Page 1 of 11 12345 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 155
  1. #1
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default Harleen appreciation topix (there will be spoilers)

    I got the harleen black label comic early... And.....
    Swoon
    The art.. The story.. This is how harleen became harley.
    Best part...it gives us a time frame for how long it took Joker to turn her.
    Weirdest part..it's a mature comic that uses the word ****..
    But censors the word where it would describe the act

  2. #2
    Astonishing Member KangMiRae's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    2,050

    Default

    Can you write up a synopsis like they do over at the X-Forums?

  3. #3
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KangMiRae View Post
    Can you write up a synopsis like they do over at the X-Forums?
    I'll get in that today

  4. #4
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Posts
    4,875

    Default

    Newsarama has an interview with Stjepan Sejic about the story, together with some art.

    Harleen is a story about toxic relationships and bad decisions - not just one of them. Many of them. So it’s something that people can relate to depending on their own experiences, but at the end of it all, it is a story about Harleen Quinzel. It is her story. So her experiences are her own, and the way she deals with them is her own way of dealing.
    I think Sejic really has the right ideas and instincts here. Now it all comes down to execution.

    I also think that this type of story is why you want an imprint like Black Label around.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member kjn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Posts
    4,875

    Default

    And a longer interview up at Nerdist, with some more artwork.

    It’s that clear, almost body horror concept of somebody who’s able to understand that what they’re doing is wrong—that’s irrevocably evil—but they keep making excuses because they have an addictive nature. Make no mistake: the relationship that Harley has with the Joker is codependent and it’s addictive.

    There’s sanity in her, she understands, she has the knowledge in her mind, she still has that psychiatrist mentality, except somebody else is at the wheel, you know? She can comprehend it. There’s this terrifying nature to that, you know, doing horrible things in your life. You know what it is, but you keep finding new ways and new excuses to justify yourself to yourself. That’s scary, that’s powerful stuff.
    «Speaking generally, it is because of the desire of the tragic poets for the marvellous that so varied and inconsistent an account of Medea has been given out» (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History [4.56.1])

  6. #6
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KangMiRae View Post
    Can you write up a synopsis like they do over at the X-Forums?

    Someone explain to me how to make the text invisible.???








    spoilers





    spoilers:
    The story reads like an autobiography


    We start with Harleen in dream sequence, she dreamt this dream before but keeps hoping it will end differently.
    The dream ends with a Batdemon trying to attack a Joker lying on the floor, and Harleen protecting him, with the bat demon warning her he is beyond help and her insistence that she can do it.
    There’s a voiceover where she tells us she started with the best intentions...and that's what the road to hell is paved with.


    We switch to a past scene, where a former soldier tells his story how he went from soldier to killer ,then a time switch to two years later, where she is presenting to donors for a research grant. Her theory is that empathy is part of the mental immune system, and that with extended and sufficient stress, we lose that empathy. If she identify the triggers, we could predict sociopathy in the making..Donors start leaving.. one of them being Lucius Fox


    She goes out drowning her sorrows and when leaving has her first confrontation with the joker, pulling a heist. He has a gun drawn on her, but decides not to kill her
    We get to read everything that goes through her, how she decided to become a psychiatrist, how she had a thing for older men, had a relationship with a professor and what that did to her reputation in school, earning her the nickname Harley, and how it haunts her in her current job as well.
    Joker tells a henchman he didn’t kill her cause her eyes promised him he would be in her nightmares every night from then on.


    when she gets back to work, she gets attacked a coworker asking her who she(censored) to get it (side note, there are several instances of the word **** in the comic, but never to describe the actual act)
    She goes into her boss' and is surprised to find Lucius Fox there..Mr. Wayne wants to give her a grant for her research. With that she gets access to Arkham, and the inmates.
    She stops having nightmares about Joker. In a beautiful scene, she's smiling brightly while walking into arkham, towards a bright future, while her voiceover reminisces about walking towards the light, meaning you can’t see your own shadow. Her shadow is an outline of Harly Quinn.

    On her first day Joker is brought in, and she sees him again, she reminisces about how they arrived on the same day, doing the same things for different reasons., getting checked over, a mugshot/id picture, and then she's off to meet Dr. Strange, who doesn't think to highly of her or her ideals. But she gets permission to start.
    We see her interviews with Zsasz, Ivy, Riddler, Croc and Mad Hatter. She doesn't want to deal with Joker yet, but he's back in her nightmares, keeping her awake, to the point she decides just to stay awake as much as possible.

    She finally decides to view some interview tapes of joker and is underwhelmed. The monster she was looking for isn't there, until she looks at a tape named the real joker, where a bystander calls to the cops to kill the monster. He says: we're all monsters in a cage, it just takes the right kind of pain to break the box..
    She then decides she has to interview him, but is scared of him, her nightmares getting worse and worse, and her trying everything to get to sleep. Sleeping pills, alternative meds, alcohol, etc.

    She gets called to a meeting with Harvey Dent, who wants her to refuse the grant, and end her research. He's lost his ideals, and see's her research as a threat, giving every defense attorney a perfect defense. Harleen counters that the result will be a greater rehabilitation percentage, which is better then longer incarcerations that solve nothing.
    They part ways, Harleen determent to continue, while the voice over remembers that for both their moralizing, in five months they would both be murderers

    In her anger and rage she heads back to Arkham, for her interview with Joker who remembers her.
    She tells him she already knows his lies, and she wants to hear his stories about Gotham, city of monsters

    He tells her, please docter, call me Jay.
    The voice over says: i remember thinking, this is fine, i can control the situation.
    it was neither the first nor the last time i was wrong about that

    Her final words are:
    Very well, Mr.Jay
    end of spoilers
    Last edited by Stryfe8; 09-24-2019 at 01:57 PM.

  7. #7
    Astonishing Member KangMiRae's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    2,050

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Stryfe8 View Post
    Someone explain to me how to make the text invisible.???
    [spoil]text here[/spoil ] <---Remove the space and close the bracket!
    Last edited by KangMiRae; 09-24-2019 at 12:53 PM.

  8. #8
    Astonishing Member KangMiRae's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    2,050

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Stryfe8 View Post
    spoilers:
    The story reads like an autobiography


    We start with Harleen in dream sequence, she dreamt this dream before but keeps hoping it will end differently.
    The dream ends with a Batdemon trying to attack a Joker lying on the floor, and Harleen protecting him, with the bat demon warning her he is beyond help and her insistence that she can do it.
    There’s a voiceover where she tells us she started with the best intentions...and that's what the road to hell is paved with.


    We switch to a past scene, where a former soldier tells his story how he went from soldier to killer ,then a time switch to two years later, where she is presenting to donors for a research grant. Her theory is that empathy is part of the mental immune system, and that with extended and sufficient stress, we lose that empathy. If she identify the triggers, we could predict sociopathy in the making..Donors start leaving.. one of them being Lucius Fox


    She goes out drowning her sorrows and when leaving has her first confrontation with the joker, pulling a heist. He has a gun drawn on her, but decides not to kill her
    We get to read everything that goes through her, how she decided to become a psychiatrist, how she had a thing for older men, had a relationship with a professor and what that did to her reputation in school, earning her the nickname Harley, and how it haunts her in her current job as well.
    Joker tells a henchman he didn’t kill her cause her eyes promised him he would be in her nightmares every night from then on.


    when she gets back to work, she gets attacked a coworker asking her who she(censored) to get it (side note, there are several instances of the word **** in the comic, but never to describe the actual act)
    She goes into her boss' and is surprised to find Lucius Fox there..Mr. Wayne wants to give her a grant for her research. With that she gets access to Arkham, and the inmates.
    She stops having nightmares about Joker. In a beautiful scene, she's smiling brightly while walking into arkham, towards a bright future, while her voiceover reminisces about walking towards the light, meaning you can’t see your own shadow. Her shadow is an outline of Harly Quinn.

    On her first day Joker is brought in, and she sees him again, she reminisces about how they arrived on the same day, doing the same things for different reasons., getting checked over, a mugshot/id picture, and then she's off to meet Dr. Strange, who doesn't think to highly of her or her ideals. But she gets permission to start.
    We see her interviews with Zsasz, Ivy, Riddler, Croc and Mad Hatter. She doesn't want to deal with Joker yet, but he's back in her nightmares, keeping her awake, to the point she decides just to stay awake as much as possible.

    She finally decides to view some interview tapes of joker and is underwhelmed. The monster she was looking for isn't there, until she looks at a tape named the real joker, where a bystander calls to the cops to kill the monster. He says: we're all monsters in a cage, it just takes the right kind of pain to break the box..
    She then decides she has to interview him, but is scared of him, her nightmares getting worse and worse, and her trying everything to get to sleep. Sleeping pills, alternative meds, alcohol, etc.

    She gets called to a meeting with Harvey Dent, who wants her to refuse the grant, and end her research. He's lost his ideals, and see's her research as a threat, giving every defense attorney a perfect defense. Harleen counters that the result will be a greater rehabilitation percentage, which is better then longer incarcerations that solve nothing.
    They part ways, Harleen determent to continue, while the voice over remembers that for both their moralizing, in five months they would both be murderers

    In her anger and rage she heads back to Arkham, for her interview with Joker who remembers her.
    She tells him she already knows his lies, and she wants to hear his stories about Gotham, city of monsters

    He tells her, please docter, call me Jay.
    The voice over says: i remember thinking, this is fine, i can control the situation.
    it was neither the first nor the last time i was wrong about that

    Her final words are:
    Very well, Mr.Jay
    end of spoilers
    That was pretty cool, thanks for writing this up! I'll grab this book then. I just needed a little glimpse.

  9. #9
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    115,005

    Default

    Maybe it's just me but this seems like the most interesting thing DC's done with Harley in years.

  10. #10
    Astonishing Member KangMiRae's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    2,050

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Maybe it's just me but this seems like the most interesting thing DC's done with Harley in years.
    Agreed, and I usually roll my eyes at Harley Quinn.

    I do wonder if spoilers:
    Ivy and others showing up will play a slightly larger role than cameos in the book. If the book was specifically Harley and Joker, I wouldn't ask, but it's about Harley—and Ivy is very close and important to her.
    end of spoilers

    I'm also glad that there's good use of other Gotham cast members in pre-Harley Quinn's life.

  11. #11
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KangMiRae View Post
    Agreed, and I usually roll my eyes at Harley Quinn.

    I do wonder if spoilers:
    Ivy and others showing up will play a slightly larger role than cameos in the book. If the book was specifically Harley and Joker, I wouldn't ask, but it's about Harley—and Ivy is very close and important to her.
    end of spoilers

    I'm also glad that there's good use of other Gotham cast members in pre-Harley Quinn's life.
    Yes, it's envisioned as a three arc nine issues story (sales permitting)
    Ivy plays a big part in the third arc.
    Stepjan sedjic has plans for a follow up series staring ivy, so the more harleen sells, the more chance we have of that

  12. #12
    Astonishing Member KangMiRae's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    2,050

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Stryfe8 View Post
    Yes, it's envisioned as a three arc nine issues story (sales permitting)
    Ivy plays a big part in the third arc.
    Stepjan sedjic has plans for a follow up series staring ivy, so the more harleen sells, the more chance we have of that
    I had no idea of the length and stuff. This looks like it'll be lengthy enough to tell a good story rather than feeling incomplete.

    I'm hoping sales do well enough that the follow-up series goes through.

  13. #13
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    Maybe it's just me but this seems like the most interesting thing DC's done with Harley in years.
    its not just you

  14. #14
    Spectacular Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    netherlands
    Posts
    171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KangMiRae View Post
    I had no idea of the length and stuff. This looks like it'll be lengthy enough to tell a good story rather than feeling incomplete.

    I'm hoping sales do well enough that the follow-up series goes through.
    it's a shame i can't find the link to his original sketches,it's interesting to see the differences between that and this.But it was, about 12 panels i think that were the most compelling interesting things written about harley in forever.
    like he said, it's not a love story, it's a horror story

  15. #15

    Default

    Finally got to read this today, it was very dark but thought provoking and engaging I was so engrossed throughout. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a comic I literally couldn’t put down.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •