Harley Quinn’s mother is dying of cancer. Quinn’s hanging out with her, but she’s not expecting to run into the Grim Reaper. If Harley’s going to run into the reaper, she’s going to be doing so in an old, abandoned video store. “Death Becomes Harley” is a clever, little bit of drama that bleeds over int comedy courtesy of writer Sam Humphries and artist Otto Schmidt. Heavy moments between Harley and her mother are balanced against moments between Harley and Death as drama is balanced against comedy in a surprisingly clever coverage of a tough subject that also takes a few moments in the end to pay lip service to DCs big “Year of the Villain” event.

Harley is hanging out with her mother and her mother’s cancer. Her mother’s cancer has reached stage four. When The bad news is delivered, Harley’s mom makes a joke. It’s not easy for Harley, who walks off into the decay of Coney Island in a desperate attempt to make sense of things. It isn’t until she finds herself in the remains of an old chain video rental place that she’s confronted by Death itself in an encounter that’s every bit as strange as it probably sounds. 

Humphries manages the unthinkable. A comedy about someone with stage four cancer sounds like an insurmountable challenge. Humphries carries a brilliant mixture of sadness and levity into a story that manages to find comedy in some of the strangest places imaginable. It seems kind of odd that Humphries couldn’t have set Harley up on a date with Sandman’s sister. The two would have made an interesting contrast. Instead, Harley’s running into that guy with the skull and the scythe that Buck Dharma isn’t afraid of. It’s fun to see Death as kind of a busy guy who is every bit as much of a slave to destiny as everyone else. It works well within the morose comedy of the issue, but it lacks the kind of novelty it could have had with more of an insightful direction.

Schmidt tumbles between mirth and sadness with a grace that occasionally makes a big dive into brilliance. The full-page image of Harley in black and white sadly walking in the opposite direction of an excited full-color crowd on Coney Island is beautifully vivid. Harley’s rubbery gleefulness in searching for something outside the darkness is given vibrant life in contrast to the phantasmic darkness of Death. There’s some gorgeous art in this issue.

Above all, Humphries and Schmidt handle a challenging subject with heroic looseness.  They’re so wildly open to comedy, tragedy and everything else that they’re able to integrate this issue with a larger plot arc in her own title while gracefully shoving the last couple of pages into the “Year of the Villain” with all the subtlety of a giant wooden mallet. It doesn’t sound like it SHOULD work, but it sure as hell does. Harley is going through a lot right now, but she’s in good hands.

Grade: A