Harley Quinn x Elvira #6

The time for the epic first meeting of Harley Quinn and Elvira has come to an end. All of the loose ends get tied up nicely. Unfortunately, this issue was more of a static chapter as a lot of the action is relayed passively. Who am I kidding?! It's all done in past voice.

Plus it gets schmaltzy. Both leads know that it's time to part. Elvira finally admits that she's fond of Harley and Quinn is sad to see a new friend depart. 

The first issue involved Harley missing Halloween due to a stomach bug. In true Chekov fashion, the 'gun' that appears in Act One, returns. Harley gets her Coney Island style Halloween bash, complete with parade, with not just the Mistress of the Dark in the grand marshal role, but Harley as well. So while the October/November festivities disappeared from the plot in issues #3-5, seemingly for good, this series ended up being a Halloween adventure.

The big question now is how to catalog this book in my collection database and where to file it. I think since Harley is the first name mentioned in the title, I can at least eliminate putting this 6-issue DC/Dynamite Entertainment collaboration under the letter E. But do I put these issues in my Harley Quinn short box or in my growing allotment of Halloween tales?

Worth Consuming!

Rating 7 out of 10 stars. 

Overall series rating: 7.7 stars.

Harley Quinn x Elvira #5

Harley Quinn and Elvira travel the far reaches of space, all thanks to the Zardoz clone, Vartox! In need of companionship for a major intergalactic wedding joining two powerful families, Vartox travelled to Earth to find Power Girl. She turned him down. So off to Transylvania Vartox went to ask Harley Quinn to be his plus one. Upon arriving, Vartox saved both Harley and Elvira from vengeful Sid, now just a floating head in a massive robot body. Vartox landed his space ship on Sid, squashing him flat ,and earning 2 lovely ladies to bring to the wedding.

I want to talk about the artwork. The main artist has been Juan Samu. (Amanda Conner, who's been on co-author duty with husband Jimmy Palmiotti, had been doing the dream sequences, throughout.) Samu's Elvira has been okay. But his Harley looks so much like Margot Robbie in the face. It's been very impressive. Now with Vartox looking like his inspiration, Sean Connery, I've really been in awe of Samu's work. Is it picture perfect? Not at all. It's more like caricature. But it looks like the actors who these characters are either been portrayed by or based on. 

Only one issue to go. So far, it's been a roller coaster. Thankfully, there's been more peaks than valleys. Hopefully as we roll into the last leg I'm hoping that it will be a satisfying conclusion. At least the penultimate chapter was a near perfect read that is leaving me hopeful.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Harley Quinn x Elvira #4

Harley and Elvira are on the run. Naturally, the Mistress of the Dark knows a guy in Transylvania who's a count, sleeps in and has a castle. They never say that it's Dracula. But maybe they couldn't because of copyright or something. 

While at the castle, the girls clean themselves up and give the Invisible Man the memory of a lifetime. The brides of the Count see Harley and Elvira as competition. And the disembodied brain of Sid, the sleazy TV executive who got blown up by the girls in issue #1, has a new robot body and is on his way to use it to exact revenge.

This was a good issue. Very sexual in nature. The bathing scene is about as close to an adult book you can get without losing your Teen Plus rating. But who are we kidding? Ratings these days are really arbitrary. What DC considers to be Teen Plus is a lot more tame than what Dynamite Entertainment considers. As Dynamite is the main publisher, you may find several scenes to be way more titillating than a DC Harley Quinn regular title.

So buyer beware if you're purchasing this book for a younger reader who is a big fan of Harley Quinn or you might be introducing them to puberty a lot quicker than expected.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Harley Quinn x Elvira #3

That merc job Harley Quinn accepted to help pay for the big Halloween in Summer bash starring Elvira went terribly wrong. Never let the Mistress of the Dark drive while wearing stiletto heels! Now Harley and Elvira must enlist Power Girl to help them escape until things smooth over.

More about the mystery woman from the last issue is revealed. She's the vengeful granddaughter of the guy Harley blew up because he cancelled Elvira's weekly late night horror film TV show. Turns out that the old guy, named Sid, survived. Well, some of him survived and what's left of him has been taken to a literal mad scientist for a new body.

While again not much happens in terms of moving the plot along, this issue was very funny. Elvira was less belittling to Harley and was more trying to get into Power Girl's tights. The flashback to the blotched hit was shocking but hilarious. Plus I really like Harley's pal Tony. Though is he wearing a fishnet polo shirt or is it a regular shirt that happens to be the same color as his skin tone? That's a question that has been bugging me for years.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Harley Quinn x Elvira #2

I read the first issue about a year ago. Thinking it was a one-shot, I was disappointed that this Halloween themed issue was set to continue into an  All Hallow's Eve 6-parter that would conclude sometime the following spring. So I have been sitting on this series for quite a while, waiting for this year's Halloween season to complete.

Quick recap: Elvira's weekly late night horror film festival has been unceremoniously cancelled. Irate with the news, Harley Quinn goes to complain about it to station management, only to blow up a big wig's mansion. On the run, Harley offers to let the Mistress of the Dark stay with her and her Gang of Harley's at their Coney Island compound. To seal the deal, Harley offers to pay Elvira to stay and plan the ultimate Halloween bash on the roof of the Harleys' base of operations. The fee: $5000 a week. The problem: Harley is about as broke as a investor after the tech bubble burst in early 2000.

Now on to the events of this issue...

Harley gives Elvira the tour of her new home. Inneundos aplenty. Harley reveals her Halloween bash plans to the Gang of Harleys. With very little money from their mercenary business trickling in, Harley agrees to a big score. They'll take out an evil contractor who has been destroying the competition literally. Elvira in the smallest waitress dress legally allowed in a Teen+ comic, will be the distraction as Harley and her team will infiltrate the construction company and unleash her version of insane justice. 

This was one of those issues that basically gets the players on the board. But nobody really makes a move yet. A new player is added to the mix but what they're ultimate role will be is still left murky. 

As much as I would love a comic book that focused on the day-to-day grind Clark Kent and the staff of the Daily Planet go through to report the news, I don't think I could stand a series that was just like this issue, covering the monotony of mercenary life. As much as I love Harley Quinn, I don't think I could stand long visits to her home. She's not very clean or organized and she seems okay with that.

I also didn't like how Elvira is treating Harley. Yes, I know that Elvira is known for being condescending to others, especially prudes and slimy guys who think they've got a chance of bedding her. But Harley, even in her twisted mind sort of way, is legitimately trying to be friends with Elvira. It's Harley's most fatal flaw: blindly seeing everyone as a potential BFF. Poor kid must have a billion scares along her spine from being stabbed in the back so much. 

An okay issue that made my heart more sad than glad. As much as I love the comic book characters that are the outsiders, from working with teens who feel alone, I'm starting to wish that those characters with mental illness weren't looked as damaged goods. Sure, their skewed perspective is funny and with my mental illness, I take solace in their adventures. But they've got value as much as anyone does and you'd think other super heroes and oddball characters like Elvira would acknowledge that. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Planet of the Apes Vs. Fantastic Four

Issue #4 sees the crossover between the Fantastic Four and the residents of the Planet of the Apes coming to an end. I loved the ending as we find out why Doctor Doom had an interest in helping the Crimson Ghost become the de facto leader of the simian world. It opens up a possibility of a sequel. I know that I said in the review of the last issue that I don't want to see a sequel. And when it comes to the FF being involved, I don't. But I would be open to the X-Men or the Avengers taking a trip to the far flung future. Or maybe have Cornelius and Zira land on Earth-616. They do somehow time warp to modern day earth in the third movie in the original franchise. And their epic space flight is shown at the end. 

Don't worry I didn't spoil anything. Blame the cover for that. 

Speaking of the covers, I kept wondering why Sue Storm looks like Pam Anderson. And why was the look of  Marvel's First Family so darn familiar. That's because the main cover artist is Greg Land, who did some of the covers for other FF series in the past. I think one of those series was Ultimate Fantastic Four. 

An enjoyable read that ended at just the right time. But be sure all of your pages are properly cut. My second and third pages weren't and I went through the entire issue wondering how some serious plot changes occurred. Thanks to the conjoined pages, I had skipped it altogether and I didn't figure it out until after I finished the issue. So that is why my rating is just a bit lower than the other 3 issues. Yes, poor production values of the work are something I consider when evaluating them.

Worth Consuming!

Rating 8 out of 10 stars.

The Flintstones and the Jetsons, Vol. 1

It's finally October. After a rough, rough September, I am so glad we're now in the 10th month of the year. I choose this collection of the first 6 issues of the 1997-1999 series because of what was awaiting me in issue #5. But first, a recap of some of the stories from America's favorite Stone Age and Space Age families.

The first issue is a quasi-crossover. It starts with Fred and Barney meeting the ancestor of the Jetsons, Gorge Jetstone. The newest employee at the rock quarry, Jetstone is a terrible bumbler. Yet somehow he manages to get Fred's promised promotion when Gorge accidentally discovers fire. Then George Jetson meets Spacely Sprocket's newest employee, Ferd Flintson; a descendant of the Flintstones! Here George and Ferd compete for a new promotion by being the first one to bring an emergency sprocket to the history museum.

Other stories sees Fred and Barney transformed into women by the Great Gazoo. Mr. Spacely gets turned into a baby when a practical joke from George backfires. When George and Jane go on a romantic weekend getaway, Judy and Elroy throw a huge house party. Dino becomes the one first purple dinosaur on TV and then back in the future, in a story that while supposed to be funny, is eerily a modern day horror, George is required to train his robot replacement.

These were all very funny stories. The art was good. But I couldn't tell whether the inking was bad or if it was something off about the print process. That's because in several stories, especially the Jetsons episodes, the dark brush-like outlines of the characters looked pixelated instead of smooth. I guess it's a good thing that the inking wasn't the reason I got this book. My interests were all due to the holidays. 

In the Flintstones story of issue #5, the Flintstones and Rubbles celebrate Halloween with their frightful neighbors, the Gruesomes. In keeping with the tradition of having real modern day celebrities given the stone age treatment, the guest star is a prehistoric ancestor of Marilyn Manson. 

I just couldn't wait and got into early Halloween reading mode by reading the Gruesomes story last night. I apparently couldn't wait for Turkey Day either, as in the next issue, Fred and Barney go hunting for a dodo to grace their Thanksgiving Day table spread. It was a heartwarming story and a surprise as I only knew about the Halloween tale before I bought it. 

With just a single holiday story, I'd be tempted to sell this for trade credit. But with 2 of them and Thanksgiving comics being so rare, this volume is definitely now a permanent feature in my holiday comic book collection. Now if I could just figure out which holiday to catalog it under.

Oh, and just so you know. Volume 1 is the only trade produced from DC based on this series.

Worth Consuming!

Rating 8 out of 10 stars.