Harley Quinn #6 - DC Comics

HARLEY QUINN No. 6, October 2021

Featuring a somewhat run-of-the-mill storyline concerning the titular character successfully stopping Professor Strange’s importation of illicit drugs from Alleytown into the Secure And Fearless Engagement (S.A.F.E.) program, as well as the artwork of ‘guest’ contributor Laura Braga, it is perhaps easy to see just why Issue Six of “Harley Quinn” saw a disappointing drop in sales of some 4,000 copies during August 2021. Sure, Stephanie Phillips pens some truly exhilarating fight-scenes for Catwoman with which to showcase Selina Kyle’s formidable fighting skills, but so straightforward are the threats facing this publication’s pair of anti-heroes that it’s debatably hard to shake off the feeling that this particular comic is simply a ‘holding statement’ before the American author’s larger narrative resumes anew with the next instalment. Indeed, the actual ‘raid’ upon Hugo’s secret warehouse is surprisingly over before it has really started, due to Bill Finger’s whip-wielding co-creation almost single-handedly taking down the building’s balaclava-wearing malcontents within the space of just of a few panels; “There’s at least fifteen guys with guns down there… You can’t just expect to fight them all without some kind of distraction or --” 

Instead, what “Cat & Quinn” offers its readers is a disconcertingly discouraging tale involving an utterly inept Harleen Frances Quinzel, who would seemingly have been killed by a contingent of the Magistrate’s paramilitary super-soldiers in the East End at the very beginning of this book, if not for the timely arrival of Catwoman. Dull-witted, clumsy, and seemingly incapable of viewing the behaviour of her team-mate as anything other than some sort of sexual advance, the supposedly star-struck Gotham City Siren is arguably unrecognisable from the fast-thinking “trained psychiatrist” this ongoing series has previously portrayed her as, and sadly is given little to do apart from annoyingly wax lyrical as to how great she thinks Kyle’s black cat-suited alter-ego is.

Unnervingly adding to this twenty-two page periodical’s soporific storytelling are Braga’s aforementioned illustrations, which whilst being prodigiously pencilled, as well as eye-catchingly coloured by Arif Prianto, somewhat jar in their serious-looking aesthetic with Phillips’ rather blatant tongue-in-cheek adventure. The Italian can undoubtedly draw some truly superb high-octane action sequences, most notably that of Selina dispatching a number of Strange’s goons with a flurry of kicks and backflips during the book’s later stages. However, this style doesn’t debatably transfer over so well to those scenes in which a spellbound Quinn gets all ‘gooey’ over working alongside Imagine Games Network's eleventh 'Comic Book villain of All Time'.

Writer: Stephanie Phillips, Artist: Laura Braga, and Colors: Arif Prianto