Harleen #2

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[tcampbell1000]

This turned out a heck of a lot better than I was expecting, and with all due respect, quick snippets really don't do it justice, because its greatest strength is the way it puts us inside a weeks-long process. (It certainly benefits by comparison with Jeff Lemire's Joker, which reads like one of those trailers that gives away the whole movie in two minutes.)

I knew Sejic from the internet, so I might've expected that he had the patience to pull that off. Mostly I was put off by the marketing, which described Harleen Quinzel as a "brilliant young psychologist" who "has discovered a revolutionary cure for the madness of Gotham City." DC sometimes overcompensates for the character's slightly seedy origins by making her a secret genius who just pretends to be a jokey fool (a type I've seen quite enough of in webcomics, thanks, and doing that usually translates to making everyone around her really stupid and/or easily manipulated).

What this story actually gives us is a smart, highly competent, respectable, but not superhuman, academic who is trying to prove the validity of her insights, as academics generally have to do. She has to make people think she might be brilliant in order to attract their funding, but it's very much up in the air whether she's got a real insight no one else sees or just hopes that she does. And that's pretty much how it is in the sciences, especially the soft sciences.

Also, this is definitely the most sexually magnetic version of the Joker I've seen anywhere. Others have been compelling, sure, and power's an aphrodisiac and we love what hurts us sometimes, but even if you overlook all the murders, they're usually too obviously, overpoweringly narcissistic to register as seductive. One thing seduction needs is a little uncertainty, a little mystery, and they shout themselves too loudly for that.

You know, like Trump.

[shadowpsykie]

Sejic not only knows, but LOVES Harley, and HATES that many people see their relationship as anything other than toxic. He remains faithful to the origin, but gives Harley a whole lot more agency. And makes the Harley/Ivy stuff, sexy, stable, and most importantly, not exploitive.

[cyberghostface]

Harlivy has been pretty abusive as well, not sure how I feel about the softening of it lately. Still remember the bit where Ivy bashed Harley's head against the wall over a botched robbery.

[smileriot]

I discovered this label last night, glad I’m not too late.

So far it looks amazing to me - sticking to canon, in a fresh approach. Harleen has always been treated with respect more in her pairing comics as opposed to her solo issues, I think. In solo arcs they over-do her “buT she WaS alWaYS mAD’ angle, it’s really tiresome.

The artwork is stunning here, to boot, good god.