Overview: In Harley Quinn #25, both the present version of Harley and the future version battle the Harley Who Laughs.
Synopsis (spoilers ahead): As Harley Quinn #25 begins, a menacing man is losing cards to an older Harley Quinn, and he does not like it. A battle ensues and is ended by The Harley Who Laughs, who informs “Old Lady Harley” that she has been searching the multiverse for her. Apparently, the Harley Who Laughs is on a Highlander trip, and there can be only one (Harley). They banter and battle. Eventually, Old Lady Harley triggers a portal and runs through it.
In our universe, Harley is towing Zsasz as she flees from the Harley Who Laughs. Old Lady Harley screeches up in a sports car, and they race off.
On the Harley Ferry, Kevin, Parry the Parasitic Alien, Bud, Lou, and the Harleys discuss the current predicament. Everyone except the Harleys leaves, and they chat.
The Harleys make a plan in which they stroll down a street as bait. The Harley Who Laughs finds them, and they fight. The Harleys enter a building with a floor of ice, and they, unlike the Harley Who Laughs, are equipped with skates. Killer Frost appears and assists.
They try to remove the portal device from the Harley Who Laughs, but she breaks free of her ice prison and hurts Killer Frost. In the process, present version Harley gains control of the portal device and destroys it. Multiple Harleys immediately begin appearing from the multiverse.
Analysis: As writer Stephanie Phillips’s run on the Harley Quinn book ends, this final arc seems chaotic and messy. That’s not necessarily a problem especially given how well it suits our hero, who is nothing if not chaotic and messy. But given how carefully planned so much of Phillips’s run on the book seems to be, the narrative does feel a bit lost. Key aspects of the run, such as Kevin and Harley’s relationship, also seem to be getting short shrift in the race to the finish.
The Harley Who Laughs feels like a deus ex machina for Harley to work out many of her most pressing issues and problems. It does feel a bit peculiar that no member of the Bat-Family is anywhere to be found (Damian was watching Harley – what happened to him? If we know Damian, there is no chance he would lose interest if he suspected Harley’s return from the Lazarus Pit really changed her for the worse).
The fact that we get almost no character development for The Harley Who Laughs here in Harley Quinn #25 other than a replay of Highlander is also disappointing – she seems to have been introduced solely for the purpose of creating another Big Bad rather than advancing Harley’s own personal narrative. The dialogue between the Harleys is sweet in some moments and cliched in others and ultimately misses as much as it lands in my view – it’s a bit too much “ghost of Christmas future” for me.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with a copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Comixology through Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
Harley Quinn #25
Overall Score
2.5/5
The end of Phillips’s run on Harley Quinn continues to feel rushed and chaotic. This isn’t the strongest arc in the book thus far, but I’m still interested to see where it ends.
