Harley Quinn x Elvira #1

I had forgotten that I not only bought this Dynamite Entertainment/DC Comics 2025 crossover, I made sure to special order it and the rest of the 6 issue miniseries. I'm a huge fan of Harley Quinn. I've been a fan of hers since her first appearance all the way back to September 11, 1992 on Batman: The Animated Series. I am a proud member of the Gang of Harleys. Plus I am a sucker for any and all comic books that are Halloween themed. Even if the Samhain celebration in this story is occurring in August!

A bad dream reveals that Harley has subconsciously been fretting over missing Halloween last year. She had a terrible stomach flu. So in order to make up for missing All Hallows, she's going to throw the biggest Halloween party Coney Island has ever seen- in the sweltering heat of Summer! And to make it a bash to remember, Harley's going to have as the guest of honor, the Mistress of the Night herself, Elvira. Now all Harls has got to do is meet Elvira...

As for Elvira, she might be able to make it to the bash. Her schedule has suddenly been blown wide open after she learns that her weekly horror movie theatre program has just been cancelled! So when Elvira goes to give her old boss a piece of her mind at his house, she runs into Harley, who just happens to have a fully loaded rocket launcher in her possession.

One big boom and a destroyed mansion later, Harley Quinn has become Elvira's newest best friend. And suddenly in need of cash, the horror hostess agrees to host the extravaganza. Cue the promise of issue #2...

I've got zero idea where this story is going to go. I am just thrilled that the two stars of this series meet with at least half of the first issue remaining. I can't tell you how many cross company crossovers I've read where the two stars don't meet until the last page of the first issue. I also couldn't tell you what's in store for Harley Quinn and Elvira. There isn't really an antagonist here unless you count Elvira's boss. Logic tells me he'll pop back up by the end of this miniseries. But he can't really be the only bad guy in this thing. Can he? 

Unfortunately I might not find out who the villain of this miniseries is until March of next year. I mentioned already that this is a 6-issue miniseries. What I've neglected to mention is that each issue is a monthly. Issue #2 isn't due until right before Thanksgiving and it's Hanukkah when we'll all see issue #3. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I hate cliffhangers. As much as I appreciate the talents of Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Juan Samu, I'm not sure I can wait until March for the full ending. This issue finished with an ending that left me satisfied enough to wait for the other 5 issues to come out before I read the whole thing. 

Who am I kidding? It won't be until next Halloween when I read it all in a row. I don't care if Harley and Elvira's block party takes place in August, April or next week. I'll be saving this for October 2026!

A little bawdy for my taste. But full of Halloween humor!

Worth Consuming!

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars.

The Green Team: Teen Trillionaires #1 (2022 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

In 2011, DC Comics decided it was time to reboot their comics line once again. First up in this New 52 were the obvious retooling of the adventures and origins of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League. A few months later, there was an announcement for a new addition that left many of us doing a double-take. Returning to print was those junior tycoons, The Green Team after a nearly 40 year absence from store shelves.

Created by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti, The Green Team was first featured in the May, 1975 issue of DC 1st Issue Special #2. The Green Team originally was a group of child millionaires that sought out adventures by investing in new and exciting projects for the investment sum of a flat one million dollars. The 2013 reboot took into effect inflation. To be a member of the 2013 Green Team, you had to have a trillion dollars or in the case of leader Commodore Murphy, the promise of such. Murphy will inherit a trust fund of $64 million dollars upon reaching his 21st birthday. 

Modern day Green Team members also were teens instead of pre-pubescents. Comprising the new team was superstar actress Cecilia Sunbeam and oil tycoon J.P. Houston. J.P.'s twin sister Lucia Lynn is an honorary member. There's a fourth member of the team, the Arab prince Mohammad Qahantii. But as of the first issue, the prince isn't a member yet.

The debut issue starts off with Prince Mohammad searching out the Green Team. Eager to proof himself to his wealthy father, the prince secretly travels to a pop-up expo of scientists and researchers eager for Green Team backing. But instead of impressing the Green Team, Mohammad accidentally alerts a team of madmen eager to kill Murphy and his wealthy pals. 

That's where issue #1 ends. I don't own the remaining 7 issues of this short-lived series. I also wasn't expecting to be a fan of this book. But despite the millennial take on the Green Team, I enjoyed this book. Social media wasn't something anywhere on the horizon in 1975. But the excessive of use of Wi-Fi is a natural progression of events in this comic. What I didn't expect is for Commodore Murphy planning on becoming a superhero. But once the madmen attack the expo, the Green Team leader activates a digital set of armor a la Iron Man. 

The 2013 series was written by Art Baltazar and Franco (Tiny Titans). This is one of the duo's few Teen rated works. Normally, the pair are known for their all ages family fun. On art duty was the Brazilian Ig Guara (Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers) with regular covers by Harley Quinn's Amanda Conner.

The original Green Team was supposed to garner at least 2 issues. But editorial retooling and the DC implosion made it a scraped project. The modern cousin was hoped to run 52 issues. It only made it to 8, one of the first casualties of The New 52's second wave. So far, the reboot has never been compiled into a trade paperback or hardcover. So for collectors and interested parties into the rest of this story, such as I, we'll need to test our luck in the bargain bins for a good deal!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #1 (With a Color In The Name) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special #1

Have you ever found a book and you know that you've read it but you got zero clue how you wound  up with it? That's the case with this book.  

I'm a huge fan of Harley Quinn and I am an original fan. September 11th, 1992: I was watching Batman: The Animated Series expecting a typical Joker episode of the show, when this pixie pops up on screen for just a few short minutes. At that point, the Batman Family forever changed and I became one of the first members of the Gang of Harleys.

All that being said, I really can't remember when I bought this book!!!

In this tribute to the Jokers (EX-) Girlfriend, Harley has a host of adventures. First, she takes the Gotham City Sirens to Sin City and parties in a way only Harls and her girls could. Then BFFs Harley and Ivy are tasked with an important mission by the master of the Green, Swamp Thing! We also get a glimpse of Harley's days are Joker's side piece as she faces celebrating her birthday along. Lastly, it's a battle of sidekicks as Harley takes on Robin in a story that reflects her inner struggle to be a baddie with a heart. 

This was a wonderful collection of stories celebrating one of my all-time favorite looneys. I am a huge fan of crazy characters from The Tick to Deadpool and everything in between. I think it's because I struggle with depression and anxiety; sometimes at the same time. When I see heroic characters dealing with mental health issues, I think it normalizes an otherwise very abnormal life. Harley Quinn is definitely one of those characters that has given me both a lot of laughs and a lot to reflect on.

Many thanks to character creator, Paul Dini for giving us Harls! Kudos to Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner for the amazing job they've done over the past several years with her! 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars!

Harley Quinn/Gossamer Special #1

Gossamer- that fuzzy orange monster that always grabs Bugs Bunny and says that he’s gonna ‘hug him, squeeze hi, and call him George.’ That’s the Looney Tunes character that is starring in the DC/Looney Tunes crossover with the Joker’s EX-Girlfriend Harley Quinn. Most people recognize Gossamer but don’t remember his name. That’s kinda how I felt when I read that Harley was pairing up with Gossamer. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who this Mortimer was. But once I saw the cover, I was like ‘so that’s his name.’

The story takes place right after a hurricane is bearing down on Harley’s home turf of Cooney Island. In hopes of accessing the damage, Harley Quinn stumbles across a crate that had washed ashore and immediately calls dibs! Inside the crate Gossamer and he’s hungry. Just as the monster about to eat every hot dog on Coney Island, a massive robot attacks Harley and her new friend.

Just who’s behind this attack? Well, the answer to that question isn’t that hard. There’s big giant smiley face painted on the robot! Harley and Gossamer do NOT like being shot at. Boy, o-boy is Mistah J gonna get it!

You know they saying ‘how can I miss you if you won’t go away?’ That is how I felt about this opening yarn. A big deal was made of both Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner leaving Harley Quinn after such a lengthy title run. Yet, they’re both back only like 2-3 months after their retirement. I know that DC wanted me to be in awe of their return in this special. But the husband and wife team weren’t gone long enough to feel like I needed to welcome them back. Harley’s co-creator Paul Dini has been away long enough from his creation that any time he returns to do a story about The Maid of Mischief, it feels fresh, edgy, and new. Why didn’t DC have him do the opening story?

The second story was done in the Looney Tunes style. It’s an almost exact clone of the Merry Melodies cartoon Hair-Raising Hare. In that 1946 cartoon, Bugs Bunny is lured to Gossamer’s master’s evil lair and hi-jinx ensues. Replace Bugs will Harley, add a little bit of her psychological background and you’ve got this insane romp.

I was excited about a Harley Quinn special. But I just don’t recognize this Harley very well- YET. I’m a classic Harley, in the classic suit kind of guy. Why I was even a little stunned at the sexual banter between Harley and Poison Ivy. I had heard of such a relationship between the two but never personally witnessed it until in this comic. Not being anti-same sex relationship here. No, it’s just that the rumor became fact and I didn’t expect it in this book.

These crossovers are rated Teen. But you know that a lot of parents are going to share these with their kids. If you think about it, this story is the first time Looney Tunes addresses homosexuality and gender without making a joke out of it as they had for decades. Don’t believe me? Watch any Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon made before 1980. At some point, Bugs will dress up as a woman, seduce Elmer, and then make fun of the hapless hunter for kissing a guy!

An interesting read with hints of humor that at the bottom of it. More probably if you know who these supporting characters of Harley’s are. This issue will make you have to have a dialogue about Harley’s life and loves. Especially if read with younger readers. I didn’t know Looney Tunes was so edgy. I guess when you take away the smoking guns and carrots, you’ve got to tackle heavier stuff…

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Harley Quinn, Volume 2: Night and Day

Spinning out of the events of the first volume (Preludes and Knock-Knock Jokes), Harley Quinn has ended things with the joker and starts her own gang. Now on her own, a price has been placed on Quinn's head for destroying that Gotham villains theme park. It seems like just about every criminal element known to the Dark Knight is after her including Two-Face, Killer Croc, a some petty criminal named Matches Malone.

Plus, Harls has a sleepover with her friends in a two-parter that will bring the safe house down- literally! 

I enjoyed this volume very much. Really enjoyed it! In fact, I think I liked it more than volume one! Karl Kesel has amped up the insanity, stuffing this book with laughs, and having added so much sex appeal and heart. Kesel also adds to Harley's origin with a look at her tumultuous college days.

The art also gets better and better than that in volume 1. Along with Terry Dodson, a number of guess artists take a swipe or two at the Joker's EX-girlfriend including Larry Lieber, Paul Chadwick and Amanda Conner. One neat element is the frequent change over from more traditional DC looking Harley Quinn to Animated Series classic Harley, especially when we go inside Quinn's head. It's a really neat plot device that pays homage to the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm days introducing us to the Maid of Mischief.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys

   Being good now is hard work. It also doesn't pay very well. So Harley Quinn starts up the Gang of Harleys. It's their job to take on those messy, low paying jobs when Harley is busy doing other stuff. But when Harley is abducted by a deranged fan, the Gang of Harleys will have to become a team fast or they might be known forever more as the Gang of Dead Harleys!
    
 Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harley's was a crazy romp into the world of the Joker's Ex-Girlfriend. Frank Tieri and Jimmy Palmiotti do a great job making this story as nutty as possible. But this storyline seems awfully familiar to one recently developed by the House of Ideas. So I must ask which came first: The Gang of Harleys or Deadpool's Mercs for Money? It's so weird how DC and Marvel publish similar story-lines so darn close to each other. And let's be honest here folks, you know that a Gang of Harleys/Mercs for Money team-up that is just begging to be written!
     
      The Gang of Harleys is one of the most diverse groups in comic book history. There's a black Harley on the team as there also are a Jewish one, a Hispanic, an Asian, and an Indian member. There's even a homosexual male named Harvey Quinn in the group. Plus assisting the team is a dwarf and a handi-capable person! So why didn't this 2016 miniseries get any praise for it's all-encompassing line-up? You couldn't scroll down Facebook without a Marvel series getting props for it's diverse line-up of books! Why doesn't the Gang of Harleys get some much deserved love for this?

     I'm also surprised that this book didn't achieve some notoriety for it's true villain- a Donald Trump-style businessman. This Donald 'clone' is the real reason for Harley Quinn kidnapping. Again, there were so many stories about comics that mocked Donald Trump over the past year and a half. Yet, when his persona comes into play in this story, I was completely surprised! (Yes- great job for the folks at DC for keeping the spoilers under wraps but I really hate the DC doesn't get it's fair share of reporting on pop culture media sites!)
       
The artwork by Mauricet is very good and I just love the Amanda Conner covers. But why didn't Conner do the art for the whole book? It was sorely missing here! No offense to Mauricet, it's just that when you see Conner's beautiful work gracing the cover, you expect to see a book full of Amanda Conner artwork!

    Worth Consuming!

     Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The MAD Student Survival Guide for Those Bored of Education

   There was a time when MAD Magazine was considered edgy, controversial, adult. This 2002 collection of school-themed cartoons, published by Scholastic, is proof of how far the mighty have fallen. When I was under the age of 13, I wasn't even allowed to say the word MAD. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but due to it's (im)mature content, my mother wouldn't let me buy it. That wasn't so much of a problem as my dad regularly bought the publication and he let me read his copies when my mom was at work. (Plus I was more of a Cracked Magazine fan and delighted in the works of John  Severin, Jack Davis, and Sol Brodsky.)

   But I remember that the MAD's of the 70s and 80s tackled issues like Nixon and Watergate, The Sexual Revolution, Women's Lib, Gorbachev and his silly birthmark, the Gary Sex scandal, and Iran-Contra. This was biting stuff that stuck it to the man or whoever else was in charge. It was the print version of the attitude of founder William Gaines (creator of EC classics like Weird Science and The Vault of Horror.) Gaines saw first hand what happened when government got involved in your business from the aftermath of the 1950s comics scare and created MAD as a way to skewer the traditonal (and often flawed) American Way of life. 

   
   The MAD Student Survival Guide is a strange mixture of classic Gaines and the modern DC versions of the title. Dave Berg's 'The Lighter Side Of...' is featured throghout the book as are Drawn Out Dramas, those great tiny cartoons by Sergio Aragones. Classic MAD artists like Al Jaffee and Don Martin are featured too. But the majority of the features in the book is the modern day drivel that MAD is now known for. Though a feature about the types of lunches packed by mom, that featured an up-and-coming Amanda Conner, was a delight.

    The new MAD is like those classic kids magazines from the 70s and 80s: Dynamite and Hot Dog. But those titles, the brain child of future DC EIC Jeanette Kahn, were from day one geared at kids. MAD wasn't! EC Comics were more known for having an adult auidence. But thanks to the coming of the Comics Code, William Gaines had to switch the format from a 4-colored comic to a black and white tabloid style in order to be free from the CCA's censoring body. 

    For almost 40-years, MAD was the authority in satire and biting wit and gave birth to such institutions as National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, and even a live-action series on FOX called MADTV. But when Gaines died in 1992 the title's spirit of piss and vinegar died with it. The effects of Gaines death was both immediate and lingering. The company was bought out by Time Warner and the publication was looked at as just another title in the conglomerate's vast catalogue. 

    Sales were deemed more important than Gaines' attitude that MAD was a labor of love. Eventually, the title was consumed by another Time Warner property DC Comics and slowly became more of kids publication. MAD is now like like a Doberman pincher with all of it's teeth removed- and kinda sad. Sometimes, things are best left alone... this book being one of them.
   

   Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Power Girl: Power Trips

   For a brief period of time, Power Girl was treated as the IT Girl of DC Comics. I never really got into her mostly based on her appearance. With her Amazonian physique and huge assets, I tried to steer away from her stuff thinking it was mostly a sex comic.

  Then about 3 years ago, something changed. I had just finished up my collection of the Giffen and DeMatteis run of Justice League titles from the 80s and 90s. Being one to hate cliff hangers, I waited until I had these runs complete before I read them. Power Girl, who takes up residence at one time or another in most of these titles, was a dark horse character that I came to love due to her scrappy work ethic and the mystery of her true origin and place of birth. Plus, she’s was/is/ and then maybe wasn’t after all the Earth-2 version of Supergirl. Well, that in my book made her not so bad.

As I read more books starring Kara Zor-L, I became even more of a fan of hers. From her earliest appearances in the 1970s reboot of the Justice Society in All-Star Comics to finding her missing family in Infinite Crisis, Power Girl cemented all of the hype that surrounded her almost a decade ago.

Two titles that boosted Power Girl to a temporary super-star status were JSA and her own self-titled series. Power Trips is a treasury that collects two stories from this era. The first 4 issues is from JSA: Classified, a series devoted to unpublished mini-series starring some of the members of the JSA. In this storyline, the Psycho Pirate seeks to make Power Girl release the truth behind her jumbled origin. I liked this story because it really did help correct some of the mess behind just Power Girl was. After the Crisis, we’d been told that Power Girl was really the granddaughter of the Atlantean wizard Arion, a Legionnaire sent to the past for a mission but stricken with amnesia, and the real cousin of Superman. But Psycho Pirate, who never lost track of what the multi-verse was like before Crisis on Infinite Earths, knows the truth about Kara and will manipulate time and space to help her see the light.

I liked this story, but there are too many open ended plots that never get resolved. At the end of chapter 4, we learn that Lex Luthor is behind this plot and then in the epilogue to Power Trips, we see Power Girl get attacked by Clayface. But by chapter 5, which is a reprint of her premier self-titled series, Kara has moved to New York to star up a research company. There’s no mention of the assault by Clayface and Lex Luthor is never heard from again.

What’s up with that? And do those plot lines ever get resolved?

Thankfully, the next storyline helps me get over this confusion pretty quick. Written and drawn by the dynamic team of Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Justin Gray, the first 12 issues of the 2009-2011 series of Power Girl is awesome. This epic tale has Power Girl battling the Ultra-Humanite, dealing with a photographing Peeping Tom, and fighting off the advances of a hormonal space Casanova that looks an awful lot like Sean Connery in Zardoz. (Don’t believe me, then why does this guy fly a giant stone head for his space ship?)

Power Girl: Power Trips is a massive volume filled with 16 issues. For only $30 and in full color, that’s a freaking steal! The art of Conner and Gray is fantastic and I love the covers, especially to PG #10. Kara’s facial expression on that cover is just classic. While this volume is gigantic, it’s in no way an omnibus. So, there’s still 15 issues of Power Girl out there waiting for me to collect and devour.

I’m trying to collect all of JSA and JSA Classified and with my search for the remaining Power Girl issues now underway, hopefully, I will find out why Luthor wanted Power Girl to know the truth about the multiverse so bad and why Clayface attacks her. I highly recommend this edition and I hope you’ll over look some of the inconsistencies from the first story line and the second. If you can, you’ll be in for a visual treat that’s funny, sexy, and extremely smart.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars