Life as a supervillain can be rough. Not only do you have to deal with the trauma of what made you a villain but you have to deal with constant beatings by superheroes like the Justice League. An anonymous stranger plants an idea in Harley Quinn’s head to have her start an anonymous support group for supervillains. Harley jumps at the opportunity and starts Evil Anonymous.
The Positive
It felt a little weird at first to read a Harley book that was not from Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, but the story here is still just as enjoyable even without their unique touch. It’s fun to see Jim Lee taking on Harley’s crazy world and Rob Williams captures a lot of Harley’s manic energy in his writing.
The story is pretty straightforward, a mysterious stranger drops a package on Harley’s doorstep and she is off in typical Harley fashion. The first part of the book is her trying to help Man Bat. Unfortunately, she went after him while he was flying through the streets.
She hits her head pretty hard and the book then drastically changes art styles. Sean “Cheeks” Galloway takes over for the middle of the book. His more chibi style is a dramatic turn, but it fits well with the story being told and makes the middle section a lot of fun. Needless to say, the Scarecrow has never looked so cute.
Harley goes a little mad with power and it takes the entire Justice League to finally stop her. I thought it was really funny seeing her face to face with the Justice League, and her final moments with Batman are pretty classic.
The Negative
In the final section of the issue, the story starts to get weird. It’s hard to tell exactly what is real and what is not. Either the whole book is a fantasy to get her to help out Amanda Waller or just part of it, but which part? I’m not sure it really matters, but it’s still confusing and makes the last part of the story that much harder to follow. I wouldn’t call it bad writing, just a confusing plot.
The Verdict
It’s April Fools’ all right, and Harley’s special issue for that is a perfect fit. We are never quite sure how much of the book is just in her head, or how much really happened if any of it. An odd choice to wrap up an otherwise very fun issue. The contrasting art styles between Lee and Galloway give the book a fun twist, and I love that it takes the entire Justice League to stop Harley once she gets going.
