The abyss beckons once more as there are depths of the pile that I had almost forgotten about. I do remember ordering some series on a bit of a whim as the writer and artist team sounded like they would make a fun monthly hero comic. And once those issues started coming in, I kept thinking I would get to them eventually. And then the creative team switched up and I thought I would get to it then. And then four years passed and I’m finally getting to the first seventeen issues of Stephanie Phillips, Riley Rossomo, Ivan Plascencia, Jay Leisten, and Deron Bennett’s HarleyQuinn run.

There were a lot of events going on at DC when I first jumped into the series—at some point during one of them Harley died, was resurrected, and moved away from Gotham before making her return at the start of this series. And it’s a return to make amends for all the wrong she’s done and the hurt she’s caused over the years—including helping all of the people who had worked in Joker’s army during the previous Joker War event. But even when trying to do good, that doesn’t stop others who she’d wronged in the past from trying to take their revenge. Hugo Strange attempts to control the criminals of Gotham with a chemically induced reform, a new villain in Keepsake looks to cause mayhem but can barely intimidate a child, and Verdict gets Harley sent to prison for crimes she didn’t commit. It’s a lot to go through, but then this is three volumes’ worth of story.

Luckily, despite everything, the creative team know how to write a strong character-focused book even when missing the latest events happening in canon. One of the major wrenches that can get thrown into a series is the massive event that warps every story around it like a dying star. But then there are creators that can take those pieces and work their story around those plots and keep things consistent with the story they want to tell. Harley Quinn ends up being one of those as Phillips, Rossomo, Plascencia, Leisten, and Bennett work within the frame of Gotham and the events that keep getting drawn to the city—Fear State happened during the course of this run—and were able to turn the return of Poison Ivy to Harley’s life as a turning point for the character while the former spun off into her own series (that I’ll get to at some point within the pile).

Monthlies are a hellacious schedule to maintain and the teams that can keep it going for more than a year can only be commended. Throwing in events and whatever changes need to be made suddenly only reinforce that. But then taking a character that has been on the heroic trajectory for years and firmly establishing her new canon, cast, and mission while also maintaining a core characterization that readers recognize is its own feat. 

Get excited. Get better. 

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510,  651, & 674) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.