Review by Karl Verhoven

Stephanie Phillips certainly sets the foreshadowing stakes high as she leaves Harley Quinn. Not only is the volume titled Who Killed Harley Quinn?, but it opens somewhere extremely cold indeed with Harley’s friend Kevin revealing that they’ve destroyed Gotham City. A dream? A hoax? An imaginary story? Let’s find out.

After the set-up we learn Harley’s kept the parasitic alien acquired in the prologue story from Task Force XX, how she’s wasted the money earned from going to the moon, and there’s no messing about as death occurs early, and no prolonged tease as so does resurrection. Unfortunately, though, it comes with complications, and it seems as if all the good work Harley’s put toward redemption is going to be discarded.

There was a feeling about much of the previous volume going through the motions, but Who Killed Harley Quinn? is a triumphant return to form, and possibly the best of Phillips on the series. It moves fast, the characters make sense, at least in Harley’s world, and it constantly twists away from expectation. Because it switches rapidly from one idea to the next some developments aren’t really followed through, but then that leaves something for Tini Howard to play with from Girl in a Crisis onward.

The process of Matteo Lolli handling most of the art with some pages from David Baldeón slotted in continues, and the result is sparkling, joyful art. For one reason or another a lot of people who resemble Harley feature here, and they’re all designed to be slightly different, with those who’re more prominent given more thoughtful distinctions. Look closely and the styles of the two artists can be distinguished, but they mesh smoothly, which ought to be more frequently considered when editors share out the art on superhero comics.

For all the lunacy, Phillips wants to get to the heart of who Harley is, and surprisingly it’s prompted by Kevin late on. “You need to stop worrying what Gotham thinks of you”, he advises, “and pay more attention to what you think of you”. Phillips really twists the emotional screw in the final chapter by providing a threat Harley has to take seriously, and if a sudden breaching of the fourth wall is a little too deus ex machina, it’s handled with the charm characterising the best of this series.

As finales go, Who Killed Harley Quinn? works on most levels. You have to allow for some hyperbole concerning Gotham’s destruction, but you never really thought that was going to be permanent, did you? It’s a mic drop of an exit.