Harleen just got a note. It was tied to a brick. The brick was thrown through the window of her apartment. It threatens the life of her AND her girlfriend. So why is she happy? The answer to this and so much more is found in Harley Quinn #28. Writer Tini Howard opens up a whole new chapter in the life of Gotham City’s crazy clown girl in an issue that is drawn for the page by Sweeney Boo. Howard’s distinct take on the life of Harley Quinn gives her a fresh turn in territory that feels both comfortable and familiar.

Harley is still looking after the apartment she’s sharing with Poison Ivy. Ivy’s on her way back from the West Coast. It’s going to take a while for her to get back. Harley is doing her best with the time that she’s got. There’s an altercation with Two-Face, but it’s nothing that she can’t handle. The police that eventually come to apprehend her are a minor detail in her normal routine as well. The judge, though? HE will be a bit of a problem. He’s going to sentence her...to teaching at Gotham City Community College. So, after all she’s been through over the years, Harley is going in for her greatest challenge yet: being an educator. 

Howard really strings things through a weird funhouse for the first issue of a whole new chapter in Harley’s life. The title characters in mainstream superhero comic books have been many things over the years, but Harley Quinn as a college professor? THAT is an intriguing idea that Howard seems to be approaching with a very distinct wit. Howard is doing some very sharp work with dialogue. “It took a court order to make it happen,” says Harley, “but I got class.” Clever stuff. The contrast between Two-Face and Harley is fun. Two different types of crazy tangle with each other in a weird story that shows some promise.

Montreal-based artist Sweeney Boo has a pleasantly rubbery approach to Harley and her world. It’s Gotham City by way of Chuck Jones: a cartoonishly animated look to a world of darkness. Even Two-Face looks kinda cute under the pen of Sweeney Boo. The action isn’t quite as kinetic as the best animators manage, though. Things can look profoundly goofy, but the action feels a bit flat in Sweeney Boo’s opening issue. The comedy is suitably amplified. The weirdness is definitely there. Boo will need to anchor the weirdness in a more solidly earthbound sense of darkness if she’s going to make a serious impact in Harley’s world.

From the traditional Gotham City crime war to court to community college to an encounter with an overwhelmingly cosmic entity, it’s a hell of a lot of ground to cover in very little time, but Howard manages to make it work. With a better connection to the script, Sweeney Boo’s work could really take Harley in an interesting new direction.

Grade: B