Harleen Quinzel always had a hard life but nothing was preparing her for the insanity she was about to meet once that she was hired to work for Arkham Asylum.
A new graphic novel from the DC Black Label is here and is handled by no one else but Stjepan Sejic. I have been a huge fan of his artwork for years now so I was definitely invested in this since the beginning but I have to admit that I wasn't really familiar with his writing but he seemed to be a big fan of Harley Quinn (not as much as of Poison Ivy though but still) so I was being hopeful.
And I'm happy to say that this book has exceeded my expectations and then some.
From the beginning, Sejic explores a really complex scenario of what happened to Harleen since her early days in a way that wasn't touched upon even during her own series handled by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner (a favorite of mine). There were not actual insane events that happened during her youth but instead her development was something really uneventful, something really realistic that ultimately lead her to the inevitable and tragic meeting with the Joker which is a pretty interesting contrast to how she's usually portrayed. Speaking of contrasts, the idea of her sleeping her way through college is also explored since this isn't what actually happened, is just that sometimes her affection for certain people made her commit bad decisions, I'm happy with this kind of update because Lord knows that Paul Dini's original vision was kinda problematic even at the time it was conceived.
The plot progresses at a nice pace with a great sense of escalation and we're quickly introduced to pretty compelling takes of most of the classic cast of Gotham City but especially the immates of Arkham Asylum and Sejic does have a few interesting ideas for each one of them but of course, the spotlight goes to the Joker and Sejic's Joker steals the spotlight quite a bit. Is a pretty interesting portrayal that goes perfectly with classic ones and offers a few intriguing turns concerning his dynamic with Harleen which makes me excited for what's coming next.
The dialogue works pretty nice to convey these ideas and the dynamic between all the characters is fairly natural which is really appreciated.
Obviously you can't speak about Sejic's work without mentioning his pencils and my God, this is some gorgeous work. Beautiful and expressive characters are abundant here coupled with a pretty vibrant and creative style that captures every scene perfectly.
Fantastic read, definitely invested now.
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