Review: Harley’s Little Black Book #1

The Gang of Harleys has followed a tip about a group dumping dangerous chemicals.  This leads them to a plot by a London supervillain called the Barmy Bugger to take out Wonder Woman.  The Harley Quinn creative team brings their unique style to a new Harley book, this time around it’s a team-up book.  In this first issue, Harley teams up with Wonder Woman to save the day.

The Positive

HLBB 2Turns out Wonder Woman is Harley’s childhood hero.  Once Harley realizes that Wonder Woman is involved we get a fun flashback to a school age Harleen who was inspired by Wonder Woman to deal with her bullies.  Even then she was taking things to an extreme.

As with the other Harley books, this one is best described as madcap.  The story jumps from Brooklyn to London as Harley comes up with the idea that she needs to ride on a cargo ship to London and take care of the evildoers herself.  She is a bit more fanatic than fan though, as she knocks out Wonder Woman and takes her place in an effort to stop the Barmy Bugger.

It’s a lot of fun to see the two of them fighting side by side, even if Harley doesn’t make the best hero.

The Negative

The story surrounds Wonder Woman, but her part is very small.  It’s a lot of fun to see them interacting because they are so different, it would’ve been nice to have more between the two of them.

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The supporting heroes all appear to be new characters, at least I’ve never heard of the London Legion of Superheroes members like Big Bad Ben or Pub Crawler.  They don’t do much in the story except exist to be captured and then rescued.  They have a few scenes of comic relief, but the story could easily lose them in favor of a larger villain role or simply more scenes of Wonder Woman.

The Verdict

I always enjoy a good team up book, and I’ve been enjoying Harley’s misadventures since her solo title launched.  Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn make a fun team, although it would’ve been nice to see a bit more of them together.  I’m excited to see who Harley will team up with next.

4outof5