the double seemingly goes haywire and kills a participant in the act, the two are forced to work together to uncover the truth. There is one twist after another in this bizarre mystery, complete with a surprising appearance of another famous character as the not-so-dead dead guy. This is one of the most off-kilter DC books I’ve read in a while, feeling more like a buddy crime comedy than a superhero comic and Henderson’s art has a lot to do with that. Henderson is an acclaimed cartoonist who has done amazing work on some popular all-ages books, but she’s perfectly suited for Harley’s cartoony world. Howard actually seems to be taking Harley a bit more down to earth in the title right now, but this issue reminded me of just how wonderfully weird she can get.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
