Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There always seemed to be an issue in the D.C. world of graphic novels in comparison to its other dominant rival and even the less fashionable, less well known comic book makers at the time, its representation of women, aside from those in the Wonder Woman and Cat-Woman titles, was woefully lacking and in many cases perhaps even tiresome and undeserving. There really was no edge to them, nothing other being seen to be seen; there was no equality and no female hero or anti-hero worthy of looking up to.
Unlike over at Marvel who had a roster of female icons, strong, independent and gutsy women to look up to as readers, for example Susan Storm/Richards, Medusa, Black Widow and arguably the finest of them all in Scarlet Witch, D.C. Comics just didn’t seem to get the game, to understand that female equality existed, not just in between the pages but as heroes in the modern world.
Not until D.C. went back to basics with the New 52 series did this at least start to change and whilst Harley Quinn isn’t someone to aspire to on a full time basis, reading about a woman so damaged at the hands of one of the most evil psychopaths in comic book history, The Joker, a woman for whom the line between highly intelligent and highly dangerous is one that seems to merge, blur and distort with frightening but intriguing ease. For Harley Quinn is surely a must read when it comes to interesting and well paced characters in D.C., a woman for whom the 21st Century has opened the door to and allowed to flourish and in her second volume of collected stories, Power Outage, Writer Amanda Conner, her husband Jimmy Palmiotti and the team have really expanded the boundary of what it means to be an anti –hero but one with tendencies that the reader can feel sympathy for, to new levels of respectability and feminist ideals.
Perhaps that’s all it took was for D.C. to let a writer with the very obvious and scintillating talent such as Amanda Conner to do the job of bringing forth a woman into which many would identify with, for whom many would become besotted over and making her one of the most readily acceptable characters in the whole of the D.C universe. Such is the popularity of this deranged but highly functioning woman that she has a main role in the upcoming Suicide Squad film. Even this might not have been possible without Amanda Conner’s input over the last few years and in tales such as There Are No Rules, Crappily Ever After and the main story arc of the volume Power Outage in which Harley Quinn dabbles with the dark side of justice, namely teaming up with a power girl look-a-like to dispense a sort of righteousness to the world, Volume two is a terrific addition to the New 52 range of titles.
Harley Quinn, terrifying, more bananas than Ffyes and yet deep down underneath the crazy and the Joker abused beats the heart of a playful raging psychopath, as a reader of graphic novels, what’s not to like?
Harley Quinn Volume Two: Power Outage is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.
Ian D. Hall