In Harley Quinn #41, Pulaski forces Harley Quinn to be a mole to uncover the identities of the Bat-family. How will Harley get out of this predicament?
Harley Quinn #41 main cover by Sweeney Boo
Title: Harley Quinn #41
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Sweeney Boo
Color Artist: Sweeney Boo
Main Cover: Sweeney Boo
Variant Covers: Francesco Francavilla
Release Date: June 25, 2024
Quit Buggin’ Me!
We find Harley Quinn teaching her class. She was just released from police custody.
Pulaski, in interrogating Harley, told her about her daughter, who idolized the Sirens and as a result turned to a life of crime. Pulaski herself had to arrest her, and she now wants revenge. The target is Batman, after all none of the criminals in Gotham would be there if not for the existence and actions of the Dark Knight and his allies. Her plan is to get Harley to uncover their secrets.
To convince Harley, Pulaski decides to pay Quinn a visit and beat her senseless. Harley leaves, now given a new mission that will take her away from her Ivy mission. Poison Ivy will have to wait. Harley finally returns home, decides to communicate with Ivy by signs as she is bugged. She decides to hunt out Tim Drake. Harley insists that this will be over soon.
Harley sucker-attacks Tim, and the two get into a tussle. Tim has already deduced that Harley has been bugged, and Harley triggers a car alarm, so she can speak to Tim. She tells him about the cop’s plan and Mr. Freeze.
Later Robin and Harley visit Freeze’s Ice Scraper and get into a fight with freeze’s guards. The two decide to meet again and take care of Mr. Freeze. First Harley has to make a stop.
She visits Maxie and gives him some food; she also leaves Maxie a note saying that she is bugged but be patient. She tells him to eat the note. Harley leaves and Pulaski arrives to take the note back and drug Maxie. Pulaski decides to beat Maxie Zeus up.
Harley takes a few lumps (Credit: DC Comics)
First off the good. The art is very enjoyable. It has the whimsical quality that I expect in a Harley Quinn book, and Sweeney Boo does a great job in making it fun to look at. Sweeney uses bright colors to make panels pop and her designs of the characters from Robin to Harley herself is very good and believable.
Unfortunately this is where the comic stops being good and enters cringe territory. I do not appreciate using Pulaski this way, including her motives and actions. First, her motive in being a thorn to Harley Quinn is not just being a cop bringing in a criminal. She is seeking revenge for the fall of her daughter. She blames the Sirens for planting ideas of grandeur in her mind. However, she ultimately blames Batman, and this is a tired plot point that keeps resurfacing. Is there ever a fresh idea in storytelling? She blames Batman for the rise of the criminals. In her mind, if Batman was not around the Sirens would not be around and therefore her daughter would not have been corrupted.
Now to the actions, can anyone say police brutality? Not to mention that she fired on an unarmed Harley Quinn in the last issue, she takes this issue to basically beat Harley into submission. This is reminiscent of the Joker’s mistreatment of her. She basically slaps around an unarmed and helpless Harley Quinn. She is handcuffed to a chair. At the end of the issue, Pulaski states that she is going to beat Maxie who she just drugged to incapacity. Pulaski even threatens Harley’s innocent students at the college who really have no idea what is going on.
This is just proving that the police in Gotham are just as incompetent and corrupt as they ever were in the other titles. This is a poor direction to send Harley Quinn. It is her wackiness that gets her in these situations, but in this issue the onus falls on Pulaski and her literal misconduct in office all because she had a difficult time being a parent to her daughter.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advance 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 Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
