DC KO: Zatanna vs. Harley Quinn #1 – Leah Williams, Writer; Mirka Andolfo, Artist; Romulo Fajardo Jr, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Each of the DC KO fight nights has taken on a different tone. Some are intense and profound, like when Captain Atom proved how far he was willing to go to win. Others are bare-knuckle brawls like Aquaman vs. Hawkman. And others are even hilarious, like the bizarre series of events that Lobo and Wonder Woman went through. And then there’s Zatanna vs. Harley Quinn – which just gets flat-out nasty. These two don’t know each other that well, both are a bit more morally flexible than your average superhero, and both are determined to win – but that doesn’t prepare Zatanna for Harley attempting to crush her larynx five seconds into the battle in order to keep her from speaking her spells. That sets the tone for round one, as Harley proceeds to stalk a temporarily depowered Zatanna and brutally beat her, turning a cosmic fight into little more than a bare-knuckle brawl.
Zatanna learns from her loss in the first round, and brings a different energy to the fight. Harley continues to approach the entire thing with her usual insane troll logic, attacking Zatanna with everything she has and tailoring her future appearances to whatever’s on her mind at the moment – and even stealing Zatanna’s magic at one point. This seems like a mismatch of the highest order, with Zatanna being a near-goddess and Harley being a clown, but the battle shifts those odds and Harley’s unpredictability makes her incredibly hard for Zatanna to deal with. She seems like she’s actively trying to rile Zatanna up at points and make her lose control of her powers – even if that means extreme danger to Harley herself. The issue ends on a surprising downer ending, easily the darkest one of these so far, as we get closer to whatever all these heroes and villains are fighting for. Three more matches to go.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
