Filling the desert that is the fifth week, here’s a 90pp anthology starring the usual suspects.
Such as Harley Quinn who, remarkably, wasn’t in a recent edition. Here she breaks King Shark out of Belle Reve prison for some birthday fun, only to get caught up in shenanigans across the DC Universe. It’s typical Harley nuttiness, but refreshing in that the near obligatory slobbering over Poison Ivy is absent. The Plantlike Plunderer isn’t even in this tale by writer Joey Esposito and artist Vasco Georgiev, but we do get gags, charm and some excellent visual storytelling with surprising angles aplenty. All in all, it’s a Harley hammer-sized hit.
Batman shows a love of dance in a Spring Ball encounter with Mr Freeze that has an interesting idea at the heart of it, and the fact you can see the twist coming from hundreds of miles away doesn’t matter. Thomas Krajewski’s script is smart and touching, while Wes St Clair’s art is scratchier than I prefer, but dynamic and elegant as required… elegant? Yes indeed, find out what I mean in one of the most original looks at the boyhood of Bruce Wayne in a long time.
The first story had a breakout if not a Spring Break, the second tale gets away with it via a single caption, but the third story goes all in with the beach vibe. We’re back in the early days of the Teen Titans and Robin drags everyone to the coast for some bonding. It doesn’t come easy but, happily, a supervillain shows up and everyone is happy. Randomly, the Fearsome Five turn up for a beach volleyball game that seems to involve Donna donning a mask and handling giant jigsaw puzzle pieces. Which is stupid, but heck, it brought back happy memories of that time the JLA met the Secret Society of Super-Villains on the baseball field. Writer Meghan Fitzmartin does OK with a lesson about listening but a key plot point involving Aqualad noticing something strange is bungled in that nothing strange seems to be happening before said bad guy enters via a cracking splash from the talented Gavin Guidry, who provides sharply, attractive art throughout.
Katana is grim. Katana doesn’t do holidays. Katana hunts bad people and broods and slashes. Kenya Danino’s art suits Mike W Barr’s intensely humourless script, with my favourite visual detail being a witch doctor. I’d probably like this story more had DC saved it for their Hallowe’en special.
The next story also has no business being in a supposedly happy spring special. We join Lex Luthor as he wakes up in coffin, see him work his way out and are stunned – stunned, I say – by a twist which, thinking about it, proves the opening piece of narration to be unfair. Patrick R Young’s story gives us a horribly pretentious Lex, his interior monologue painful, but I did enjoy the sharp art of Nico Bascuñán – the layouts are excellent, and could well have involved suggestions from Young. Either way, the story looks great. Heck, who knew Lex had a gold tooth?
It’s back to holiday hi-jinks as J’onn J’onzz catches a play in Coast City and becomes part of the proceedings when the star turns out to be not just a ham, but a bona fide bad guy. Writer Morgan Hampton and artists Paul Pelletier and Norm Rapmund produce a very successful short that combines action with acting.
Superman gives Manchester Black (recently killed in Action Comics #1050, but never mind) a lesson in togetherness after Jimmy Olsen takes him out to the ball game. Hey, we’re on theme again! I like writer Cameron Chittock’s Jimmy, but couldn’t make head nor tail of Black’s motivations, despite plenty of monologuing. Still, the admirably detailed art by Marco Santucci is big and bold and fun.
Most of the writing credits in this comic are new to me, lots of telly folk, and James Reid is also an unknown. Turns out he works in DC Editorial and maybe that’s why he comes up with my favourite story. The Metal Men take a beach break in a tale gifted with glorious artwork by the legendary Scott Kolins. The story turns on Doc Magnus’ latest ‘great idea’ and it’s wacky as heck, and also very smart. The only thing that would’ve improved it would be Mercury telling us he’s the only metal that’s liquid at room temperature. Maybe next time!
The cover by John Timms is worth it for Mr Freeze alone, but it’s overall excellent – the artist may have a future in designing leisurewear.
Because reviews of giants are always blooming lengthy, I’ve not waxed lyrical about the colour artists and letterers, but they all do a bang-up job, and their names are here, courtesy of Randy Mayor’s neat contents page. And well done our editors, Katie Kubert, Michael McCalister and Michael Marino.
All in all, this isn’t a brilliant book but there’s enough good to great stuff here to make it well worth a look if you have DC Infinite – it’s there right now. Let me know if you reckon it’s good holiday reading.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
A fun story featuring a genuinely good depiction of Harley is also the main feature of one of the only other decent DC books from this week: the Harley Quinn Annual by Erica Henderson. It has the same delightfully quixotic cocktail of intelligence, sincerity, and manic energy that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl had during her run on that title with Ryan North. It also helps that it features an outstanding portrayal of Zatanna when she’s not in superhero mode. I say this by the way as somebody who generally loathes most takes on Harley Quinn and doesn’t read the current ongoing series featuring her (I only picked up the annual out of respect for Henderson’s past work). Out of all the things I forecasted for DC’s output in this year’s fifth week, Harley being the motive force for more of the week’s best content than any other DCU character was definitely a 3+ standard deviation outcome from my median prediction.
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And with the mention of Erica Henderson and Zee you have sold me on the Harley Annual. Off to buy. Thank you!
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Huh. I only hated one story. (Luthor!)
I didn’t see the twist at the end of the Batman story though.
The Metal Men read and looked like a spoof of the original series but it worked wonderfully! Best part? No creepy Tina lusting after Doc.
The best part of the Katana story was that her original writer wrote her as he did originally and it still works!
The only good part of the Superman story was Clark putting Jimmy in his place when he badmouthed baseball. That attitude made me dislike the character even more than usual.
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That Luthor tale really was pants! I like your take on the Metal Men story, and shame on me for not noticing a less lusty Tina!
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