When last we left the fantabulous Miss Harley Quinn, she was torn. Torn between a straight-and-narrow life of quasi-marital bliss with Ivy and a life of adventuring with some of Gotham’s less domesticated criminal element. It felt like both this title and the character were at a bit of a crossroads.
Leave it to a Gotham A-lister like Mr. Freeze to force the issue.
Freeze’s appearance is a bit of a fake-out, however. After Freeze offers Quinn a leg-up in her attempts to get back into the mix, but refuses to sit for a psychological profile she requests in exchange for her services (paging Dr. Lecter…), Harley turns her back on him decides that she is going to take this momentum and channel it into a new, hybrid mission: providing psychiatric help to Gotham’s bad guys like she used to at Arkham, but this time, instead of being an agent of rehabilitation, actually empowering the crooks and crazies in order that they may better pursue their “passions”. It’s a fun concept that feels like writer Tini Howard more organically incorporating Harley’s infectiously chipper do-gooder streak that makes the character so popular while still keeping her, you know, a villain. 
This leads to a fun romp which sees Harley swooping in to rescue Maxie Zeus from a squad of overzealous police officers recklessly responding to a report of a mentally ill person. Maxie Zeus, a personal favorite of this reviewer, has a kindred spirit in Harley; they were both academics driven past the threshold of sanity within the cursed walls of Arkham Asylum. Harley cooks up a more productive scheme for her and the god-king and has them hijack a Shakespeare-In-The-Park-esque amphitheater production of what the reader assumes to be a production of Aristophanes’ “The Frogs”, a robbery setting perfect for Maxie Zeus’s Greco-Roman motif, even if the end goal is a little unclear (is this meant to be a mass purse-snatching of Gotham’s theater-going elite?). After having to be talked into meddling in what technically would be the domain of Dionysus, the Greek god of the theater, Maxie rises to the occasion. However, he takes center stage for all of one page before Tim Drake arrives on the scene to try and restore order before the hot-blooded GCPD arrive. Zeus’ old insecurities of humiliating and repeated beatings at the hands of Batman and Robin flair up, and the fancy-talkin’ self-proclaimed god of all domains looks all but ready to crawl back into Plato’s cave.
But Harley, still on the scene, is now using the field of battle as her psychiatry office, and administers a rapid-fire sense-memory therapy session to old Maxie, allowing him to conquer his anxiety responses and enabling him to fend off the bothersome Boy Wonder with newfound bravado.
Penciller Natcha Bustos and colorist Nick Filardi combine forces for an artistic display that reaches soaring new heights in this issue. Their delightfully 2-D cartoonish lines and Saturday morning color palette pop off the page and lend themselves perfectly to the adventures of Miss Quinn.
Last month, I wanted Tini Howard to be more decisive in her tone characterization of this Harley Quinn title rather than trying to stretch the character too thin by having her occupy too many modes. This month’s issue is a marked improvement; it’s a more well-meshed combination of the previously at-odds story elements. Harley as a therapist on the street is a fun concept, well executed. It’s not a home run, but it’s a win overall.
Recommended if…
- Characters using their previously-weaponized compulsions for good
- Comics that look like DC’s animated projects
- New examples of why Maxie Zeus is a cool and underrated villain
Overall
This is a more sure-handed effort from Tini Howard’s run on Harley Quinn. Harley is now headed in a more concrete direction with a clearer objective, and both she and the reader are having more fun for it.
Score: 7/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.
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