What I Bought 3/24/2015 - Part 1

Well, Former Comic Guy never did get around to sending the last batch of books, so I ordered them from a store online. And here they are!

Harley Quinn #14 and 15, by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Chad Hardin (artist), John Timms (artist #15, pgs. 10-12 and 15), Alex Sinclair (colorist), Paul Mounts (colorist #15, pgs. 10-12 and 15), John J. Hill (letters) - Looks like Harley's going crazy. That really shouldn't be much of a stretch for her.

This is point where all the different balls Harley's trying to juggle start to be too much for her. Her workload at the hospital is increasing, she's missing Skate Club engagements, the hot water heater in her building broke, and she missed her date with Mason, the guy who broke out of prison a few issues ago, which made both him and his mom kind of sore at her. Plus, she's still trying to help the helpless, but there are a whole lot of helpless to help. She's tired, frazzled, and depressed, but that's when friends can help the most. And here's Ivy, to talk her through her problems, and to offer a good suggestion: get an assistant. Being Harley, she posts an ad online for 12 assistants, which makes sense, considering she's going to have them fighting crime with/for her. Fortunately, there's no shortage of take-no-shit ladies looking for a challenge.

Two questions: Where is she getting the money for all this? She took two jobs originally because the rent from her tenants wasn't anywhere near enough to cover the bills on her place. How the heck can she afford all the food, all the repairs, all the assistants? Especially since she isn't even making it to Skate Club on time? That's half her income.

Second question is, will this outbreak of violence and chaos end up having a root cause that Harley can deal with, or are Palmiotti and Conner just giving a realistic idea of how much crime there can be in a city that size? I feel like there were too many references in the book to just how much is going wrong for it to be a coincidence.

So this could be ill-advised. I'm not convinced having that many assistants is actually going to simplify or streamline Harley's life. If anything, having that many employees would seem like it'll add more complications. And when you specifically cite "insubordinance" as a desired quality, then you're going to have to expect them to be insubordinate. Which is another complication.

I think Hardin's getting more confident on the book. His work is a bit smoother, less busy, especially around Harley's face. Which works for me, and I think he can still loosen up some more, exaggerate more still at times. Harley's reaction to Mason ripping his shirt up to use as a bandage was good. It's a little comical, but it still gets across what you need to know.

I noticed that after Shona whupped those cheapskate, racist douchebag customers, every other customer we see in the restaurant is smiling. I'm going to choose to interpret that as they all agree those jerk got what they deserved, and that when the cops arrive (assuming the jerks carry out their threat), there will be a lot of people who didn't see nuthin'. Yeah, this Legion of Harleys thing could be really interesting, though I'm not sure the creative team will actually stick with it long enough.