Harley Quinn Vol. 1- Hot in the City

Quick Summary

Pros: The story and art offer a fun and lighthearted venture into the life of one of its most popular villains. It is a nice departure from the typical DC superhero book and offers a number of laughs along the way.

Cons: The storyline is very basic and leaves a lot to be desired in terms of excitement and depth. In addition, the humor gets a little heavy handed and crass at points and is definitely not for everyone.

Overall: This collection is very polarizing. If you are looking for a traditional action-packed superhero story involving a faceoff between heroes and villains, then you will be rather disappointed. However, if you are looking for a fun and humorously dark romp through the world of one of DC’s craziest characters, then this will be perfect for you.

Story

Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Hot in the City is not your traditional DC comic book, which could be good or bad. It is packed full of humor, bizarre at times, and even manages to break the fourth wall here and there. For some, this will be great and will be the comedic book they have been looking for, however, others may find it to be a bit too much. No matter what though, this book is radically different from everything else DC is doing. In a landscape of comics which are sometimes near clones of each other, this one really stands out.

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The great part about this book is how much it stands out from everything else DC is doing. Conner and Palmiotti come out the gate with the message that this book will be different and manage to deliver on that promise. I thought seeing a genuine focus on humor was also a breath of fresh air as most of the New 52, so far, has been rather dark and serious.

Obviously a big part of the book is the humor. The entire story is just generally humorous with a comedic range extending from lighthearted quips to some much darker jokes. For example, one minute Harley is talking to a stuffed beaver and the next she is making bets on what side of the fence a dead body will fall. This all mostly works well as it fits the character and the tone of the book. The only real comedic low notes are the occasional insertion of low brow humor, with most of these being lame sex jokes or generic potty humor, though these don’t appear often.

The downer in the book is its lack of an interesting or captivating storyline. The story is fun as it goes from hijink to hijink, but never manages to develop past that. There are few moments that make it feel like you need to keep reading or even get you excited for what’s coming next at all. This ends up making each storyline feel more like an episode of an unevolving sitcom rather than anything dynamic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing on its own, but I would like to see more develop here. Hopefully this development will happen soon as hints to a bigger mystery appear at the collection’s end.

The big divider here is the portrayal of Harley. Clearly, this version of Harley takes a lot from Deadpool, for better or worse. She can be seen breaking the 4th wall and showing a disregard for others that has, thus far, been classic Deadpool. While some will love this, others, especially those experiencing oversaturation of this type of humor, will hate it. I, however, enjoyed it. I think this humor fits Harley perfectly as it manages to take some great stuff from Deadpool while staying true to the source. However, I will admit that I am worried what the future holds and fear for some more intense Flanderization to come.
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Art

I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue in this collection (issue #0) and thought it was extremely fun and different from most anything I had seen before. This is probably the most unique issue in terms of art and longtime comic fans should get a good deal of enjoyment out of it. Nearly everything here is a reference to the comic industry and many are probably too dense for most readers to pick up on. It was also just really neat to see the difference in tone and style that all of these artists bring to the table.

Art in a book like Harley Quinn walks an odd path in that it has to be both dark and lighthearted at the same time. The art needs to be lighthearted enough to detract from all the killing that happens but be dark enough to keep the book from just becoming a children’s cartoon. This collection really succeeds in this as all character drawings are realistic and well done, yet most of the book’s colors are bright and vibrant. Overall I found the art to be very good throughout.

Universe Connections

Do not let the long list fool you, this collection has surprisingly few Universe Connections. In the Harley Quinn series, continuity with the rest of the DC Universe is very loosely explained or not explained at all. For example, Harley is somehow in the Suicide Squad while also hosting this book.

Since this is the first volume of the series, pretty much anyone can jump into this book without having to worry. The story started here will continue in Harley Quinn Vol. 2: Power Outage.

Almost all of the connections listed here are in the art of this book, with nearly all of those occurring in issue #0.

• To start out, the talking beaver suggests “one of those guys that does the cowboy stuff an’ that chick that draws the girls with the big…” as artists for Harley. He is referencing Jimmy Palmioti’s work on Jonah Hex/All Star Western and Amanda Conner’s work on Power Girl.
• The first artist, Becky Cloonan, is most known to DC fans for her work on Gotham Academy.
• The second artist, Tony Daniel, is probably best known for his work with Grant Morrison on Batman.
• Artist number three is Stéphane Roux. The joke here is that he later goes on to draw issue 2 of this series.
• The next artist is Dan Panosian, who’s work on this page seems to be a Mad Men style reference to his work in advertising.
• Walter Simonson is the next artist. The joke here revolves around the fact that Simonson’s earlier work on Thor puts nearly all of the focus on the characters and action rather than the background, and also the fact that he has a rather distinctive signature that looks like a brontosaurus.
• The next artist is Jim Lee. This page is a near exact copy of a similar page from Batman: Hush. The joke also revolves around the fact that Jim Lee is one of the biggest names in DC Comics and, being such, would make much more in royalties.
• Up next is Bruce Timm, one of the leads behind Batman: The Animated Series and some of Batman Adventures. This page is a reference to Batman Adventures: Mad Love and to this popular scene from the television adaptation as well.
• Artist number eight is Charlie Adlard, who is best known for his work on Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, which he has been working on since near its beginning.
• Number nine is Adam Hughes. Hughes is well known for his distinctive “pin-up” style of drawing women, which may be why this page has Harley entering a beauty contest. Also on this page, Harley asks if Hughes will be “drawing another big blue pe–” and is then immediately cut off, she is referencing Hughes past work on Before Watchman: Doctor Manhattan where full frontal nudity is often displayed by the blue skinned Doctor Manhattan.
• Next up is Art Baltazar, who’s work on Tiny Titans is being referenced here. Tiny Titans is a children’s comic, which the joke is about.
• In Sam Kieth’s page, his more creepy art from The Sandman to his own comic The Maxx are shown.
• And last, but certainly not least, is the great Darwyn Cooke. Cooke is well known for his series DC: The New Frontier, who’s art is nearly identical to the art on this page. He also drew the Catwoman series for a while, something which Catwoman herself makes a joke with.
• The two other characters on Darwyn Cooke’s page are Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, the husband and wife creative team on this Harley Quinn series. This is what Conner means when she tells Palmiotti that Harley is going to “pay some of our bills for a while.” Catwoman also sites Palmiotti as a creator when she references All-Star Western and Batwing, both series which were not doing well at the time.  As a final reference, Amanda Connor is wearing a wedding dress similar to Power Girl’s costume, a series she had drawn in the recent past.
• At the end of issue 0, after the van explodes, various comic books can be seen all over the place, with all of them being actual comics in the New 52. Harley can even be seen looking at her own comic as the issue ends, the comic even shows something that happens on the very next page.
• Near this collection’s end, Harley flings her dog’s droppings at an office building. In this building are DC Comics executives Dan DiDio and Jim Lee who seem to be pitching a New 52 parody concept.