Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #5 (of 6)

Dark Knight News

With each group of stories, there’s so much enjoyment to be had. Harley Quinn: Black, White, and Redder #5 continues offering us the same high quality and fun we’ve come to expect from his title, we get just a few more sides of the prism. This series has been an absolute joy to review.

Geek Dad

This final issue had some odd moments in it, but it was overall a great finish to one of the most entertaining and experimental comics DC has put out recently.

ComicBook.com

The final issue of Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder is perhaps the most unique of the run but that's not a bad thing with three very different stories each with very different takes on Harley that show both the wide range and the endless potential of DC's most dynamic character. The real standout of the issue is the first story, a medieval alternate universe tale for Harley from Matheus Lopes and Bilquis Evely that has some of the most gorgeous art in this entire series as well as one of its most inventive takes on Harley/Joker to date. The second story is a little more complicated, a story from Justin Halpern and Kath Lobo that arguably may understand Harley the least as it sees her perhaps the most darkly villainous to date, but it's certainly an interesting lean-in for the character complete with some expressive and interesting art. The final installment is the closest to the "real" Harley and Speremint does a fantastic job of bringing humor. In terms of how the stories are paired with one another, it certainly feels strange, but the individual parts are solid. It's a good issue and a good finale.

Razorfine

Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #5 offers three more tales featuring Harley Quinn kicking off with the bizarre “The Harley Spirit” heavy on metaphor casting Harley into something resembling an avenging spirt brought forth by witches to avenge women harmed by men in the Middle Ages of some alternate timeline. The other two tales fit into more standard Harley Quinn craziness. In my favorite of the three tales, “Flight” gives us a prison break gone crazy when Harley can’t quite decide if she wants to help the other prisoners on the plane escape or not (or remember what she agreed to just prior to to liftoff). Lots of fun here, and I love the art of Bilquis Evely. And Harley turns to social media when she discovers a cosplayer is getting more attention for pretending to be her than Harley is herself in”#doubletrouble.” Let’s just say things don’t end well for the social media influencer, and it’s the one story that feels it could have been adapted into a full comic-length tale.

Batman-News

As you can see, even this series has gone downhill for Harley Quinn. I see very little hope for this character in comics, given that comics in general are doing so badly right now and no one seems to making any attempt to fix that. The writers and editorial behind the scenes just keep doubling down on their mistakes. So yea, this comic is a “do not buy,” and I don’t even suspect I’ll be buying this series in trade anymore, as I was originally planning to do.