Oh Harleen!: Book One Review

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." - Marie Curie

A covers are Harley and heartbreak, B covers are Harley havin' fun.

DC Comics "Black Label" imprint has gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start. Titles solicited have been returned (Other History anyone?) While the flagship launch title Batman: Damned was marred with a controversy that was probably planned and completely overblown.

If you look closely...you'll see a....PENIS...Doctor Manhattan did it first.

And all this before we get to the massive tease that Three Jokers has been...such a tease that they are now going to "Jason Todd" the whole thing to see a few more issues sold....BUT to look at the glass as half full, we're also getting to some of the really good stuff. Damned wrapped well, Superman: Year One has been....good enough.

But next month brings the really fun sounding "What If" style universe "Tales from the Dark Multiverse." and this week..we gets a cut of steak as Stepjan Sejic fires up the wayback machine for us and sets out to give the definitive origin on a character that came from the classic animated years and has become a tentpole for the comics, Harley Quinn, AKA, Doctor Harleen Quinzel.

That classic voice from the animated series will always ring in my head as I read her, she's one of my faves, and the reason she is goes back to that animated series and the way we met her. A doctor, trying her best to fix a broken man, but instead she gave in and was broken too. That origin has gotten problematic over the years as people have bought into some kinda warped Romeo and Juliet romance for the two characters. This three issue series PRESTIGE FORMAT PRINTING!!! is aiming to reframe that in the way character creator Paul Dini intended.

it's a hard fall and a long road back like the artist intended.

Book one is a clearly jaded Harley reflecting on the years before. They aren't great for her, there isn't a lot of friendship, there isn't a lot of fun, there's some slut shaming and there's a lot of thankless work.The first thing to tell you about this issue is that it's strangely brutal and that's the point.We're here to learn what made a smart and capable woman give in to the worst of her and the worst of someone else, already we're seeing where the cracks were made in her armor and by the end of the issue we're already wondering where the rest of the system was to keep all this from ever going as far as it did.

There's that A Cover showing the breaks...

It's always easy to try and frame a good villain as a sympathetic character. Is Harley even a villain anymore? In the comics, not really, on the screen and tv, not really either. When she came to us as a bubbly bit of comic relief in the Animated Series it was all fun and games, as they've developed her over the years in the comics the importance of her character has grown. She's led the way for a lot of complicated concepts to be presented in the books already so this isn't your typical "make you feel sorry for the girl" story, this is watching a Skywalker foolishly think they can play with the devil. The choices in panel art show us the path she's falling down in a relentless, methodical manner. Her future is easter egged plenty...then other times they take the more traditional path of a mallet.

She's just trying to take care of the patient...she swears

 We already know what all this leaves her, and so does she because the narrator is a clearly jaded Harleen, remembering the hows and whys of how this all took such a drastic left turn. Book one gives us all the "Really Good Reasons" we'd ever want, the art is solid and stark, giving us a real woman in a real place really screwing up. There's nothing overtly "mature" as the Black Label title gave us with Batdong, but there is the very mature idea that we're watching one of the jokers all time greatest jokes, perhaps greater than putting a bullet in Barbara Gordon.

Jokers ruining a good woman for a good long time. A hero comes out at the end, but this is the damage she must endure to get there. If you're a fan, you want to pick this series up, it will be the origin as we reference it moving forward. If you like a solid story, I think this one is going somewhere great, we know the end but the ride is already solid and the gas is getting hit in those last few pages in a way that is heartbreaking and darkly foreboding.

Rev this Harley up, it's not character porn, it's great reading, I can't wait for book two.

Spider-Man "Life Story" Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

"“The art of dying is the art of living. The honesty and grace of the years of life that are ending is the real measure of how we die. It is not in the last weeks or days that we compose the message that will be remembered, but in all the decades that proceeded them. Who has lived in dignity, dies in dignity.” - Sherwin B Nuland

That Skottie Young variant cover!

Chip Zdarsky (Jughead, Howard the Duck) is currently the main monthly scribe for Daredevil, but Marvel gave him a fun little side project recently. Take teenage Spider-Man by the hand and walk with him to the very end. A  common problem in comics is elements of the stories paradoxically dating the characters, SPOILER ALERT: Zdarsky takes a blade to that Gordian puzzle and with Spider-Man: Life Story we see how the real world wears on the tale of Great Power and Greater Responsibility.

By the decades we'll be using the variant covers for this review...

Many a long time fan and now even the casuals know the origin stories by heart. The first of many great decisions Zdarsky makes is cutting through the entirety of Spidey's intro story with one well crafted page. It's the same old story, you don't mind it, but you're really glad he gets through it in less than half an issue because the very next page jumps forward just a few years but places Pete right into the turbulence of an unpopular war and the weight of expectations coming down heavy as he tries to make it through grad school  while getting better every day as a Super Hero.

We meet Harry, we meet Gwen, we get through all the setup beats you need to know what kinda "Spider-verse" we're dealing with here. Things get interesting on the way to Flash Thompsons going away party, he's off to war and that makes Peter question everything he's doing with his life. On the TV he sees some of the tentpole heroes of the Marvel Universe fighting to the death in Vietnam, regular folks are signing up all around him, but that party changes everything, for Peter, for Gwen, for everyone. Great first issue that twists when it should and never feels cheap in the choices it has already made.

not that the original Zdarsky covers aren't cool...

We swing into the 70's with the world dealing with what's happened in Vietnam and with everyone around Peter living life around the first of many hard choices he's going to have to make. Ten years has passed and we begin to see the effect of that by meeting Pete's new boss, Reed Richards. Reed doesn't know who Pete is behind the scenes, but every day they debate ethics and invent stuff as other heroes continue to wage war while Peter wonders if maybe he's made the wrong choices. Reed is older, maybe bitter, maybe wise, he's sure in his path though in a time when the lines are getting blurrier by the minute.

The two biggest strengths throughout this entire series are the way our history is clearly weaved throughout this Marvel Universe and  how some of Marvels most tentpole moments don't feel anymore shoehorned as they seamlessly present themselves as both constant elements and amazing twists and turns. No Spoilers. But we cover the Clone Era here and it's a great way to close out the Complicated 70's.

but when you get lucky and score all the retailer incentives for your collection....

Things heat up in the 80's as ten more years are gone, Pete's in his 30's and we hit the ground running with MJ in labor and Spider-Man off fighting the Secret Wars. Aunt May is growing more feeble by the day, Mary-Jane is overwhelmed and amidst the chaos of an interstellar war Peter is starting to feel his age until an iconic black costume makes him feel young again. Yet again Zdarsky gives us a great sidestep through the real world and how it reflects a man reaching middle age. The horrors spare no one and in another fun nod towards things like The Last Avengers Story we see Pete trying to do it, even save the heroes, but things are starting to get to be way too much for him.

Venom as Steroids is a great way for us to see the midlife crisis in Pete's life and then suddenly we're in the middle of Kravens Last Hunt and the 80's go out with some great big BANGS you probably won't see coming but will risk crinkling the pages of your book as they hit you for the first time. Things start getting harder in these years and we all know it, but the end of the issue so does a suddenly single Peter Parker. Make sure you have the 90's nearby 'cause you're gonna wanna see where things go as soon as you turn the last page of this one.

you pop...

The decade of more dawns and Pete's certainly struggling under the weight of it all. We find ourselves suddenly dealing with clones again, as a Spider-Fan knew we would since it IS the 90's after all. The way we get there is another fun turn through the real world and the way life turns out. Nothing epic, a big blur, life's coming faster and faster and this issue reflects that idea.

We get a great nod to the Otto and Aunt May romance, a surprising resolution to the Clone Sage and a bold new chapter dawning for ALL members of the Parker family. The 90's flew by, just like they did in real life, you could have ended things in the 90's and we'd have an older wiser man who now knows where his lifes work really lies, but nothing gold can stay, at the end keep the binge read going because the 00's are where we all know life got really complicated and Zdarsky doesn't pull any punches when it all comes down.

that...

With a last look back on the Twin Towers and what heroes of all kinds did that day we come into the new millennium. Pete's getting up there in age, his kids are entering their prime, suddenly the Spider-Verse beckons and both Peter and Ben Reilly come to the end of a journey that has spanned decades. The way we see them interweave through the decades has been one of the great masterstrokes of this series. And as we get to the end of their journey together we get a tale that feels so much more earned than the original clone saga. Like a cover band that did it better Zdarsky makes Maximum Clonage his own here, I prefer the way he's told it in the end.

The wars haven't stopped either, and Captain America returns to remind Peter that there's still work to be done. The villains have taken advantage of a world in chaos, we're coming up on the end, Pete's still going strong...or as strong as a man at the end of his 60's can go. It's all building and with another decade closing you know we're near the end but not before Doctor Doom has his say...

swag.

A running trope in many Marvel comics is time travellers coming to the present and an arrogant hero asking who the future sees as the best of this era. They always expect to have their ego fluffed and no matter the book the answer is almost always the same, "Spider-Man." That's the Spider-Man we've been living beside this whole time, this whole series. Zdarsky has given us what the Batman fans love with "Why do we fall?", he's given us the Everyman that does great things despite himself, he's given us a Peter Parker that has failed and succeeded but through it all never stopped trying to be the ideal, even when he wasn't. He's made mistakes sure, but he's made amends, and now, one last job, and then everyone is safe.

Pete's kids are here, they're the present, Miles Morales has arrived and he's the future, heck, even Doc Oc and Kraven show up one last time because they're the past. But we're at the end of the road here, and we finally see the truth of the Ol' Parker Luck. Face it Tiger, even at the end of "One Last Job" Peter Parker his the Jackpot. You can hear "What a wonderful world" playing in your head as he finally gets another moment with MJ.

 It was a good life Peter, thanks for living it with us. It was a GREAT comic Chip, thanks for writing it for us. It was a BEAUTIFUL comic Mark Bagley, thanks for drawing it for us. John Dell, Frank D'armata, everyone, outstanding work. -- Mister Joshua out.