Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special // Review
Dr. Harleen Quinzel celebrates her birthday this year with a massive celebration. Harley Quinn 30th Anniversary Special is an uncomfortably large 100-page super-spectacular featuring ten stories with a dizzying array of styles. From the rubbery goofiness of artist Riley Rossmo to the streamlined heroism of writer/artist Terry Dodson to the gritty realism of Mico Suayan and Jason Badower, Harley’s big anniversary celebrates one of the more multi-faceted characters to emerge from the DC universe with an impressively diverse set of offerings.
The strangely anarchic blend of stories and styles provides an interesting glance into the many things that make Harley one of the more memorable characters. So many other successful characters have remained relatively consistent. Batman and Iron Man are generally defined as multi-millionaires. Superman and Spiderman tend to be seen as journalists, and so on. Harley has been a criminal psychologist, an underling, a government agent, a roller derby queen, and so much more. Her 30th anniversary does a remarkably good job of exploring all things Harley in 100 pages that actually manage to seem oddly concise given all of the ground that they’re covering.
Not all of the writing is brilliant, but it would be a very exhausting 100 pages if it WAS. The writing team of Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti is arguably more responsible for Harley’s longevity than anyone else in the issue. They open the celebration with a clever team-up between Harley and Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred. Writer/artist Stjepan Šejić manages some of the more sophisticated scripting in the entire issue thanks to a deep dive into some of the more peripheral aspects of the character in his story “Submissive.” Cecil Castellucci’s “Troop Harley Quinn” bleeds into the sillier end of the stories as the crazy clown girl leads a Gotham Girls scout group.
As expected, Dodson’s work is some of the most visually appealing in the entire issue. It’s a pleasure to see Guillem March return to Quinn with a story involving a housewarming party featuring Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and a whole bunch of villains. The dark realism of Suayan and Badower serves as an impressive contrast against so much of the rest of the issue. Šejić’s fusion of art and story allow for some more intricate and subtle characterization between the covers as Catwoman dances graceful pirouettes of clever manipulation around Ivy and Harley.
So many comic book characters thrive on being simple and iconic. Character development and change over time are great, but veer too far in one direction or the other and the character begins to lose appeal. Harley thrives on being herself through an insane array of different roles and personalities. It might be what makes her that much more dynamic and durable than just about any other character that has been introduced in the superhero genre over the course of the past 30 years. Her 100-page super-spectacular wisely showcases so much of the range that Harley has managed.
