Review: Harley Quinn Vol. 6- Black, White and Red All Over

Quick Summary

Pros: The main story arc is exciting and interesting. The volume’s final chapter is a touching sendoff for this era of the series. The humor works out better throughout this volume. The artwork looks nice and suits the story.

Cons: Over-the-top violence weakens one of the main storyline’s messages. One of the volume’s chapters is lackluster.

Overall: The last volume in the New 52 Harley Quinn series is also one of the best. This collection contains two good-looking and entertaining stories, both of which have made improvements to the comic’s humor and interest levels. In addition, the collection’s problems are rather minor and come from one single, mediocre chapter and some small storytelling problems in another arc. Overall, this collection is a worthwhile conclusion to this era of this comic, one that fans are sure to enjoy.

Story

Harley Quinn Vol. 6: Black, White and Red All Over, by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, mostly continues the slight upswing in quality that has been occurring over the course of this series. The stories here have narratives that are more interesting, contain comedy that comes across better, and attempt to tackle more compelling issues. Even the negatives here are not that significant and are never so prominent that they distract from the collection’s positives. In the end, this volume is a success that raises even more expectations for the Harley Quinn Rebirth series.

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The opening story arc in Black, White and Red All Over gets the collection off on the right foot. It revolves around a vigilante with an unhealthy obsession with Harley Quinn. Though the two start off as enemies, they eventually work out their situation and use it to fix Harley’s lingering problems with the Mayor’s office.

The arc is one of the better arcs in this series. It has real stakes, uses them to set up some tantalizing drama, and uses this to create a narrative where it feels like anything could happen. Then, it defies expectation by providing a clever wrap-up to Harley’s problems with the Mayor and having her somewhat befriend Red Tool. The arc also continues the improved approach to comedy that was seen in the previous collection (Review).

The only downside with this arc is that the series’ preference for extreme violence gets in the way of other points it tries to make. In one chapter, Harley and Red Tool’s fight leads to the accidental deaths of an entire audience of onlookers. Then, a few pages later, Red Tool laments about how witnessing war’s impact on civilians turned him into a vigilante. It is an upsetting contradiction that weakens an otherwise interesting moment.

From here, Black, White and Red All Over moves on to a chapter that has Harley participating in a giant robot fight against a hired killer. Though this arc is full of action, it feels a bit lacking everywhere else. It isn’t a bad arc but is pretty instantly forgettable.

Luckily, Black, White and Red All Over closes with a winner. The final chapter takes a brief moment for some sarcastic reflection on Harley Quinn’s real-world cinematic debut before moving on to a story mostly focused on humanitarian efforts. This chapter has Harley simply trying to help right some wrongs in her neighborhood, many of which are based on real-world issues. It is a wholesomely positive way to end this volume and this series.

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Art

Like the other volumes in this series, the artwork in Black, White and Red All Over is positive almost the entire way through. John Timms starts the collection off with a couple of engaging issues. These chapters read well and are structured in a way that properly places spotlight on action and emotion. This allows both fight scenes and simple dialogue to look good. Plus, the changes in Harley’s character design work out well and give the collection a nice visual shakeup. 

From here, Chad Hardin takes over for a chapter. Hardin’s depictions of Harley and the gang look as appealing as ever. However, this is definitely not Hardin’s best work, as some of the fight scenes end up looking either too static or too chaotic.

Finally, Elsa Charretier closes the volume with a lighthearted final chapter. The visuals in this chapter are not as dramatic as they are in other chapters but they do not need to be. Action is less of a focus here so the brighter takes on characters and locations make their humanitarian actions come across even better. Plus, the volume’s final two pages work great as a conclusion to this series.

Continuity

Harley Quinn Vol. 6: Black, White and Red All Over continues the story from Harley Quinn Vol. 5: The Joker’s Last Laugh (Review).

This Harley Quinn series ends with this volume. A new one starts in Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Die Laughing (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• This volume makes a few references to Harley Quinn’s real-world cinematic debut in Suicide Squad.
• Harley Quinn’s comic connection to the Suicide Squad (Reading Order) is briefly mentioned. This connection began in Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth (Review).