My favorite version of Harley continues her investigation into the new supercriminals in Gotham, but is it more than she can handle?
Batman: White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn 4
Written by Katana Collins
Pencils and Inks by Matteo Scalera
Colors by Dave Stewart
The world of White Knight’s Gotham City is so radically different from the one we’re used to seeing. Bruce Wayne, revealed as Batman, is in prison. The Joker is dead, as is Commissioner Jim Gordon. Most importantly, Harley Quinn is working with the police to help bring down a new pair of killers in the city.
And it’s arguably the best version of Gotham City we’ve seen in a long time. It also may be the best version of HARLEY.
Quinn was easily the star of the first two White Knight miniseries, both written and illustrated by Sean Murphy. And while the character has been the star of her own comic book, along with leading the Suicide Squad, for a long time now, it’s atypical for her star to shine brighter than both Batman and the Joker in the same series. The shine has not dimmed at all as she’s now led her own miniseries for four issues.
After failing to fully reform the Joker, who couldn’t get past his obsession with Batman, she’s turned to fully reforming herself, at least in the eyes of the GCPD and BRUCE WAYNE himself. The imprisoned Wayne continues to serve as Quinn’s chief counsel, encouraging her when she doubts herself.
Her interaction with the former Caped Crusader in this issue is a wonderful scene. It gives us a new retelling of Joker’s origin, which gets tied to the origin for Harley Quinn. They were both in that chemical plant that night that Jack Napier fell into the acid, Quinn trying to stop the man she’d grown to love from getting hurt and Napier taking a fall into the acid in a way to ensure that Quinn wouldn’t lose her job as a criminal psychologist at Arkham Asylum.
The fourth issue of the miniseries is meant to advance the story of Harley’s investigation into the Starlet and the Producer, who have been killing aged celebrities from Gotham’s celluloid Golden Age. Harley finally comes face to face with the killers, but the Starlet’s ties to Quinn’s fellow criminal profiler, Hector Quimby, are a bit overwhelming and puts our hero in quite a bit of danger to end the issue.
Writer Katana Collins is doing a phenomenal job building on the world Murphy created. The White Knight corner of the multiverse continues to be required reading and is one of the best comics stories going.