[ o94 ]

[katara]

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #21
Author: Paul Dini, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Alex Sinclair (Illustrator), J. Bone (Illustrator), Joseph Linsner (Illustrator), John Timms (Illustrator), Bret Blevins (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: June 8, 2017 to June 9, 2017
Book Summary: “Red Roses” part one! Red Tool is done waiting for Harley to take him seriously—the poor sap’s hopelessly in love with her, and it’s time he made his move! Unfortunately, he’s picked a moment of peak distraction for Harley! And in the backup, “Harley Loves Joker” part five, Harley crosses paths with an old pal—Jenna Duffy, the crook known as the Carpenter! There won’t be much palling around, though…Jenna’s convinced Harley’s trying to scam her out of one of the biggest scores of her career!
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.5

This comic opens on a cabin somewhere in the mountains where Harley Sinn is holding her captives. It is during this that that the two captives place doubt within Harley Sinn's mind of Harley Quinn's hand in her incarceration.

We find Harley herself battling the future Batgirl when something happens. When the two wake again, they are tied up. We learn from the future Batgirl that Harley has killed the Batman in a future timeline and Batgirl has come to kill her off before she can do any harm. This is where we learn that Red Tool is from the future (did I get that right? I am really out of the loop with the history of these characters) and he takes the Batgirl to his home. We learn Red Tool is from the same future timeline and that Harley is his special project.

Harley finds herself back in her room. Her room cleaned up. As she goes to get dressed, she hears her doorbell. Hoping that the person that had brought her home had ordered pizza, Harley opens the door to find her parents standing in the doorway.

This issue really had no action in it. It sort of tied up the ending to the future Batgirl story but have we seen the last of that character? I doubt it. I would love to see her be a bit more of a regular and maybe allow her to get a chance to know Harley better. After all, she came to this timeline believing that Harley was behind the death of Batman. Maybe a chance of interactions might change her mind?

As for Red Tool, I found a little bit more of his story. This helped fill in some of the blanks of what I did not know of him. It gave his character a bit of a build but I don't know if this has changed any of his past history. Harley's comic is the first time I really have met him. He reminds me a bit of Deadpool. Okay a lot of Deadpool. I'm not sure if this a good thing or a bad thing but I suppose most characters within the DC and Marvel universes are knock offs of each other.

This was a nice read. I am looking forward to seeing how things go with Harley Sinn next and how that storyline will wrap up.