DCs Harley Quinn Romances #1 CVR A Conner

DC Anthology Specials

by Alexis Quasarano

Written by Greg Lockard, Alexis Quasarano, Frank Allen, Zipporah Smith, Amanda Deibert, Ivan Cohen, Raphael Draccon, Carolina Munhóz, and others. Art by Max Sarin, Fico Ossio, Adriana Melo, Giulio Macaione, and others. DC is proud to present a selection of eight stories of rapscallion romance, prodigious passion, and undulating, unbridled affection. Tension builds as Apollo and Midnighter are captured by an unknown alien species who are determined to learn the secrets of their supersoldier success. Harley Quinn gets caught in a scintillating fantasy: What would life have been like if she and Ivy had met in high school? Also featuring Fire and Ice heating things up, fan-favorite heroine Power Girl's romantic tale, John Constantine's mysterious tryst, an amorous Aquaman adventure, and many more! These are lovelorn fantasies as only DC can tell them...but it's not a Harlequin romance...prepare yourself for the Harley Quinn Romances!

Genres: Comics, Superheroes, Dc Comics, Romance, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor

86 pages, Comic

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Ben Howard]

Did I buy the variant cover because it has Clark Kent on it with his pecs out? Yes. Yes, I did.

I mean, look at the material:


My favourite of the short stories is Harley Quinn in "Stranger Than Fiction". In it we get to see Harley and Ivy on Valentine's Day. Harley has made Ivy a graphic novel that's an AU high school fan fic of themselves. It was so funny. And in Harley fashion the contents of the comic book that she drew starts to mesh with the actual graphic novel. The art style for this one was so cool.

My other favourites are Midnighter and Apollo in "Across The Multiverse", Batman in "Here's To Jack, Here's To Molly", and Kite Man in "Once Upon A Romance Novel."

Also just found out there's a Midnighter and Apollo variant that I have to get my hands on.

[Burton Olivier]

Surprised by how much I like Jimmy and Power Girl together, that should be a thing

[Sabi]

With 8 stories in, I only liked the first two...

[VLE]

4 Stars

Lowkey very cute.

[LoAnna Berringer]

3.5 stars

[S.E. Martens]

More like 2.5 . . . this was okay, but definitely not my favorite of the DC anthology books. Yes, I'm still catching up on these . . . This was another Valentine's Day themed collection with an overall comedic (and pretty random) tone.

We kick things off with an adorable Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy story: Stranger Than Fanfiction. Harley wants to surprise Ivy with a high school au fic she wrote about them, but Ivy is busy trying to steal a special flower.

Here's to Jack, Here's to Molly - is a nice Batman story in which he rescues a couple. I thought it was cute.

Powergirl and All-American Boy sees Superman set Karen up on a blind date with Jimmy Olsen. Harkens back to the Silver Age Supergirl and Jimmy Olsen stuff.

John Constantine helps a friend out in Grace - has a sad ending. Don't know if I would have been more moved if I was more familiar with Constantine and Deadman.

Fire & Ice star in Dating App Disaster - a fluffy little story about a dating app for superheroes.

I love that they included a Midnighter and Apollo story. Across the Multiverse - I really need to read more of these two at some point. It's a simple story - just Apollo rescuing Midnighter from some alien villains who are experimenting on him, but it's sweet.

We have a very silly, very random Kite Man story with Once Upon a Romance Novel. I know this one was supposed to be funny, but it fell flat for me.

Same with Splendor in the Foam. Harley Quinn gathers a group of female characters - Zatanna, Vixen, Lori Lemaris, Black Canary - who have all apparently dated Aquaman at various points. We get a series of very quick snippets showing each encounter. Just struck me as kind of odd.

[RalleyRagnarok]

Not quite what I expected. Includes stories without Harley.

[Jamie Revell]

A selection of eight short stories linked by a Valentine theme. As so often with anthologies, the result is mixed; some stories are good, some less so, and the same can be said for the art. The cover (at least of the standard version; variants exist) implies this is mostly going to be comedic but, fortunately, there's greater variety than that.

Having said which, the Harley Quinn story that starts off the set is comedic, as one would expect - and it's also the best in the set, with Harley writing fanfic about herself and Ivy. Of the others, the Power Girl story is good, and the best of the serious ones, while the Fire & Ice one is fun and the Aquaman story is an amusing nod at different versions of the character down the years. At the other end, I didn't really follow what was going on in the John Constantine story (not that it's really about him), and kudos for also including a male-male romance, but, honestly, there isn't really anything to that one beyond the characters saying that they love each other.

It's perhaps worth pointing out that this is "Valentine-themed" rather than specifically romantic - some of the stories are about unsuccessful dates, or about romance between regular citizens rather than the heroes themselves. But it's a light bit of entertainment that fits with the season and there's enough variety to make it worthwhile.

[Yolanda Sfetsos]

I was interested in checking this one out because the cover is awesome. Plus, romance... right? Well, not so much. 🫤

Here's what I thought:

• Harley Quinn in Stranger than Fan Fiction: cute and very chaotic story about Harley and Ivy. It's colourful but not exactly romantic.

• Batman in Here's to Jack, Here's to Molly: very annoying and pointless story.

• Power Girl and All American Boy: 🙄

• Constantine in Grace: Trust John Constantine to be involved in a heartbreaking situation. Here he is helping out a mate go on a date, and when the date is over... everything makes sense. And makes you sad. Great story, but not romantic.

• Fire and Ice in Dating App Disaster: meh. I don't even know who these characters are.

• Across the Multiverse: Midnighter and Apollo are two more characters I'm not familiar with, but this shorty was cool.

• Kite Man in Once Upon a Romance Novel: a pathetic story about a total fucking creeper. WTF was this???

• Splendor in the Foam: Weird and not very entertaining. Actually, quite shitty.

Okay, so out of the eight stories I only enjoyed three and even those aren't romantic at all. Seems like someone needs to look up the meaning of romance and romantic in the dictionary.

[Theo]

8 stories and only half of them had romance for any main character. Like what? It should've been called a Valentine's Day special, then the pining without connection or Galentines stories would've made sense.

I mostly got this for Apollo and Midnighter content, and they were barely together on page. It certainly wasn't romantic even if there was flirting and a single kiss.

Harley and Ivy and Karen and Jimmy had the only real romance-focused stories, and there wasn't a HEA or HFN for the latter.

That Kite Man story was offensive to anyone who likes romance books. Read like an author who likes superheroes and action movies because she's "not like the other girls."

Queer-baiting with Constantine not being the one going on a date in a story with his name and hiding Boston's identity. More with Fire and Ice just not dating each other, in an otherwise boring story.

There was no depth to the Aquaman is a thot stories, and the Batman one was just bad, especially considering he's not an incel.

I adored the Harley and Ivy story and Max Sarin on art is always a delight.

Maybe DC should get writers who write romance for something like this.

[Alex Sarll]

Normally DC get some big guns in for the seasonal specials, but I didn't recognise the name of a single writer here. Maybe they're from the romance side of things? Or new to the biz? Or I'm just that far out of the loop when it comes to modern DC? Still, the artists were enough of a selling point: Max Sarin has already shown a knack for Harley and Ivy, plus we get John McCrea doing Constantine, and Ig Guara on Fire & Ice. The latter does rather unsportingly avoid the subtext usually present between those two, but otherwise the stories take in a nice variety of interpretations on the Valentine's theme (and yes, I am reading it very late), ending up with a higher hit rate than a lot of recent numbers in this line.

[Chad]

Yeah, we're back to these being tryout stories for new authors and artists. These stories set around Valentine's Day were all very bland and uninteresting. Harley Quinn isn't in all of them as the cover has suggested to some but she is in the first and last one, the last one being about a bunch of superheroines who dated Aquaman, none of which are Mera.

[Adriana]

Rushed but fun little vignettes that all have to do with love. As always with anthologies, a mixed bag of quality but they were all at least a little bit enjoyable. Not to mention that a lot of lesser-known heroes got a chance to get some love on the page, so that's got to be worth something.

[Steven Shinder]

The title made me think this would be all Harley Quinn stories, but she’s only in the first and final ones. The first one, in which she writes fanfiction, is the best in my opinion. There’s some great art throughout this collection, but most of the stories are forgettable.

[amelia]

Aquaman is a whor

[Scotty]

Okay

[Maisie Dickson]

I bought this strictly for the hot Aquaman cover ( calling back to justice League Unlimited) and the stories did not disappoint.

[Rachael]

So cute!

[Pickletape]

This book was so buns omfg.. the Harlivy story was the best one.

[Hilary (Melted Books)]

I loved all of these stories! Some parts had me laughing out loud.