Harley Quinn #32: An Unparalleled Field Trip

Harley Quinn #32 makes it clear that Tini Howard and Sweeney Boo are the perfect match to take on a character as unpredictable as Harley Quinn, and it’s evident they truly understand her in all the best ways.

Currently teaching community college, when interdimensional robots show up to Dr. Quinzel’s psychology class during finals week, Harley and the students take an unexpected field trip. This issue may take a little bit for newcomers to be able to get into, but at its core there is a lot done right. Hate her or love her, Harley Quinn has become one of the core characters in the DC Universe and with that are a lot of unique ways to take on the character.

With Howard at the helm, there are a lot of set traits to Harley that are welcomed in this issue (and I suspect in this series so far). Who is Harley Quinn? She’s in a relationship with Poison Ivy, is definitely a wild card, but she is also incredibly smart, is leveraging her PhD, and has become the image of characters working to redeem themselves.

Depending on your head-canon, there may be a lot or a little to forgive, but given the marching orders to make her an anti-hero, it helps to view her as such. She isn’t perfect and technically she has a tendency to go off, but that goodness inside is largely why a lot of fans appreciate her.

This issue has a lot of fun moments and while the main story is a tad overwhelming for anyone picking up an issue for the first time—or since Stephanie Phillips had steered the ship—it can be a bit overwhelming. But Howard does a solid job at incorporating details on what has happened making it easy to fill in the gaps and go with the story. While the story was a bit hard to get into at first (this could be my bad given I am just starting with this issue), I quickly got into the wildness of it all and just went with the flow. What I think assists this series—aside from the character development and solid story so far—is the art by Boo.

Harley is often an unreliable narrator and she sees the world in completely unique ways so its only fitting that her series is as energetic as she is. From the colors to the character designs, the art literally pops off of the pages. It’s a great style and fits Harley incredibly well.

In addition to the main story, DC has a bonus story called “High Stakes,” written by Sam Maggs, with art by Kelley Jones, and Colors by Jose Villarrubia. It’s a monster style story and anyone who has watched those old vampire films will notice a lot of fun references. As a small scale story, it’s a nice addition to the main issue.