Batman: Prelude to the Wedding: Harley Quinn vs. Joker #1

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding #5

by Tim Seeley, Rafael Albuquerque (Cover Art), Dave McCaig (Cover Art)

Harley Quinn knows a thing or two about dysfunctional relationships. When she hears that her old flame is trying to get in the way of a happy new life for one of her best friends, the Maid of Mischief tracks The Joker down to give him a piece of her mind-and maybe a few blows from her hammer, too.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Comics Manga, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Romance

25 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 27, 2018

About the author

Tim Seeley is a comic book artist and writer known for his work on books such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Batman Eternal and Grayson. He is also the co-creator of the Image Comics titles Hack/Slash[1] and Revival, as well as the Dark Horse titles, ExSanguine and Sundowners. He lives in Chicago.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harls versus Mistah J, what else can you ask?


This is the part 5, of the event "Prelude to the Wedding", featuring Harley Quinn vs. The Joker.


Creative Team:

Writer: Tim Seeley

Illustrator: Sami Basri


SMILES BEFORE WEDDING BELLS

Batman will be married to Catwoman, and you can guess that several villains are against this union, and none is more against this than...

...The Joker.

And since all the Bat-Family is busy, each dealing with a different villain, well, who better to face the Clown Prince of Crime than...

...Harley Quinn.

So, our favorite psychotic psychiatrist goes bum-bum full steam against his old boss/lover.

Harley sets multiple traps, kicks, punches and bats (no, the night winged beasts, but those used in baseball!), to stop The Joker of doing an undesirable apprearance in the bat-matrimoy.

However, the Joker always has a, well, a joker's card (du'h!) on his sleeve!

[Tony Stark · Rating 2 out of 5]

We’re popping big bottles when the joker finally dies 🍾

[Siona Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really don’t care for Harley in main DC continuity anymore. I liked what they did with her in White Knight way more, and this story was just lame.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too light for my taste, not dark enough and also the chronological order doesn't match we the Batman series, it's like DC doesn't have release them at the rate time, maybe, probably, was on purpose but I don't understand that choices!! Not bad but not really good neither!

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joker's actually written better here than in the Batman title.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hrm. To be honest I’m not really sure how I feel about this issue. I can totally see Harley stepping up to try and keep the Joker away from Batman and Catwoman long enough for them to get married…but there’s something off at the same time. Maybe it’s the way Harley went around with keeping him busy/trying to kill him? The Harley that is in the comics now doesn’t behave this way – she’s a serious fighter with even more issues with Joker than ever before. I’m not certain how things would go down between her and Joker if she really went after him right now…but I don’t think it’d be this.
Still, it was a pretty fun read, if you allow yourself to put all those facts aside. It’s a bit closer to the original Harley and Joker dynamics than we’ve seen in a while…which is both good and bad I think.
Also, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this was set before the Best Man issue of Batman – you know the one, where Joker goes after a whole church of people? The ending of this issue certainly seems to imply it.

[Simeon Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This mini has been all over the place but I think Seeley managed to end it on a good note, I haven't really been on board with current Harley in a long time but I think her status as a hero actually kind of worked here and the dynamic Seeley wrote for her and joker in this was pretty fun. Though we rarely do them, it was nice to see some exploration of death traps and what goes into conceptualizing them.

P.S. I find it really funny that the whole Alexia Bliss is just current Harley as a wrestler thing has gone so far that people are literally just drawing Harley's face to look like Alexia now.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

«S P O I L E R S»

Harley. Damn. I really thought she was going to get him for more than 10 min but the Jokers is Mistah J after all. He was pretending to be more human? No, when he couldnt kill her and talk to her while she was asleep he rellay looked lonely. Final prelude issue BEFORE the big day, right? Here it comes, then.

[Marisa Carpico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, with a surprising bit of character work at the end. Also really like that this leads us right into what was happening in the main book. Kind of wish that had started a bit earlier though so it would lead right into Batman #48. Oh well.

[Aly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anyone who knows anything about abusive relationships knows that the Harley/Joker dynamic is incredibly toxic and tragic. There's no point in romanticizing it.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publication dates matter, ya'll.

This leads up to a story two-issues deep in the Batman title. It might have had more impact if it had come out before those.

[Sans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hm.

[Kloe Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harley Quinn is a beautiful princess !!! Lol

[Elia (goldenlyre) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harley quinn in a fairy tale dress I'm free 24/7 hit me up

[Derek Neveu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I often feel like the only one who loves Batman books but hates the Joker Harley dynamic.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like when Harley fights the Joker rather than helps him. But I can already sense that the Joker is gonna mess up the wedding.