Joker/Harley: criminal sanity

[Nite-Wing]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...c-book-1214984
New black label content
Never heard of the writer but it's interesting to see a sane version of Harleen

[Kurisu]

Kami Garcia is a YA novelist (Beautiful Creatures) and is doing the YA Teen Titans books for DC Ink with Gabriel Picolo.

[Frontier]

So re-framing Joker and Harley's relationship as a profiler hunting down a serial killer.

I wonder if they'll still incorporate her falling in love with him as she tries to understand him?

[Vakanai]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...ic-book-121498
New black label content
Never heard of the writer but it's interesting to see a sane version of Harleen

Uh, I don't know why, but for some reason clicking on the link takes me to some article about "Nemes joins Film Department" and not about the book. What?

[Sergard]

Uh, I don't know why, but for some reason clicking on the link takes me to some article about "Nemes joins Film Department" and not about the book. What?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...c-book-1214984
The last digit was missing.

[Mr Abductor]

They could make some good use of the Black Label for this, so i'll check out the preview when it pops up.

[Vakanai]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...c-book-1214984
The last digit was missing.

Thank you.

Looks really interesting, a nice twist on a familiar concept.

[kjn]

I browsed through the first issue, and have thoughts.

Art-wise, there are some really excellent sequences, but the style used for the flashback sequences (and they are many) doesn't work for me at all. But that's very much a YMMV thing. I'm not sure punk Harleen works for me, either, but again YMMV.

However, I have some really strong concerns about things from a more meta level, but they will require some spoilers.

spoilers:

The first has to do with framing of the story, and expectations. Since this is a Harley and Joker story, we have a fairly strong expecation where it will end up. Trouble is, the plot has opened like a modern criminal procedure story, the ones with the non-conventional woman with non-police background who butts heads with prejudiced oldtimers. And a police procedural doesn't fit with where Harley is supposed to end up. And if she doesn't, what would be the point of the story? Garcia might surprise me, but I can't get my genre expectations to fit here. And then you have the second element: Edie, the motivation for why Harley is trying to find the "Joker". We never get to see her interact with Harley. She is found dead in the bathtub in a see-through negligee, with tattoos of vines on her legs and surrounded by flowers. And she has red hair. The comic doesn't go right out and detail their relationship, but in Harley's words "Edie was my family" and "There's no one else". So for all practical purposes, Edie is a Poison Ivy expy who is fridged first thing.

end of spoilers

Garcia shows that she knows her police procedurals and how they are crafted. So to me, Harley/Joker: Criminal Sanity looks like it might be a very well-told tale, but it carries with it some really toxic tropes, and I have concerns about how Garcia will get the narrative into one cohesive whole by the end.