A Reader's Guide to Books and Reviews

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #30
Author: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Alex Sinclair (Illustrator), John Timms (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.95/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: November 2, 2017
Book Summary: "VOTE HARLEY" part three! Harley's making some pretty unsavory alliances to keep her mayoral campaign humming...including drafting some of the worst villains from her Gotham City days! How will her New York friends react to that? Can they hold their noses and vote for someone who accepts campaign contributions from the Penguin?
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.95

Okay I am not certain how I feel about Harley's new boytoy. I don't know much about him and I pretty sure I never really caught his name. I think it's Mason Macabre but I could be wrong. Still I am not the fence with him. I don't really care for the idea that he's taking her attention away from Ivy. I prefer those two together more than she and Mason. I hope we don't see much of him in the future.

The Scarecrow has grown tired of playing games with the mayor. He's not the sort who likes these type of games either and the mayor seems bent on playing these games with him. Unfortunately for the mayor, the Scarecrow isn't in the mood and has decided to cut the leash off of him and move on. He does so by knocking out the mayor and taking his money to go. Is this the end of the Scarecrow? Who knows? We may see him later on. We know he isn't quite Harley's fan and I am certain that since she has bested him this time around, there is bound to some revenge or another in the future.

As for Harley, she has decided that there is too much concrete and massive buildings in the city. With the help of Ivy and the rest of the gang, she turns the city into something of a green space. Unfortunately for Harley, it backfires spontaneously on her. Her plan has caused power outages and other sort of problems for the city.

But Harley still has another problem in the form of the current and corrupted mayor. As she prepares for another round with candidate forums and such, she finds herself in a predicament when she is forced to give up her mayor candidacy. Apparently the mayor has gained the upper hand and has captured her friends and forced her hand.

Harley isn't going to let the mayor get away with this and we know there is bound to be a ton of revenge coming his way. If the mayor survives this, I will be surprised.

Title: Harley Quinn Batman Day Special Edition (2017) #1 (Harley Quinn (2016-))
Author: Amanda Conner (Writer), Jimmy Palmiotti (Writer), John Timms (Artist), Hi-Fi (Colors), Dave Sharpe (Letters), Chris Conroy (Editor)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: October 6, 2017 to October 8, 2017
Book Summary: The annual fan-favorite event, now in its fourth year, was first introduced to honor Batman’s 75th anniversary. This year, in honor of Harley Quinn’s 25th anniversary, BATMAN DAY will also feature the immensely popular Clown Princess of Crime who burst into our lives when she debuted on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.

"JOKER LOVES HARLEY" part one! For months now, strange reminders of Harley's time with the Joker have been popping up in the most unexpected places...is this coincidence? Or a message? As our tale begins, Harley is introduced to a newer, kinder Joker...and Red Tool is not happy about it!
Book Review: This comic adds a missing scenes in the Harley Quinn issues #11 - 13.

The issue opens up with Harley finding the Joker in her apartment petting her beloved weiner dog, Nathan. Harley, of course, is not pleased at his appearance. In fact after she frees her little dog and sends him downstairs, she turns back to the Joker with a knife in her hands. Joker doesn't even twitch, only tells her he wishes to discuss some matters with her. Harley is thunder-struck that he wants to talk as adults.

As Joker exits, Red Tool comes blaring into her room. The two discuss the reason behind Joker's sudden appearance. Red Tool believes that there is motive for his appearance and so does Harley but she isn't in the mood to discuss it. Instead, she and Red Tool head off to do some damage.

The scene changes to the Mayor, whom has a Homeless problem he wants to get rid of. He also wants Madison as his assisstant. Madison, on the other hand, has reasons of becoming his second hand. She thinks that the Chief of Police employing Harley is headed to disaster and she also believes that if they make some big moves this may prove to get the Mayor re-elected when the time comes.

Harley and Red Tool have broken into a wax museum. There Harley takes down a ghostly tentacle monster. Afterward, Harley heads home to get ready for bed. There she sets her alarm to wake her for her meeting with Joker. As she falls asleep, she is unaware that Red Tool has turned off her alarm.

This was a nice added bonus. It helped to understand what exactly happened to cause Harley's alarm to be turned off. You cannot be too mad at Red Tool for trying to protect her. I know he is not everyone's cup of tea but I think he adds to her a bit. I don't see him as something as a romantic interest for her but more of a brother. I tend to like this relationship. Who knows maybe there might be something more to their relationship.

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #26
Author: Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, John Timms (Illustrator), Chad Hardin (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 4.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: September 18, 2017 to September 20, 2017
Book Summary: “MEAN STREETS!” Harley’s been doing her best to hold her corner of New York City together, but the mayor’s been doing his best to tip the whole town into corruption! Harley’s gonna have to hammer some sense into this guy once and for all…and in “Harley Loves Joker” part ten, The Joker’s vendetta against the thief who’s been scalping all his prime jobs threatens to get everyone killed!
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.5

This comic book picks up where the last issue has left off.

In her desperate bid to rid the world of Harley Quinn, Madison Berkowitz has hired more than two dozen dirty assassins to do her bidding. Unfortunately for these guys, they don't know Harley and for one thing, she is definitely not going to be forgiving for having her birthday ruined by anyone.

These dirty assassins have come to realize that Harley is not anyone who is will roll over and play dead when she is surrounded and outnumbered. Nope, our gal turns the tables and takes them out in the goriest way only she could be known for. The rest seem to do the rolling over and playing dead.

Although we don't see many of Harley's squad out in front, we do get a taste of the Gotham Sirens and what these gals are capable of when standing out on their own. These girls do live up to their bad girl image when taking down their enemies, especially Ivy herself. Ivy lets loose her most wicked plants and let's them do the most damage bringing down helicopters and killing off the assassins one-by-one.

When the chaos finally clears, Harley is reunited with her Sirens.

This comic wraps up nicely. Unfortunately we know that Madison will not be pleased with the failure of the assassins she sent after Harley so I am sure we will be seeing more of her in the coming future. We are also introduced to some new characters and I am quite certain there will be reason for their brief appearance here in later comics to come.

Harley continues to bloom even under the heaviest stuff thrown her way and it shows that her character is growing in every way it can. I am enjoying these comics immensely and I have to love the storylines and the art that comes with every issue. I am looking forward to the next issue.

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #20
Author: Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Paul Dini, 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: May 19, 2017
Book Summary: “FUTURE KILL” part one! You’ve seen her story begin to unfold in prior issues…who in the world is Bat-Fan, and why does she think Harley Quinn must die to save existence itself?! And in the backup story “Harley Loves Joker” part four, Harley’s mistakes have forced her to hide out with The Joker in a low-rent motel…unfortunately, they’ve had to bring their entire goon squad—and a pack of very poorly behaved hyenas—along!
Book Review: Real Rating: 4.5

Harley is heartbroken to find that the people that had been killed by the cannibals/vampires were only given a simple marker. Not even properly buried. She learns that the people behind the killings have either lawyered up or are not talking. So until then, there is not much no one can do.

The scene changes to Harley tending to Red Tool, who has been in the hospital recovering from his wounds. It is during this time that Harley's phone rings and she finds Harley Sinn on the other line. She has kidnapped Harley's neighbor and the "eye-candy". Harley demands to know where she is but Harley Sinn hangs up leaving Harley herself to call in a favor.

The future version (?) of Batgirl has arrived in the bat cave and promptly gets to work on locating Harley. And she does. She blasts through Harley door and accuses her of murdering Batman. A fight ensues with Harley launching Batgirl into the sky.

Although there was a bit of action, there was no solution nor back tale as to why Batgirl or even Harley Sinn were after Harley. I don't know the history between Harley and Harley Sinn but it seems to have boiled over into hatred but what caused it remains to be seen. I am not sure if the other comics ever had a story about the fallout between the two and maybe I will go into those later to see if there is a story there.

As for the Batgirl storyline, I am a bit confused as to why Batgirl has gone back to the future. I would have thought she would be looking for Batman to warn him of his impending death at Harley's hand? I would have taken that course rather than make a side trip to hunt down the killer, but that is just my take on it.

Still I am quite pleased with the direction of Harley's character. She is quite the character and it is nice to see her having some emotion toward others.

Title: Harley Quinn (2016-) #16
Author: Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Alex Sinclair (Illustrator), John Timms (Illustrator), Joseph Linsner (Illustrator)
Format: Epub
Rating: 3.5/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: March 15, 2017
Book Summary: “Red Meat” part three! Harley mixes it up with the mayor’s bloodthirsty secret weapons…and now she’s taking the fight straight to the steps of City Hall!
Book Review: Real Rating: 3.5

Once more I was thrilled to see the art of Joseph Linsner gracing the pages of this comic book. I have truly missed his art.

Second, this story does conclude one story in a gruesome way but it continues two others which I hope to see a conclusion to before anything further is added.

I have never read anything with Power Girl but I must say that her interaction with Harley is comical. Those two seem to have some sort of fondness for each other, although I believe that Power Girl might say otherwise. Still they are a fun pair and I hope we will be seeing more of her to come. She added a nice addition to the storyline.

I am glad this story is over but I would like to see answers to come with the ones that have sprung up before we see anything new. I understand that there are always other things happening around the world before Harley becomes a part of it but still there are a lot of confusion for us readers that we need to some answers made to the new characters' appearances.

Again I am partially waning away from these comics but there is still the part of me that remains hooked. I think it is mainly that I want to see exactly what Harley is capable of, Yet some of the storylines seem to drag on with no end in sight and yet others spring up for no real reason at the moment except to confuse the reader as to their purpose.

Has Harley's new series lost its luster for me? No, I don't think so yet.