Future State: Harley Quinn #2 - DC Comics

FUTURE STATE: HARLEY QUINN No. 2, April 2021

Fascinatingly focusing far more upon the titular character’s ability to outthink her opponents, rather than simply batter her way out of a problem with her infamous baseball bat, Stephanie Phillips’ plot for this particular twenty-two page periodical probably pleased the majority of its audience when it initially hit the spinner-racks in February 2021, and arguably deserved its spot as the month’s thirty-eighth best-selling comic. In fact, the American author presents such an intriguingly different insight into just how this 'psychiatrist from the Multiverse' operates that it comes as no surprise “DC Comics” consequently gave her the reins of “the ongoing Harley Quinn series” a short time later.

For starters, the anti-hero manages to play a masterful game of wits with the Scarecrow and Roman Sionis. Both of these terrifying criminal masterminds are absolutely nobody’s fool, yet Harleen Quinzel appears able to quite beautifully play them off against one another so as to ensure that the Black Mask’s murderous machinations throughout Gotham City are brought to a swift end. Moreover, the Cupid of Crime also enacts a little revenge of her own upon Jonathan Crane by persuading the supposedly reformed government official to once again don his fearful mask, and then subsequently steal the phobia-inducing device to ensure her escape from the Professor’s custody; “Harley… Did she? She… She did this… All of this… Harley Quinn has ruined me.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that Phillips’ incarnation of the Joker’s former-squeeze simply relies upon psychological one-upmanship to get her way, as agreeably Issue Two of “Future State: Harley Quinn” still contains plenty of brutal head-bashing and smart-mouthed action once the chemically-coloured woman finally decides to get physical with her wooden bat. In addition, this publication’s macabre death of Senator Hanssen in a lavish, skyline restaurant will probably give anyone slightly squeamish nightmares for at least a fortnight.

Helping push this comic’s creativity up an extra notch or two, is undoubtedly the almost animation-like art-style of its illustrations by Simone Di Meo and Toni Infante, which definitely imbues some of Quinn’s most earnest blows with some additional bone-crunching heaviness. However, occasionally this pencilling panache debatably gets in the way of the actual storytelling, and can cause moments of confusion, such as when Sionis is suddenly shown in a couple of panels as a blonde-haired man in dark clothing during the Scarecrow’s initial assault upon the sadistic super-villain’s senses.

The regular cover art of "FUTURE STATE: HARLEY QUINN #2 by Derrick Chew

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