Harley Quinn #67: Psychedelic Romance

Harley Quinn #67 is a strange love story. As Gotham grows more dangerous and more poisonous around her, Harley’s only concern is making her way to Ivy before the end. Unfortunately the romance is interrupted by NKVDemon and a lot of psychedelic prehistoric plant pollen.

Louise’s coloring steals the show in Harley Quinn #67. Kalan uses Harley’s strong resistance to poison to take her experience in a very different direction than every other Bad Seeds tie-in issue. Harley’s experience is more like an acid trip, and much of it is realized via Louise’s coloring choices. As the issue goes on, there is no rhyme or reason to the coloring of different items and characters. The color choices contrast heavily against each other–a wide variety of colors and most of the time very bright. Louise doesn’t just choose a variety of hues within a color scheme. Much of the time it seems like there is no logic in Louise’s choices. The colors are especially striking when set against other items or backgrounds that are white.

Olivares’s art in Harley Quinn #67 doesn’t push the envelope to the extent that Louise’s coloring does, but there are several pages and panels where the images approach the abstract. There is one page in particular where one Harley in the distance is trapped by plant life while another Harley in the foreground looks like she’s spinning amidst a circle of NDVDemon faces. In instances like these, the art and coloring combine perfectly to showcase Harley’s experience.

Gattoni leans into the abstract imagery a few times by using different fonts and font sizes as well as asymmetrical dialogue bubbles. When Harley hallucinates Ivy during these sequences, Gattoni uses the same green fill that is standard for Ivy’s dialogue in the Poison Ivy series.

NKVDemon’s depiction is interesting throughout the issue. It’s the one place where Olivares leans into the weirdness of the hallucination in the real time events. The side of NKVDemon’s face repeatedly looks like a torn mess of his face and mask burned together. There’s a few panels in the later pages that are very effective in this regard.

The fight between Harley and NKVDemon is chaotic. The villain disappears and reappears throughout the issue. Harley repeatedly loses track of him, especially as she is exposed to the plant toxins. Kalan’s story frequently cuts away from the fight to Harley’s hallucinations. NKVDemond repeatedly is nowhere to be seen for a stretch before suddenly appearing in the next panel right next to Harley. That said, it is never confusing.

Kalan never loses track of the Harley/Ivy love story that is motivating Harley Quinn #67, though. Harley’s hallucinations usually involve Ivy in one form or another. They’re not always positive. In one of the hallucinations, a strange looking Ivy can’t truly look at her and won’t speak to her. The best moment in the entire issue comes when Harley gets a glimpse–hallucination or not–of a future that Ivy and Harley could have. It’s a surprisingly heartfelt realization, both for the character and the chaotic issue.