Comic Relief
This is definitely a really nice cover. The background isn't just a solid color, it's a tumultuous blend of shades that weave a darker cloud of tension. Harley's the enemy, so she's shown as a larger figure in the background, a hold over our protagonists, dropping them into the uncertain nothingness below. And I especially love that her hand is right on the bullseye in the logo.
There's a bit of an awkward jump between the last issue and this one, although its MOSTLY smoothed over by a few pacing patches. And the rest of the issue plays out rather smoothly. Fresh out of playing Arkham City, these 'Harley Henchman' bring to mind some very positive thoughts. They appear to be a massive wave of dedication to the alluring clown princess of crime, but are later revealed to have a more varied conglomeration of personalities, most of them originally Joker loyals.
And so a new Squad is assembled to pursue Harley. El Diablo and Black Spider haven't left the team, but they're on medical 'leave' so their absence makes sense. We get fill-ins from Savant (who 'betrayed' the team in the first issue), Lime, and Light (twins from the first arc of Green Arrow.) This series' rotating cast is proving to be an interesting one. It reminds me of the title of the Secret Six/Doom Patrol crossover right before the relaunch. "Suicide Roulette." We have a massive amount of villains to pick and choose from, creating an amorphous team dynamic. Lime and Light (Limelight) are part of the 'Jersey Shore' supervillains. They're so utterly stupid. I don't hate them for that, in fact its interesting how they stand out as obvious posers among these detached sociopaths. Savant doesn't really add much though, other than being someone new to gripe at Deadshot.
King Shark continues to develop more of a personality, and I'm extremely conflicted in how I feel about it. He's reached the point where he's DEFINITELY not the King Shark I fell in love with back in Secret Six, but I'm interested in what the past of this new version of the character holds. Plus a SURPRISING reveal about an event last issue.
But there's one more important part to this issue. We begin to retrace Harley's origin. This is an incredibly worrisome task to unveil. This series has handled Harley exceptionally thus far (excluding the third issue) but her origin is already pretty much flawless. At the moment it appears they're treading the same ground with a few superficial changes, so part of me is wondering instead, 'Why bother?' despite me wanting them not to change much.
In Conclusion: 4/5
Oh, and ONCE AGAIN we have a new artist. I'm not really complaining about Clayton Henry, his art was actually quick great, but this series has had THE MOST erratic artist schedule in the New 52. It's getting completely nuts. Stop it, just pick one damn artist and stick with it. Other than that, nothing was really too bad. I'm nervous about the retelling of Harley's origin, but pleasantly surprised by the lack of disappointment thus far. Savant bores me though. Plus he's the second character in this series who looks too much like Sportsmaster, who's won me over in Young Justice.
