Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour #1-6: Road Trip!!

If you like Harley Quinn: The Animated Series, you’re a fan of Harley and Poison Ivy in general, or you simply want to read a lighthearted and hilarious, sexy and shameless, but ultimately thoughtful and touchy comic, you’re in for a marvelous ride. This is definitely a fast-paced reading, with constant chasing and a road trip vibe, that will delight you and lure you in to the conclusion, one of these type of readings that you don’t realize how deep and touchy it is until you’re in the middle of it, and a scene ago you were laughing!

Working particularly as a love letter to Ivy as a character, as well as an exploration of her childhood traumas, and how they affect her relationships, this comic doesn’t hold its punches back. Franklin manages to make the playful and jokey tone carry an emotional broader narrative, centering Harley and Ivy’s relationship to the greatest of extents while giving them both brightness and depth, while Sarin’s art keeps a style at the same time informed by the animated series and filed with extra expression and movement, shining and emoting in every page, and Louise’s colors carrying the extra mile to make sure every character and lightning expresses what it needs to, all of that rounded up by Esposito’s playful, even colorful lettering. Asides from the titular couple, the secondary characters centered by Franklin (like the superhero Vixen or Peaches, a black sex worker with vitiligo) showcase a deep understanding of a broad array of experiences, which is painted here by big strokes that both show the potential of these characters (DC, give Tee Franklin more books!) and makes their role in the story enjoyable and complex, as well as brings up issues like accessibility, sex work or working through trauma, with a care and depth that would make most books being published by DC right now absolutely jealous (if superhero stories cared that much about reflecting the real world issues they so often try to metaphorically convey).

A bigger thread that runs rampant through the book is queer solidarity of other characters with Ivy and Harley’s plight, as a lot of secondary characters reflect a queer reader’s experience with the turmoil Ivy and Harley pass, root for them, cheer them up to success, and watch them come closer after conflict in a really compelling way that, honestly, I wish for the main continuity of DC. This book takes risks, and it reaps every fruit it sows.