Review: Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey #1 (of 4)

Synergy! You have to love it.Â First chance DC have of getting a new Harley book out in line with the new Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn film and they get their tie-in Black Label book out in time.Â Admittedly, there was a bit of confusion to the actual release date and if it was going to be a Black Label, but was is Harley’s life without a little confusion?

The book starts out pretty much in line with the current book; her gang is holed up in their hotel, one of the gang his in hospital and Harley needs some cash.Â So its off to Gotham for her.Â Along the way, she gets caught up with Huntress, Cass and Rene Montoya.Â It’s a good thing that she catches up with the girls, as when when she hits Gotham, there will be a Joker sized target on her and more than a few bad guys after her.Â Sound familiar?

The book is written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, who for many fans revitalised the character created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.Â With Conner and Palmiotti you know what you are probably going to get.Â There is some Harley and Ivy shenanigans, the gang and the titular Birds of Prey.Â Thing is, as others will no doubt say, it’s not the Birds of Prey that you may be used to.Â Firstly, there is no Black Canary and of course there ire the additions of Cass; more akin to her film persona rather than the comic version and Montoya who wasn’t even on the team.Â Admittedly neither was Cass though there was a close affiliation due to Barbara Gordon being a lynch pin.Â Back to the book, its a dialogue heavy book, which feels a tad incongruous considering how light Harley can be.Â With Harley being a queen of multi media, with her movie, comic and animated series , the language is sufficiently more mature, if swearing is classed as mature, with any number of “F” bombs.

Amanda Conner also supplies the art for the book.Â As with the writing, Conner could be seen as the definitive Harley artist.Â The first time I really noticed Conner was on her Power Girl book.Â Back then she had a cartoony style to her art.Â With Harley it seems that style has become even more obvious.Â Her postures are full of energy and their faces are full of expressions.Â It’s a style that has garner imitators to some extent, looking at the other Harley book out this week.Â There is a crazy element to the art which fits and I have to say I do like the new Huntress outfit.Â The colors are provided by Paul Mounts who gives the books a brightness that belies its “black” label.Â John J. Hill does extremely well with the huge amount of verbiage within this issue.

Laying all my cards on the table, I am not a huge Harley fan, although her interaction with Batgirl was probably the best thing that came out of Heroes in Crisis.Â With all that said, I understand that Harley is a huge character and a major part of DC’s universe, with a popularity that rivals even Batman himself.Â So, even though she isn’t my favourite character, I can safely say that for fans, there is plenty too like in this book.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 4 Stars

Written by; Amanda Conner with Jimmy Palmiotti
Art by; Amanda Conner
Colors by; Paul Mounts
Letters by; John J. Hill
Published by; DC Comics / Black Label

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network