Harley Quinn, Vol. 2: Night and Day by Karl Kesel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I loved how Mr. Kesel started this series of Harley Quinn – as much as there were blatant touches of male dominance. And then this volume smacked me in the face. Why, why, why were there so many (incorrect) female cliches running rampant through this plotline?! Harley does have a definite character, but here she ended up twisted into this bubble-headed ditz that wasn’t worth admiring. A shopping spree, really? Focusing on romance to the exclusion of – well, everything? Everything felt discordant, other than the backstory. Oh, sure, Harley’s supposed to have the attention span of a gnat, but why? Why did she ignore everything around her? That isn’t accurate. And what the hell was the deal with Lewis? That isn’t true to her character – at least not the character she becomes down the road. It felt like the ultimate betrayal. (And maybe that’s my fault for reading “backward”) The costume-swapping is hilarious, of course, but it felt like too much of the “this is what girls do” came out in this volume. A sign of the time? Maybe. But it grated.
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