Review by Ian Keogh
Because you’ve read Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red you know the drill by now. In Black + White + Redder another eighteen creative teams supply a one-off Harley story looking at any point of her past or present or future. Their contributions are in black and white with red the only colour. Now, usually the sequel is the second banana, and although the names of the creators might not be as familiar here, this selection actually improves on the first, which is a real surprise.
Firstly, there’s some great art, and Bilquis Evely, Bruno Redondo and Zoe Thorogood even write their own stories, the first spotlighting Harley in a fantasy world, while the other two look at who Harley is. Thororogood does this via Harley picking up a bunch of assistants each possessing one aspect of her personality and Redondo has her breaking the fourth wall to look at her past.
That’s also the background for three highlights. Leah Williams and Natacha Bustos take a look at the toxic culture of gymnastics coaching, while Kyle Starks and Chris Schweizer have Harley dealing with her old school bully. The first is intended as bleak, and the second as funny. Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips investigate what led to Harley first taking the Joker’s therapy sessions. Therapy is involved in several other inclusions, the best of them toward the end as Deniz Camp and Fábio Veras spotlight a combative couple enduring Harley’s very personal form of marriage counselling.
On the really wild end of the scale Gail Simone and David Baldeón have Harley usurping Adam Strange for a trip to Rann, and Kelly Thompson and Annie Wu show a kidnapped Zatanna using her magical albilities to re-arrange Harley’s origin story. Sean Lewis and Hayden Sherman also take the path less trodden by showing a geriatric Harley as Gotham’s saviour.
The sample art contrasts one quiet and ridiculous moment from Paul Scheer and Nick Giovanetti’s script as interpreted by Tom Reilly and one manic moment courtesy of Juni Ba and Aditya Bidikar. In the first a couple of her former colleagues as the Joker’s henchmen come calling with a master plan, and in the second Harley’s attempt at a partner of her own is a cat. It doesn’t work out.
If you’re expecting to see Batman you’ll be disappointed beyond Chip Zdarsky and Kevin Maguire’s opener, but there’s a touching conversation with Commissioner Gordon in a diner from Ryan Parrott and Luana Vecchio.
A couple of stories don’t quite scale the heights of the remainder, but that’s an extremely low dip for an anthology. If you love Harley and it comes down to money, buy this selection before Black + White + Red.
