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Harley Quinn (2021)
Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Girl in a Crisis (Harley Quinn
Attention, nerds! It’s me, Harley Quinn. I’ve got a brand-new collection coming your way from my incredible series, Harley Quinn (that’s easy to remember!) I know you bought those issues already, but since they’re bagged and slabbed, y’all need this edition to find out what’s happened to me! I was minding my own business, having a prank war with Two-Face, when some Lady Quark popped up and told me I was threatening reality everywhere. What?Anyway, Tini Howard (Catwoman) wrote up the details, and Sweeney Boo (Crush & Lobo) and Hayden Sherman (Batman/ World’s Finest) drew them up really pretty with guests like Zatanna, Cap-tain Carrot, and of course, HIM (Batman, silly. Who else?), all helping me try to keep reality together. I just want to leave the Multiverse alone, do my community service, and adore my gal, Poison Ivy. And I’ll do ANYTHING to protect my Earth. Got it? Collects Harley Quinn #28-32 and Knight Harley Quinn #1-2.
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First published September 24, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 23, 2024
Usually Harley Quinn books kind of grate on me...similar to most Deadpool titles.
However this was a little more interesting..+slightly less manic..
Let's see where this goes.
However this was a little more interesting..+slightly less manic..
Let's see where this goes.
May 14, 2025
"Wie Kugel entfernen keine paywall" 10/10
December 15, 2025
This was a lot more fun than I expected, honestly, which feels a bit mean to say. For some reason one of my favourite hobbies is acquiring comics because they have really pretty art and then being really disappointed by the actual contents of the book. In this case that's totally what I was expecting, and I even accidentally acquired the third volume in this run... but Tini Howard has done a really great job, and this Harley is fresh, funny, and likeable. I would say there's still some mild plotting issues, I'm not sure why the choice to have everything be world-ending multiverse-related but I've read a lot of other comics and I guess that's just what's in vogue so I'm kind of reticent to make that all Howard's fault (although I've still removed a star for all the Warworld stuff, which I just didn't love). But like, in general, the concepts are really great and fun, I do like the other multiverse worlds she visits, and Harley despite it all feels like a grounded character that is well-fleshed out. It doesn't sacrifice that for the plot. Plus, I love that she takes her court-ordered university professor job very seriously, and her relationship with Ivy (who's around just the right amount that it's still Harley's story). It means that when all this crazy shit is happening, you have a reason to actually care about it, because it could affect these things she cares about. The art is super super juicy and good (I mean, that's why I bought it...) and this Harley design is so youthful and joyful, it's very cute and doesn't feel horribly sexualised like so many others. On top of the base story, each of the issues from the Harley Quinn (2021) run has a bonus mini-comic at the end, which brings more different art styles and throws Harley into different fun worlds. These are really awesome, a great way to explore her character in different settings, and my GOD is the Evangelion-inspired one comically gorgeous. Overall this is well-written, funny, and heartfelt. I love the direction they've been taking Harley's character lately. Once she was split off from the Joker as her own character (and came out) I think she's just been fantastic & one of my favourite superheroes, although I'm sure she'd reject that moniker. All around great stuff, would recommend!
March 30, 2025
"I need this Earth. My girlfriend lives here."
Read the individual issues: Harley Quinn V. 4 No. 28 - No. 31 + Harley Quinn: Knight Terrors 1 + 2 (May - November 2023.)
I was pretty underwhelmed and even annoyed by this arc, except for the Knight Terrors issues, which were a surprising improvement.
Harley accidentally begins breaking the walls between alternate dimensions and then has to fix it before her universe is destroyed.
The ultra bouncy, off-the-walls multiverse storyline is kinda fun, kinda cute, but I really have trouble getting into the ultra-cartoonification of Harley Quinn we see here. Sweeney Boo's art style has Harley looking far too young, like a teenager, despite author Tini Howard leaning into the character's scientist background and putting her in the role of a community college teacher. The inks are very light and everything is colored in soft pastels, making it look very childlike.
Um, there's some cute stuff, like anime parodies, and Zatanna and Batman make appearances. And it's always great to see glimpses of Harley and Ivy as a couple, even though that is all we get here - glimpses.
I actually preferred the art and writing in the short-back ups presented as dream sequences at the end of each issue, like Everybody Hates Sidequests written by Nicole Maines with art by Mindy Lee, which reimagines Harley as a medieval knight.
I ended up enjoying the Knight Terrors tie-in issues more than the regular issues. Knight Terrors was an event that took over all the DC titles for a couple of months in 2023, and had the characters trapped in a world of their nightmares.
The Harley Quinn issues are written by Tini Howard with art by Hayden Sherman. Sherman's pencils are a lot grittier, more detailed and overall more interesting than Boo's, and the dream sequences themselves are as wild and imaginative as you could want.
Things do tie back into Harley's multiverse story, by having her in a room trying out different parallel realities like videogames. There's a pirate world, a world where the Justice League are vampires and she's the slayer . . . it's fun and dark and weird (in a good way.)
Overall 3 stars, mostly on the strength of the Knight Terrors stuff.
Read the individual issues: Harley Quinn V. 4 No. 28 - No. 31 + Harley Quinn: Knight Terrors 1 + 2 (May - November 2023.)
I was pretty underwhelmed and even annoyed by this arc, except for the Knight Terrors issues, which were a surprising improvement.
Harley accidentally begins breaking the walls between alternate dimensions and then has to fix it before her universe is destroyed.
The ultra bouncy, off-the-walls multiverse storyline is kinda fun, kinda cute, but I really have trouble getting into the ultra-cartoonification of Harley Quinn we see here. Sweeney Boo's art style has Harley looking far too young, like a teenager, despite author Tini Howard leaning into the character's scientist background and putting her in the role of a community college teacher. The inks are very light and everything is colored in soft pastels, making it look very childlike.
Um, there's some cute stuff, like anime parodies, and Zatanna and Batman make appearances. And it's always great to see glimpses of Harley and Ivy as a couple, even though that is all we get here - glimpses.
I actually preferred the art and writing in the short-back ups presented as dream sequences at the end of each issue, like Everybody Hates Sidequests written by Nicole Maines with art by Mindy Lee, which reimagines Harley as a medieval knight.
I ended up enjoying the Knight Terrors tie-in issues more than the regular issues. Knight Terrors was an event that took over all the DC titles for a couple of months in 2023, and had the characters trapped in a world of their nightmares.
The Harley Quinn issues are written by Tini Howard with art by Hayden Sherman. Sherman's pencils are a lot grittier, more detailed and overall more interesting than Boo's, and the dream sequences themselves are as wild and imaginative as you could want.
Things do tie back into Harley's multiverse story, by having her in a room trying out different parallel realities like videogames. There's a pirate world, a world where the Justice League are vampires and she's the slayer . . . it's fun and dark and weird (in a good way.)
Overall 3 stars, mostly on the strength of the Knight Terrors stuff.
December 19, 2025
The main story is a multiverse story, my least favorite kind of comic. I picked this up to see what Adam Warren would do in his story. It is one of the "Knight Terrors" in which Harley is stuck in one of her nightmares. In Warren's story, which he both wrote and drew, Harley's hyenas can talk and it's wild in a good way. (I was glad to see Harley did not end up bound and gagged like Warren's usual heroine.) There is also an episode that turns out to have art by Ben Templesmith, but I wouldn't have guessed because it looks like nothing I've seen him draw before.
Read
February 19, 2025Multiverse madness with manic pixie mad girl Harley
4⭐️
4⭐️
October 15, 2024
While I'm glad we exited the previous drawing style, I wasn't a huge fan of the majority of this volume, until we got to the dream sequences, where the sheer variety was intriguing. The storyline, however, felt super jarring and the shift from a mostly stable, with a family Harley back to manic and erratic Harley felt too repetitive. Throw in the multiverse and nightmare shenanigans and I just started skimming.
November 18, 2024
Interesting concept but the artwork was not for me.
December 21, 2024
Every writer who picks up this series just keeps making it worse.
November 23, 2024
'Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Girl in a Crisis' is an absolutely mad, bonkers, and chaotic comic, to go with DC's current multiverse 'Crisis' BS ('Dawn of DC', is that what it's called? Honestly I've lost track of how many crossover/universe ending events DC has done in the last few years alone). It can be tiring and frustrating, leading to burnout, as these things often turn out in the ever-expanding, ever-oversaturating pop culture media and landscape.
Still, 'Girl in a Crisis' is nonetheless, undeniably Harley Quinn.
She is still Harley Quinn here, the clown queen of crime, the barely-reformed antiheroine we all know and have loved for over thirty years now.
Currently, she is in a healthy relationship with her girlfriend Poison Ivy, whom she lives with, along with her hyenas Bud and Lou. She is a court-mandated Gotham City Community College professor (she is a doctor, remember), to go with her crimefighting and property-destroying antics. And she suddenly finds herself in the middle of the destruction of the entire multiverse, over something she inadvertently caused by chance - a one-in-a-billion chance, a glitch between universes.
It is up to Harley Quinn, the least reliable of all of DC's "heroes", to save reality, to set the multiverse right again. Or just have fun, goof off and experiment with countless realities and what-ifs.
It's a standard DC comic at this point, really.
SO MANY THINGS HAPPEN in 'Girl in a Crisis'. It's crazy. My chosen highlights are:
The artwork is consistently beautiful, colourful, bright, skilled, and clever. Kevin cameos. Zatanna cameos. Batman cameos (the dialogue exchanges between him and Harley continue to be a hoot). Doctor Fate cameos. There's a funny and sweet relationship between Harley and one of her college students, Summer Sherridan. There's a universe of cartoon, Looney Tunes-esque animal superheroes, headlined by Captain Carrot, a bunny superhero, that gets dark quickly (talk about going down the rabbit hole!). Other universes that Harley trapezes around include: one where she is a pirate, another where she hunts the Justice League as vampires, and one which is her worst fear - where she is a member of the Justice League, generic Silver Age superhero origin story and everything (complete with a fridged girlfriend).
When she wants to be a normal(ish), non-superpowered woman, with an apartment and a girlfriend.
The madness doesn't end there, oh no: next we have a universe where Harley is in a magical girl anime parody (can you guess that's a favourite of mine?); a universe (or is it a dream?) where she is a knight on a side quest parody, seeking to awaken the sleeping maiden Poison Ivy; a universe/dream where she is in a 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'/'Akira'/'Ghost in the Shell' parody; and finally... whatever the eff the final two issues are. It's so dark, existentialist and bizarre I'm not even going to bother trying to explain it. It might be the comic reaching its dying breath, up its own arsehole.
It just won't end! It's so strange, offbeat and eccentric it's almost nightmarish.
And yet, I enjoyed most of the stories. The what-ifs. The parodies. The detours into losing one's mind. It's not a catastrophe; it's entertaining and smart enough to avoid careening and ruining itself... until the finish line, maybe.
I enjoyed Harley in most of the issues. Indeed, as demonstrated, this is the kind of environment she thrives in.
Nothing will beat her. Nothing will break her.
She's no longer scared of her inner demons.
She's an abuse survivor.
She survived the Joker, after all.
BTW, the Joker only appears on one page in this comic. As multiplying in a "nightmare" that Harley effortlessly bludgeons to a bloody pulp in two small panels and says, "The Joker's not my nightmare no more. He's just some loser."
Now there's character growth!
I love the artwork, and Harley's pink, blue, white and blonde colour scheme. I love the cosmic, astral, ethereal girl power of the book.
'Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Girl in a Crisis' might be my final 'Harley Quinn' comic, at least for a very long while. I think that's appropriate. 'Girl in a Crisis' is fun, funny, hyper, fanservice-y, and a complex introspective character study, but it can be too much - too much candy, that wants you to think about life, the universe, and time and space - especially in one sitting.
Thus concludes my short (for me), sporadic, confused review of a long, messed up, anarchic, existential antiheroine comic.
For my other 'Harley Quinn' book reviews, detailing my extended Harley Quinn fangirl knowledge, as of now, click here.
Final Score: 3.5/5
Still, 'Girl in a Crisis' is nonetheless, undeniably Harley Quinn.
She is still Harley Quinn here, the clown queen of crime, the barely-reformed antiheroine we all know and have loved for over thirty years now.
Currently, she is in a healthy relationship with her girlfriend Poison Ivy, whom she lives with, along with her hyenas Bud and Lou. She is a court-mandated Gotham City Community College professor (she is a doctor, remember), to go with her crimefighting and property-destroying antics. And she suddenly finds herself in the middle of the destruction of the entire multiverse, over something she inadvertently caused by chance - a one-in-a-billion chance, a glitch between universes.
It is up to Harley Quinn, the least reliable of all of DC's "heroes", to save reality, to set the multiverse right again. Or just have fun, goof off and experiment with countless realities and what-ifs.
It's a standard DC comic at this point, really.
SO MANY THINGS HAPPEN in 'Girl in a Crisis'. It's crazy. My chosen highlights are:
The artwork is consistently beautiful, colourful, bright, skilled, and clever. Kevin cameos. Zatanna cameos. Batman cameos (the dialogue exchanges between him and Harley continue to be a hoot). Doctor Fate cameos. There's a funny and sweet relationship between Harley and one of her college students, Summer Sherridan. There's a universe of cartoon, Looney Tunes-esque animal superheroes, headlined by Captain Carrot, a bunny superhero, that gets dark quickly (talk about going down the rabbit hole!). Other universes that Harley trapezes around include: one where she is a pirate, another where she hunts the Justice League as vampires, and one which is her worst fear - where she is a member of the Justice League, generic Silver Age superhero origin story and everything (complete with a fridged girlfriend).
When she wants to be a normal(ish), non-superpowered woman, with an apartment and a girlfriend.
The madness doesn't end there, oh no: next we have a universe where Harley is in a magical girl anime parody (can you guess that's a favourite of mine?); a universe (or is it a dream?) where she is a knight on a side quest parody, seeking to awaken the sleeping maiden Poison Ivy; a universe/dream where she is in a 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'/'Akira'/'Ghost in the Shell' parody; and finally... whatever the eff the final two issues are. It's so dark, existentialist and bizarre I'm not even going to bother trying to explain it. It might be the comic reaching its dying breath, up its own arsehole.
It just won't end! It's so strange, offbeat and eccentric it's almost nightmarish.
And yet, I enjoyed most of the stories. The what-ifs. The parodies. The detours into losing one's mind. It's not a catastrophe; it's entertaining and smart enough to avoid careening and ruining itself... until the finish line, maybe.
I enjoyed Harley in most of the issues. Indeed, as demonstrated, this is the kind of environment she thrives in.
Nothing will beat her. Nothing will break her.
She's no longer scared of her inner demons.
She's an abuse survivor.
She survived the Joker, after all.
BTW, the Joker only appears on one page in this comic. As multiplying in a "nightmare" that Harley effortlessly bludgeons to a bloody pulp in two small panels and says, "The Joker's not my nightmare no more. He's just some loser."
Now there's character growth!
I love the artwork, and Harley's pink, blue, white and blonde colour scheme. I love the cosmic, astral, ethereal girl power of the book.
'Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Girl in a Crisis' might be my final 'Harley Quinn' comic, at least for a very long while. I think that's appropriate. 'Girl in a Crisis' is fun, funny, hyper, fanservice-y, and a complex introspective character study, but it can be too much - too much candy, that wants you to think about life, the universe, and time and space - especially in one sitting.
Thus concludes my short (for me), sporadic, confused review of a long, messed up, anarchic, existential antiheroine comic.
For my other 'Harley Quinn' book reviews, detailing my extended Harley Quinn fangirl knowledge, as of now, click here.
Final Score: 3.5/5
March 27, 2024
This DEFINITELY reads like a Deadpool (or even Gwenpool) comic...
Harley is..bored? She's definitely been acting out, fighting Two Face over and over until the 'joke' lost its humor. It's getting so that even her close friend Kevin (actually looking more human and less bowling pin) is worried she going to end up doing something drastic. She gets arrested (DUN DUN DUHHHH) and sentenced to community service....teaching.
Teaching what, you ask? Abnormal Psychology at Gotham's Community College.
Meanwhile, we've got Harley accidentally manifesting objects (a Vorpal Fish from Captain Carrot) in times of stress and nobody knows why. Multiversal hijinks ensue. Lady Quark (from Crisis) says Harley is dangerous and needs to stop or Earth will be wiped out. Bud and Lou, Harley's laughing hyenas, provide some commentary similar to Rufus in 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'.
By the end of this collection, we aren't much closer in knowing why Harley can pull things out of the multiverse at will.
--------
SUPER MINI REVIEW
I swear this feels like a Deadpool comic. Slightly delusional character cracks wise and looks good doing it. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This might work for Harley in the short term. Some of the best Deadpool runs in Marvel were similar to this stuff.
The art is solid and the colors are super vibrant. Nice to see after all the loopy freehand from the last few volumes.
Harley is..bored? She's definitely been acting out, fighting Two Face over and over until the 'joke' lost its humor. It's getting so that even her close friend Kevin (actually looking more human and less bowling pin) is worried she going to end up doing something drastic. She gets arrested (DUN DUN DUHHHH) and sentenced to community service....teaching.
Teaching what, you ask? Abnormal Psychology at Gotham's Community College.
Meanwhile, we've got Harley accidentally manifesting objects (a Vorpal Fish from Captain Carrot) in times of stress and nobody knows why. Multiversal hijinks ensue. Lady Quark (from Crisis) says Harley is dangerous and needs to stop or Earth will be wiped out. Bud and Lou, Harley's laughing hyenas, provide some commentary similar to Rufus in 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'.
By the end of this collection, we aren't much closer in knowing why Harley can pull things out of the multiverse at will.
--------
SUPER MINI REVIEW
I swear this feels like a Deadpool comic. Slightly delusional character cracks wise and looks good doing it. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This might work for Harley in the short term. Some of the best Deadpool runs in Marvel were similar to this stuff.
The art is solid and the colors are super vibrant. Nice to see after all the loopy freehand from the last few volumes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2024
I like the idea of this book more than the execution, I think. There are some plot points I really enjoy - Harley going back to teaching (as insane as that sounds), the domestic stuff with Ivy is cute, and even Bud & Lou being a little more than they appear. But then there's a lot of stuff that I think just doesn't work - Harley's multiversal crisis is just too big for a character like her, and when she's smacking OMACs and dealing with Lady Quark, it all feels like a story written for another character that Harley's sledgehammered her way into, and not in a good way.
The artwork's great at least - Sweeney Boo's got a very distinct bubblegum-like style that I enjoy, and it suits Harley well, but again, making them draw weird multiverse stuff instead of something a little more down to earth feels like a waste.
A swing and a miss, even with a big hammer.
The artwork's great at least - Sweeney Boo's got a very distinct bubblegum-like style that I enjoy, and it suits Harley well, but again, making them draw weird multiverse stuff instead of something a little more down to earth feels like a waste.
A swing and a miss, even with a big hammer.
October 13, 2024
Tini Howard + Sweeny Boo are an absolute slam dunk for Harley Quinn, feels like they were destined to work on this book together. They bring a great energy and an interesting conceit to the book that unfortunately has all momentum sapped theee issues in by another unnecessary line wide event. Tini Howard + Hayden Sherman make the best of it but I'd rather they'd been allowed to simply carry on the narrative of the first three issues. That being said, the best part of this TP is the collected backups. It's a murderers row of top tier talent having a ton of fun. Erika Henderson's magical girl Harley may be the best 8 pages I've read all year while Mindy Lee's chivalric Harley design alone could justify picking up this trade. Can't wait to see where this run is headed!
April 23, 2025
ok... when you read a Harley Quinn comic, you expect a little to be crazy and go off the rails, but this might be a bit much...
Before 2 issues of the tie-in to Knight Terrors (see my reviews on those) and a few issues that are explicitly stated they are Harley's dreams, we get a really wacky story about Harley affecting the multiverse. Apparently multiverse hijinks are a huge thing in comics, but I am getting a little tired of it as comic relief. We'll see if the threats of Lady Quark will actually play out in the next Volume.
I do enjoy Sweeney Boo's artstyle, so we'll see if that continues as well.
Recommend with some hesitancy, or with the consideration that a Harley comic is what it is.
Before 2 issues of the tie-in to Knight Terrors (see my reviews on those) and a few issues that are explicitly stated they are Harley's dreams, we get a really wacky story about Harley affecting the multiverse. Apparently multiverse hijinks are a huge thing in comics, but I am getting a little tired of it as comic relief. We'll see if the threats of Lady Quark will actually play out in the next Volume.
I do enjoy Sweeney Boo's artstyle, so we'll see if that continues as well.
Recommend with some hesitancy, or with the consideration that a Harley comic is what it is.
June 30, 2025
Multiversal chaos, court-mandated time as a teacher, and some fun alternate universes combine for a good Harley Quinn story! If the fucking fart fetish comic hadn't released this year, I'd say that DC was finally back on the right track of knowing what to do with Harley Quinn instead of trying to make her into DC's Deadpool, but alas, some sins cannot be forgiven. Much less insufferable than Harley Quinn Breaks the Multiverse or whatever that dumpster fire was called, and I really liked the story reimagining if Harley had been a Golden Age heroine and a Justice League member! The art was super cute for that segment.
May 1, 2025
last six mini stories were super unnecessary and just confusing. like yeah they’re supposed to take place in the dream place but she wakes up in each one and it doesn’t seem anyway connected to the overall story? the last two especially just made zero sense and the art was just atrocious in that one. not a super big fan of sweeney boo’s art either, it has this really unnerving uncanny quality to it.
October 15, 2024
Majority of the stories are just okay, but good lord, the art for the first half was the ugliest I've seen in the longest time. When characters are in a side profile, their entire mouth, nose, and teeth bulge out like it's trying to escape.
May 30, 2025
This one started a bit on the silly/nonsensical side but by the time we got to the multiverse (overplayed I know) it got quite fun. HQ is one of the few titles where the constant shift in art style is used to good effect and actually enhances the story.
September 24, 2025
I loved this, I thought it was fun and weird and unique. I am so obsessed with the art style in particular, I think it fits Harley so well. I think this is a fun concept so I am excited to read Volume 2.
July 15, 2025
Love the art of the first half. Didn't really enjoy most of the second half.
August 6, 2025
I see some people who don't like the art style but I really love Sweeney Boo's art because I feel like it shows me how Harley's POV is.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews