Review – Harley Quinn #30 (DC Comics)

Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: John Timms
Colours: Alex Sinclair
Inks: John Timms
Release Date: 18^th October 2017

Harley’s run for office seems to be going really well, despite some misguided and potentially career-ending choices. The people really seem to understand that she has a heart of gold, but her enemies will stop at nothing to discredit her and remove her from the race.

Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti do great work on Harley, and you won’t find many people who would argue against that. We see a pretty huge compliment of Batman’s rogues gallery in this issue, with everyone from Scarecrow to Poison Ivy gracing these very pages. Scarecrow is actually kind of a high point this issue, with his use of fear toxin actually being one of the funniest scenes of the arc so far. That said, if I had any criticism it would be that there may be that there are just too many characters running around, making the book feel unnecessarily busy in places. Some of the characters also show up in what feels like ‘bit parts’, with not very much to do.

John Timms’ art is on point as usual with the main cast looking hyper stylised in a way that gels perfectly with Harley and her extended cast. His art is distinct and cartoony giving the readers a visual feast that perfectly complements the kind of insanity that goes hand-in-hand with the idea of Harley Quinn actually running for politics.

Alex Sinclair brings Timms’ art to life with extremely vivid colour and smart use of neon lighting and high-contrast tones. Each panel is crisp and clean, really allowing the colour to pop, especially when read on a tablet or high-resolution screen.

Harley Quinn continues to be one of the most consistent books that DC has on the shelves right now. Amanda and Jimmy continue to entertain with outlandish plots and colourful characters, but this current tale is a little less engrossing and it’s hard to say why. The story itself is fun but it maybe just feels a little too on the nose this time around. It isn’t really all that hard to imagine crazy people running the country given real life events, and perhaps it takes the shine off the apple a little.

Despite being part three of an ongoing arc it would be fairly easy for anyone who has some knowledge of this current incarnation of Harley to pick this up and get caught up. The writers do a good job of referencing past events to keep everyone up to date and Harley herself is such a random character that it rarely matters what has come before, just what happens next. If you already love Harley like the rest of us this will be an easy recommendation, however if you are totally new to her antics it might be better to jump back a few issues or wait for the next storyline to begin.

Rating: 4/5.

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