Harley Quinn #26 Review and **SPOILERS**

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The Murdering Mayor

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Amanda Conner 

Artist: John Timms 

Colors: Alex Sinclair & HiFi 

Letters: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Amanda Conner & Alex Sinclair 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: August 23, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Hmm…what the hell was happening last time? That group of assassins had Harley on the ropes and Catwoman and Poison Ivy were menaced by a helicopter or something? I wonder if we’ll even address that here. Find out in my review of Harley Quinn #26, right here!

Explain It!

Cards on the table, I shouldn’t be reviewing Harley Quinn. Truthfully, no one at this site can do it justice. See, I don’t believe I’m the target audience, and as soon as a consumer believes that, they start thinking about stupid shit like “target audiences” and “demographics” and they make all kinds of unwarranted assumptions about the person intended to receive a product, none of which have anything to do with the product itself. I think Harley Quinn plays best to a certain disaffected segment of society often termed “millennials,” and an ill-defined subset of that, besides. But I can only read it as myself, and I can’t be even be sure that I’m not the intended audience, anyway. I mean, I do like comic books, and Harley Quinn is a comic book.

To Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti’s combined credit, they never seem to pander to any fleeting trends, nor do they adopt the commercialized affectations of the Digital Age. They, who are older than I (and therefore even less connected to any millennial audience, perceived or real), don’t fall prey to the “ginchy” and the “groovy” of a Bronze Age Bob Haney story, and this comic has never been an incessant gape in wonder at the capabilities of the smart phone like post-Burnside Batgirl. For what it’s worth, Harley Quinn is her own, unique character, prone to exclamations ending in “–olee” and accidentally eviscerating bad guys before she’s had a chance to question them, but otherwise she’s someone with a good heart, who loves her pets, her friends, and justice for the little guy. And they don’t get a lot more “little guy” than Big Tony.

This issue continues from the last, but instead of picking it up directly from the cliffhanger, we learn that Harley and Co have captured some of the Unconquerable 25 to learn who sent them to ruin Harley’s birthday party. While discussing this, we find out what happened in the between time, which essentially was Harley Quinn going apeshit on everyone and murdering nearly every well-equipped hired mercenary. In the fracas, Harley Sinn releases herself from Quinn’s basement and helps with the murder spree, something that does sit well with her benefactor/captor. But Harley Quinn and Harley Sinn do see eye-to-eye on their hatred of the Mayor of New York City, so Quinn plans to do something about it: run for Mayor herself! And in this city, she could win!

I’ve given this comic a lot of heat recently for floating so many loose threads, but as two come together in an issue unconstrained by a back-up Paul Dini/Bret Blevins tale, I can almost discern the madness in Palmiotti and Conner’s method. You’ve rarely seen me complain about the artwork in Harley Quinn, and with John Timms at the pen I’m not going to begin now. He’s paid special attention to Catwoman’s boobs in this issue, which is perfectly fine with me. It’s nice to have a Harley Quinn story that is primarily about one thing and will clean up some lingering storylines besides. And being that I live in New York City now, the idea of Harley Quinn as Mayor is pretty appealing.

Bits and Pieces:

Using a classic storytelling device, we learn about Harley Quinn's escape from the Unconquerable 25 and who hired them simultaneously. Still, the story has lots of room to breathe with the back-up having graduated to a full-size comic book, and the time is used to gather a couple of open-ended plots and move them towards their conclusions. It's a good trend, if this series can keep up the momentum.

7.5/10