Passing the Torch... or in this case Mallet

I want to share something that I'm pretty sure every comic fan has dealt with and that is when our favorite character gets a new writer. This can especially be hard when you are enjoying the run or want to support a writer that you enjoy. In my case, I am talking about Harley Quinn and her current ongoing comic run.

Harley in her current costume which was updated in Issue 44, this is the variant cover designed by one of my favorite artists Inhyuk Lee

So Harley has had two "torch passings" since her series started back in 2021 and I feel like as a fan of hers each one has left her in a progressively worse state. I feel like her intelligence level as a character is often forgotten about and instead, they just look at her like a silly clown. Harley, much like most of the villains in Gotham is a doctor, she has a doctorate in criminal psychology. She is allowed to be smart, intelligent, and chaotic all at the same time. I also really admire her sense of accountability, and I'm saying this as someone who is trying to break away from their people pleasing tendencies. Harley reminds me to own it and to keep moving forward rather than letting the negativity and guilt weigh me down for days on end.

I really do think that's what writer Stephanie Phillips understood when the run started. Harley has hurt a lot of people whether through her own actions or acting on someone else's behalf, and she returns to Gotham wanting to make amends. She does try to better herself with varying degrees of success of course, sometimes even making new enemies along the way. This sort of healing journey is helped by new character Kevin who helps her on this journey, of course after Harley saves him from a group of thugs. She does start to regress slightly towards the end of Phillip's run, but Kevin picks her back up and they then have a very fun multiversal adventure. My favorite parts of her run were the space arc where she joins a new Suicide Squad that have some more benevolent purposes, and her multiverse journey where she helps alternate universe Harley's reunite with their Poison Ivy.

Now we get into the first torch pass at Issue 28 as the writer role is handed over to Tini Howard. I feel like writing wise it was helped along by Phillips giving the character a strong starting platform and what DC was doing at the time with the Multiverse introduction. What really sunk this run in my opinion was the art...

Art by Sweeney Boo for Tini Howard's run on Harley

It really did not help that they leaned heavy in the direction of the clown aesthetic. In Howard's run, Harley has gone back to her villainous ways but is this time sold out by Kevin who is tired of it. She is then tasked with doing community service as a professor in community college. Now I'm all for taking big swings and taking a character in a new direction but I feel like they did not balance the character development with the comedy here. It turns into her going universe hopping to find out who is putting other Harley's in danger, only then for them to reveal oh it was the woman who sent her on this journey in the first place. It just fell flat, only little did I realize that as a fan of Harley Quinn that I had farther to fall. One of the only saving graces of this portion of the run was the variant covers, specifically the ones done by Jenny Frison she did such an amazing job.

Variant Cover by Frison for Issue 30, no doubt a little tribute to Margot Robbie's live action portrayal of the character

And finally, we get to the current writer and final torch pass to Elliott Kalan. This is definitely a more comedic approach to the character with Harley's return to the neighborhood of Throat cutter Hill, the little section of Gotham that Harley first lived when she came to the city. She is then gifted a new enemy... Gentrification brought on by the industrialist Althea Klang. The first few issues were ok as there is a little underlying attraction between the two women but then this will they/won't they storyline goes on for around 15 issues. It felt like Harley gets reduced to this chaos magnet who is causing all this trouble for the attention of this new woman. Like this is the through line I have to read about while she deals with the "villain of the week," like she's so much more and I genuinely want this run to improve due to my love of the character.

I'm just hoping that they can actually do something with the next few issues and take a few big swings. Just like with Howard's run, this run can also be saved by its variant covers especially the ones done by David Nakayama.

Variant Cover for Issue 49 by Nakayama, love the fighting video game motif

Thanks for listening to my rant about one of my favorite characters, what has been the hardest "torch pass" for you all to handle?