Review: Harley Quinn and Power Girl
Quick Summary
Pros: The concepts powering this comic are highly creative and fun to see play out. The humor works well in some places. The artwork looks fantastic and enhances the creativity of the story.
Cons: The humor has some low-points and may not appeal to everyone. At times, the story is too unrestrained for its own good.
Overall: This is a comic where creative escapades and artwork are accompanied by Harley Quinn’s trademark brand of humor. This leads to an adventure dealing with wild concepts and some clever fourth wall breaks. However, the humor here is not for everyone and the structure of the narrative is weak at points. In the end, this collection will appeal to readers who are simply looking for a wild and comedic adventure with Harley Quinn and Power Girl, as long as they are willing to overlook some flaws here and there.
Story
Harley Quinn and Power Girl, by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Justin Gray, is an incredibly creative adventure staring several enjoyable characters. This comic uses out-of-this-world settings to charge comedy that never stops. For those who enjoy creativity in concepts and over-the-top humor, this portion of the narrative is great. However, the book’s humor is a bit too over-the-top in some places and the storytelling has some problems. In this way, Harley Quinn and Power Girl is only worthwhile if readers enjoy the humor and creativity enough to outweigh the book’s problems.
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This comic details an insane, galactic adventure packed to the brim with creative concepts. Harley and Power Girl visit weird worlds, fight villains with solidified light, save a society from oppression, trip on alien drugs, and fight with/against a ruler who is obsessed with Power Girl. The entire adventure is crazy, in a good way. It fully embraces the weird side of comic books that mainstream publishers are often reluctant to dive into.
The wild nature of the storytelling lends itself well to the humor in this book. Harley Quinn and Power Girl sees the same type of comedy that is present throughout the Harley Quinn series. This means that jokes are often loud and come at the reader frequently. In some places, this leads to some clever meta commentary and humorous forth-wall breaking.
However, there are also places where the humor is just crass for the sake of being crass. There are places where off-color and sexual jokes come across as forced, rather than naturally flowing. For some readers, this type of humor may make the comic more appealing but, for others, it may weaken the book’s appeal.
The other significant negative in Harley Quinn and Power Girl is that there are places where the flow of the story is too wild for its own good. The “Ex-Girlfriend Force” gets a dramatic introduction near the collection’s beginning yet goes on to have almost no impact on the narrative. Then, the Harvester receives some intense setup as the collection’s final villain yet is defeated rather easily.
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Art
The artwork in Harley Quinn and Power Girl is one of the most significant positives in this entire miniseries. The visuals here, mostly from Stéphane Roux, are detailed, well-structured, and generally polished. They are also creative to the point where they enhance the creativity of the story. Views of outer space, alien races, and advanced technology all make this feel like a comic that is clearly disconnected from Earth. In addition, a few splash pages, such as one inside the Harvester, are simply awesome to see. Plus, additional work from artists like Moritat help emphasize special changes in the story. All in all, the visuals in this comic are impressive and can be appreciated whether readers enjoy the book’s humor or not.
Continuity
Harley Quinn and Power Girl stems from panels 3 and 4 of page 20 of Harley Quinn #12, collected in Harley Quinn Vol. 2: Power Outage (Review).
The story here continues in the rest of Harley Quinn #12 and into Harley Quinn #13, both of which are collected in Harley Quinn Vol. 2: Power Outage (Review).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- A past encounter between Power Girl and Vartox is mentioned a number of times. This encounter is detailed in Power Girl #7-8, collected in Power Girl: Power Trip.
- Power Girl makes a quick reference to her role in the Earth 2 universe. This role is shown in Earth 2 #1, collected in Earth 2 Vol. 1: The Gathering (Review), and further explained through the World’s Finest series, beginning with Worlds’ Finest Vol. 1: Lost Daughters of Earth 2 (Review).