Booknote: Harley Quinn, Vol. 1: Hot in the City

Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, Harley Quinn, Volume 1: Hot in the City. New York: DC Comics, 2014. ISBN: 9781401248925.

Harley Quinn is one of my favorite DC Comics characters. Maybe it's the touch of madness and whimsy she has, but I do find the character interesting, a bit more so depending on who is drawing her. So I was looking forward to reading this new volume, part of the New 52 series. Harley gets her own volume and adventures as she tries to move on without her Mr. J in her life and a new inheritance.

Harley gets a chance to start over. She gets an inheritance of a building, so gets a place to live. She is out looking for work, and finds some work, and she tries to stay ahead of people after her head. It seems someone has put a very high bounty on her head, and plenty of bounty hunters are trying to collect. She deals with them with her combination of ruthlessness and humor. As for work, she gets a gig as a therapist in an old folks home and a part time job in a roller derby. Somewhere in there she tries to avoid Valentine's Day and gets into other hijinks such as helping out an old fogey at the old folks home who turns out to be a retired dark ops agent who still has unfinished business. There is a lot here in this volume.

Harley gets in all sorts of hijinks, and I was very entertained as a reader. I laughed at times. I was amused. If you read DC Comics for the serious, dark stuff, this may give you a nice break from that. The art is very colorful, which naturally suits the character. The first story is a bit of a meta-story where she dreams about who would draw her own comic book, and we get glimpses of different artists drawing her, artists that in real life have written and drawn her. That for me was a neat part of the book. If you have read Harley Quinn in other works before, you will probably appreciate this segment.

In the end, it's nice, light reading, and it was a volume that I really enjoyed and had fun with it. I am hoping it continues to get better over time. If you have read other comics, such as Batman or Suicide Squad, you may appreciate this in a different or better light. However, it stands alone, which I appreciated since I have not read Suicide Squad (yet). You can certainly enjoy it as it stands just fine and watch her bring her brand of mayhem to the city.

This is one I am giving 5 out of 5 stars because it really was a fun little book, and I am willing to keep reading further.

For libraries, if you already collect Batman titles, you want to add this one as well. If you have collected other Harley Quinn titles, whether solo titles or titles that feature her, then this is one to add as well. I will be getting it for our library's graphic novel collection.

Disclosure: The usual note where I tell you I read this from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That way, we appease The Man.