Harley Quinn #43

I loved this issue ofHarley Quinn and look forward to Sebela's run on the comic. The story is fantastic. The artwork is beautiful and compliments the writing style perfectly. All round this is an excellent read, I would recommend you pick this up now. I can only imagine how good the next few are going to be! Read Full Review

Overall, it's a fun issue to open a new arc. It still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and I have to admit: I kind of miss Harley hanging out with her pals. Granted, she has Bernie the Beaver with her, but he's mostly there as a voice of reason. Read Full Review

A darker, more somber take on the Harley mythos, which pushes this title into exciting and slightly confronting regions. Overall this is a bold tun for the Harley Quinn title – watch this space to see how it develops! Read Full Review

Modern Harley Quinn is back in the saddle, and she's out of her gourd. Just the way we like it. Unfortunately, that alone doesn't make for a very compelling story, and this feels like a paceholder for the actual story that commences next issue. Ah well, that's what you get when you double-ship a comic book. Read Full Review

The issue raises some interesting questions for next issue, but on its own, it didn't really grab me yet. Read Full Review

The artwork byMirka Andolfo is enjoyable, more so than that of cover artist John Timms. Notthat hes a bad artist, but I dont believe Harley Quinn was a suitable vehiclefor him. Id prefer to see him on another title; Batwoman, perhaps. Read Full Review

Harley said it best, "Ya want the good crazy? Well, this is the ugly crazy that comes with it." Harley Quinn #43 was a bit of the bad crazy. It was a mess. But, the mess was endearing in ways, just like its titular character. Here's hoping the next issue brings more of the good crazy. Read Full Review

While not a title that has been on my pull list, I really enjoyed reading Harley's adventures and have to admit, I really want to know where the story goes next. I'll be checking out next issue for part 2 ofOne of My Turns. Read Full Review

Christopher Sebela continues the recent trend of keeping the Queen of Quinn relatively untethered from her Coney Island gang in this new storyline that features a hallucinating Harley, a curious new ally, and he promise of some potentially intriguing villains. But it feels like mostly promise and very little payoff for the moment. Read Full Review

Harley Quinn continues to be a character that I like but that I struggle with. I do find her better in an ensemble and often in the various non-continuity series as her time in Bombshells and other projects have been regularly fun and interesting. Sebela has the start of a storyline off to a decent start here but I felt a bit disconnected from Harley from the start and couldn't quite get on the same page with her, even as I enjoyed some of the antics. The big win for me here was just a full book of great Mika Andolfo artwork. It simply looks fantastic and has such a sense of fun and energy about it that each panel was a treasure to take in with all of its detail and design. That alone made it worthwhile. Read Full Review

There's no way to put this other than bluntly: Harley Quinn #43 is a mess. Read Full Review

Br'er Lapin AKA 20-Ish Ceiln

Jun 09, 2018

So close, yet so far. I liked that Harley was considerably less annoying in this issue, but it still struggled to deliver anything but a passable read.

Nihilist

Jun 06, 2018

You know what's the point of changing the creative team behind a dying comic? Fixing it, and making it appealing once again. When Brian Michael Bendis took over Superman last month, the change in tone and storytelling was immediate - and that's great, I appreciate a new direction for the character, and for now Bendis did nothing to make me not like his work at DC. But then, there's Harley - ruined by the New 52 reboot, and never properly fixed. Rebirth changed her atrocious looks, but personality and story wise, she remained exactly the same mess she was turned into in 2011, missing the best possible chance to course-correct her solo series. Palmiotti and Conner proudly continued it instead, and no surprise, derailed it completely at th e end of 2017. DC replaced them with Frank Tieri, who once again missed a chance to do something with the character and bring her back to her glory days (when Dini and Timm were in charge of her) - that didn't happen, he continued his predecessors' work and look, 6 months later we've got another new creative team. I wonder why? Before I picked up this issue, I've read the short interview with Christopher Sebela in DC Nation #1 - I was somewhat optimistic, since he didn't mention the New 52 version in his top 5 Harley Quinns list. He picked a real life dog instead, which I agree with wholeheartedly. I was hoping for a change - up until I saw the first panel in this week's issue. Yes, the ultra annoying Brooklyn accent gimmick is still there, Harley still acts like a dummy, there's still barely any story to follow, and the series clearly continues what we've seen for years, and what I'm truly sick of. The art is decent enough, with some panels looking genuinely nice, capturing emotions and expressions. Sadly, the story is completely unappealing, as as I stated earlier, it is a spiritual successor to Palmiotti/Conner/Tieri work, which instantly makes it bad. Cannot recommend this issue. Except its variant cover by Frank Cho - he usually delivers, and this time is not an exception. more