Future State: Harley Quinn #1 - DC Comics

FUTURE STATE: HARLEY QUINN No. 1, March 2021

Considering that Stephanie Phillips’ “goal was to really show how smart Harley is through her ability to psychoanalyze Gotham’s masked residents”, this twenty-two page periodical’s plot certainly shows Harleen Frances Quinzel in a light immeasurably different to the way the titular character is ordinarily portrayed. True, the Cupid of Crime is still as mad as a box of frogs as she merrily smart mouths her captors, complains about the roughness upon her skin of her prison clothes, and seemingly worries more about “some nasty holes” in her socks than the fact she’s looking at spending the rest of her life idling inside a high-security penitentiary cage.

But amongst all the blue and pink-haired gymnast’s foolhardiness the American author also manages to demonstrate precisely why the trained psychiatrist was once thought highly enough by the Gotham City medical authority to have been awarded the Joker as a patient. Indeed, just as soon as Doctor Jonathan Crane agrees to remove her restraints, Quinn immediately shows that she can still provide an incredibly deep analysis of her fellow super-villains by both rationalising just how Lazlo Valentin managed to ‘Frankenstein’ several police officers and suggesting an entirely successful method of bringing Professor Pyg to justice.

Such a seldom-used insight into the Maiden of Mischief’s mind really makes for a fascinating read, and despite Harley remaining within a cell for almost the entirety of the publication, the notion of her solving Crane’s problem of incarcerating Batman’s formidable Rogues Gallery a criminal at a time is utterly enthralling. In fact, Quinn's behind-the-scenes examinations are so enjoyable that it arguably comes as something of a disappointment when the Joker’s lover is apparently released to help her gaoler finally get his hands on the sole kingpin to have alluded all his previous efforts – the Black Mask; “Let’s go, Harley. You’re getting out of here. Your ideas proved out. Pyg and Firefly are… well. We’ll call them done.

Disconcertingly however, the one thing which does debatably let down Issue One of “Future State: Harley Quinn” are Simone Di Meo’s layouts. The Turin-born artist’s ability to make his illustrations appear as if each panel has been screen-grabbed from an animated feature film cannot be disputed. Yet so many of the action-sequences within this comic are so strangely angled that it’s impossible to see what is actually taking place, most notably when Garfield Lynns is lured into a trap and overpowered.

The regular cover art of "FUTURE STATE: HARLEY QUINN #1 by Derrick Chew