This week we continue with Harley Quinn Volume No. 2: Joker Loves Harley. This volume covers issues #8-13. Today I will be covering issues #9 and #10, but I am going to do #10 first because it is a Christmas special and not really part of the overarching story. If you still need to read the recap of issue #8 click this link right (here). Now onto the story!
HQ #10: Egg Noggin: Harley and Red Tool are visiting a department store at Christmas. Seems Harley is keen to have a chat with Santa. There is already a long line but no Santa. An unnecessarily sexy lady elf comes out to tell everyone Santa hit some bad weather and won't be there today. Harley confronts said elf while the children all lose their little minds. A giant candy cane falls, knocking Harley silly (sillier than she already is).
Another elf runs up telling the sexy elf and all the surrounding people that Santa is at the hospital and is in real bad shape. Naturally, Harley and Red Tool rush to the hospital. (There is a pretty funny bit in these few panels showing the taxi driver hitting only "naughty" people on the way to the hospital.) RT keeps asking Harley what they can do to help that doctors can't, but she is confident she is meant to save Christmas.
Turns out the thing that is wrong with Santa is that he is super depressed and fighting many inner demons. They have tried everything, but due to the unique nature of Santa's brain and his previous ability to compartmentalize his issues now compromised, his own ID (inner desires, oversimplified, but you get it) is trying to kill him. They have one last way to save Santa, but someone has to shrink down and go into his brain to fight the evil that is trying to kill him. Harley is in, even though it is a one way trip, because they can shrink but have no way to make her big again. Red Tool tries to stop her but you can't stop Harley Quinn when her mind is made up. The doctor warns that the ID creature will know all of HQ's biggest fears and will use them against her.
Harley is zapped into Santa's brain, it is pretty bleak and full of snow. She finds five igloos with different things floating over them. She goes into one with a reindeer only to find herself in a forest. She follows a glowing light and finds all the reindeer dead. There is a giant monster that bears a resemblance to Joker. It calls her a hypocrite for stopping his killing spree, since in the past many have likely died due to her choices. Umm...the big Joker monster grabs her and literally rips her in half, but she is fine somehow. He drops the pieces and she escapes promising once she pulls herself back together that she will take him down.
She comes out of the reindeer igloo and goes into one with a cocktail looking drink floating on top of it. She finds Santa and he is chilling on a beach with many ladies all wearing swimsuits. Dude is over being Santa and just wants to relax (honestly he is a bit of a creep). Suddenly all of the women stop moving and Santa freaks out because Harley has brought the evil to his relaxing place. All of the women's faces shift to a creepy Joker smile and they all have knives for some reason. Santa jets through a portal while Harley fights all the ladies. It is kind of a gross scene with both sides cutting each other but it doesn't seem to matter if anyone gets hurt.
Harley makes it out of the portal too and is back at the igloos. This time she goes into one topped with a candy cane striped bat. It is a tight squeeze and inside is another massacre. All the elves are dead and Santa has locked himself in a bathroom. Harley kicks down the door and finds Santa and one lone elf. She assumes that Santa did this, but he explains it was evil and had taken the form of his wife to kill all his helpers. Harley tries to give Santa a pep talk and encourage him to fight the evil, but he says he is done and it is up to her to save Christmas.
His little elf buddy then goes all evil and calls Harley a virus that must be destroyed. Now there are evil looking versions of Batman, Ivy, Power Girl, and Catwoman. She asks Santa what she is supposed to do and he points out that she can just think up stuff to fight too. Naturally, she thinks up two flaming swords. She then proceeds to destroy all of them in very creative and violent ways.
Things fade to white and Harley wakes up in the shopping mall with Red Tool and a mall Santa standing over her. (Of course it was all just a crazy Harley dream.) In her confusion she clocks mall Santa with a giant candy cane, upsetting many children. She then sits on the dizzy Santa's lap and tells him he better do a good job of being jolly. He then asks what she wants for Christmas, but the readers do not get to see her naughty wish. Finally the pair breaks the fourth wall wishing all the readers a Happy Holidays!
HQ #9: Butt Maiming & Mind Gaming: Harley seems to be having a Wizard of Oz style dream. The first page is black and white and we are mid-twister. The wicked witch character is being played by Joker. Once Harley lands in "Oz" she sees that her house has killed Batman, she puts on his boots, but then decides to keep her own shoes. Ivy shows up playing the role of Glinda the good witch and asks Harley if she is good or bad, but Harley doesn't really answer. Ivy points out the Wizard is going to be very mad. Harley drops a bunch of names for potential wizards, but Ivy doesn't know any of them. The Wizard rolls up and it turns out it is Joker being carried by a pack of tiny Jokers and he is mad that someone else killed his nemesis. Harley tells Joker it was the house and not really her. Dream Joker asks Harley who she is.
We jump out of the dream and see that Harley is telling someone about it. She is mostly annoyed that the dream Joker didn't know who she was. The dream jumps to her and Joker skipping up to the Emerald City and talking about how happy they will be there. We see Ivy, Catwoman, and Power Girl. Frank, (Harley's sometimes therapist that she pays with food), asks why the jump in the dream and Harley is evasive. Frank tells her that her time is up and kicks her out of his shop. She demands that he at least tell her what the dream means. He basically tells her that she is having an inner conflict and dreads the future. She admits to being frustrated and full of rage. He asks about an outlet and she tells him that she has roller derby.
Cut to Harley joining her roller derby team. They are happy to see her because they keep getting their butts kicked. Also good news the club now has a new no "skate to the death" rule. A rival from volume 1, named Bertha is back and is also happy to see Harley...so she can beat her up. (Note, in my experience roller derby is much less blood thirsty.) Bertha and Harley basically just get into a fight while also wearing skates. Bertha gets a hold of Harley and literally starts to crush her helmet. It doesn't look good for Harley, but someone from the crowd shoots Bertha dead. Everyone runs and Harley is out cold. Her teammates are nice enough to drag Harley out of harm's way.
We glimpse inside Harley's poor raddled brain. The first page is some kind of war scene, she has a rainbow bazooka, and all the heroes drop down like bombs. On the next page we see a rainbow mushroom cloud from the bombs, but zoom out to see Ivy and Harley sitting at a table eating something (it is very unclear, sushi maybe). The next page is crazy so I am just going to share a picture, you can make of it what you will. The last dream page is Harley petting a cat, then cuddling a cat, then cuddling Ivy. Then she is standing looking at a painting of her cuddling Ivy, right before she is tackled by two guards.
Harley wakes up in her teammate, Skye's apartment. Skye recounts what happened and asks who might have been Harley's savior. Harley calls up Red Tool. He tells her it wasn't him, shooting is not his style. Harley then pops over to an off the books doctor, who tells her she will be okay, just some bruising. That all settled she goes to get some pizza. While at the pizza place two guys try to rob the place. Harley says if they give her pizza for life she will take the guys down. Gino (the shop owner) says it is just money, but the robber threatens his dad, so Harley takes one down and Gino takes down the other. Cops are called and Harley skedaddles with the promise of pizza for life.
Harley is feeling pretty down but sees that she is not having it the worst. She down next to a homeless man and offers him some pizza. Then she asks what happened to him. He explains that he lost his wife and once she was gone, he couldn't go home anymore. She was his home and now he is just waiting to join her. Harley doesn't say anything, just gives him a hug.
Finally home, Harley tells Tony she is going to go sleep for a week, but as soon as she walks into her room, Joker is there waiting for her.
Thoughts: It is super weird to write a holiday recap in June. Also, this was a very weird issue in general. I admit I didn't love either of these issues, but they weren't bad. Obviously the holiday one was just a fun filler. Issue #9 is meant to be a prelude to the main topic of this volume. Next week we will get into the actual Joker loves Harley story.
I will quickly add that many artists worked on these two issues. You can see in the picture of Glinda Ivy (above) just how many artists went into that one issue. I do appreciate that the Harley Quinn comics are not afraid to explore different art styles and it makes all the dreams seem like they are coming directly from the wacky brain of HQ. I don't really have a lot of thoughts or feelings but I hope that Harley continues to grow and that the next few issues are not a back pedal for her.
Last Week: Green Arrow Volume 2: Island of Scars, Part 3
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Note: All images belong to DC™
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