Harley Quinn 49-50: How Harley restored the Multiverse, and why her book is now in continuity

[ebailey140]

Harley's book has been playing off the other Batbooks, lately. It's still the usual Fourth Wall breaking fun, but it's now in continuity. Her confrontation with Lex Luthor during the Year of the Villain event will take place in her book, and judging from the solicitation, she won't be impressed by the latest big event.

HARLEY QUINN #63 (JULY 3)

Ugh, ANOTHER comics event? Harley undermines our cash-grab and disrupts an otherwise very serious list of story synopses by parodying Year of the Crisis or whatever. Sam Humphries (w) Sami Basri (a) Guillem March (c)


How did this happen? Well, the Multiverse collapsed (again), and only one person could save it.






In previous issues, we'd seen pages of a comic book starring Harley... um, within the actual comic book starring Harley. Harley finds it.

Meanwhile, a mysterious woman is on a date.






Harley is chilling out with her mom after her epic battle with Lord Death Man (which was everything you'd expect from a fight between those two), and they look over that comic Harley found.






It's too late! Harley's mom has been retconned out of existence, and the Multiverse is falling apart. The first shockwave makes Bruce's mother secretly an alien queen, and Robin a Fourth Wall breaking rat. "This is worse than Milk Wars!" Jonni declares.

They have to track down the comic and read it backwards, or, failing that, find M. Clatterbuck, the mighty force that created it. The reality breaking shockwaves keep disrupting their ability to grab the comic. They encounter things like the Batman and Superman families as pirates, a game show hosted by the Creeper where Ma and Pa Kent win what's in a rocket, Adam Strange as a '60s sitcom, "Lobo, the High Cost of Living" (where he spends a day on Earth to better understand humanity... "All this mature storytelling, I can't handle it! I FRAGGIN' HATE DEPTH OF FEELIN'!") And this...



After an encounter with an earlier Jonni DC with the '80s DC logo with the stars that warns them that time is running out, they reach M. Clatterbuck.










It turns out that things aren't quite as they were, as Golden Age hero Captain Triumph turns up in modern day New York. And, Harley's title is now in continuity.

3 pages from Harley Quinn #49, 13 out of 39 pages from Harley Quinn #50.

Comments

[janegray]

I'm not sure about this story. I think it's trying to do something good and with a lot of heart, bit the end result is extremely confusing. It's like they threw too much stuff at the wall and things got stuck on top of each other... Gwenpool's original series was a much, much more elegant take on the concept.

Wouldn't mind a President Batman though.

[lordultimus]

Well, on the cusp of continuity, anyways. Same as Squirrel Girl.

Just try and explain how this Harley is the same one that shows up in Suicide Squad. Go on, try.

[cainofdreaming]

I won't even try. Clearly this one's the only in continuity title for Harley.

[ebailey140]

Suicide Squad ended a while back, and it's not like anything significant happened in it during its later stages. The implication in this series was always that it was after her time in Suicide Squad, with the "friends in high places" that cleared her criminal record and restored her license to practice psychiatry.

Also, Meredith is continuing her work, and her artistic choices don't necessarily fit what's going on. In a later issue, we have Harley and Batman in the Batmobile, and we shift briefly to seeing Meredith's depiction of it, where she's drawing Batman with the old yellow oval on his chest. So, any issues of hair styles in Suicide Squad can be explained away as that's how Meredith drew it. Any inconsistencies can be explained either by Meredith telling the story, or that the Multiverse always changes a bit whenever it goes through one of these. Hell, there's still the whole Hypertime mechanism to explain any continuity adjustments.

But, this is the Harley book that takes precedence, now, since not only is there no Suicide Squad book, but Task Force X seems to be done. So, it's the canon Harley series by default.

As for whether Marvel's Fourth Wall breaking is canon, Gwenpool is an Avenger, and she can't exist without all the Fourth Wall breaking being canon. At DC, the Joker also breaks the Fourth Wall, so we can assume it's something that comes with being dunked in that combination of chemicals. Either it's a symptom of their insanity, or they both see and understand their world as it really, really, is.

[timefire]

there are Three Harleys, one for each Joker :D

/badum tish

[alliterator]

Well, on the cusp of continuity, anyways. Same as Squirrel Girl.

Hey, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is totally in continuity. They even have a tie-in with War of the Realms!

(Just ignore any and all Kraven appearances outside of USG.)

[lordultimus]

I think that Kraven turned out to be a clone or something.

[gravityshock]

I’ve always ignored Harley Quinn comics but this looks like a lot of fun!
Also, I would pay good money for a Doctor Starro book.

[malitia]

Me too... and I don't even read DC comics! O.o

[stupidbloodytuesdayman]

It bugs me that "normal" Jonni DC has straight hair but in-character JDC has a curly mop. Also, I like the Babs Tarr art here, and hey, good ol' Ultra.

[zachbeacon]

This just makes me miss Ambush Bug.