There’s a welcome dose of irreverence in Harley Quinn’s Valentine’s Day Special #1 and Judge Dredd takes a trip to the west coast in Mega-City Two
Why so serious? In a post-Dark Knight world, mainstream comics can often seem so hellbent on being dark and gritty they completely forget to be fun. There’s something life-affirming then about the fact that a Harley Quinn annual featuring a scratch-and-sniff gimmick was the 33rd best-selling comic book of 2014. If you’ve not met the Joker’s volatile on/off girlfriend – first introduced on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992 before transitioning to comics – Harley Quinn is like Miranda Richardson’s Queenie from Blackadder II but with a giant hammer and less impulse control. Last October’s annual was enhanced by the odours of pizza, suntan lotion, leather and something called “cannabisylocibe 7-A”, all for only two extra dollars a copy.
Never ones to turn up their nose at a hit, DC has just published another special issue, but considering the pheromones on display, it’s probably a good thing that this one isn’t scratch and sniff. Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1 maintains the irreverent tone, though: smitten Harley rigs a charity auction so she can claim a date with billionaire bachelor Bruce Wayne, unaware that his only true love is justice. It’s part of an even bigger Harleypalooza taking place all month: Quinn guest-stars on 22 alternate covers across the DC line, sticking an elbow to Green Lantern during a roller derby, copping a feel of Superman’s bulging bicep, and attaching laser cannons to dolphins under Aquaman’s nose. It’s a suitably high-spirited salute to a character who was disastrously reimagined as a scowling, corset-wearing Juggalo-type during DC’s New 52 relaunch in 2011, but – under the recent guidance of writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti – has returned to something approaching her absurdist best.
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Never ones to turn up their nose at a hit, DC has just published another special issue, but considering the pheromones on display, it’s probably a good thing that this one isn’t scratch and sniff. Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day Special #1 maintains the irreverent tone, though: smitten Harley rigs a charity auction so she can claim a date with billionaire bachelor Bruce Wayne, unaware that his only true love is justice. It’s part of an even bigger Harleypalooza taking place all month: Quinn guest-stars on 22 alternate covers across the DC line, sticking an elbow to Green Lantern during a roller derby, copping a feel of Superman’s bulging bicep, and attaching laser cannons to dolphins under Aquaman’s nose. It’s a suitably high-spirited salute to a character who was disastrously reimagined as a scowling, corset-wearing Juggalo-type during DC’s New 52 relaunch in 2011, but – under the recent guidance of writers Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti – has returned to something approaching her absurdist best.
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