DC Round-Up: Relive the start of Harlivy’s romance in HARLEY AND IVY: LIFE AND CRIMES #1

THIS WEEK: It’s a week of looks to the past and future, as we review the opening chapters of Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes, DC K.O.: Knightfight, and JSA: Year One.

Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.

Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes #1

Writer/Artist: Erica Henderson
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

One of the many things DC has been doing right lately is letting creators with a love of or vision for certain characters take those ideas and run with them. That willingness to let creators cook has paid off, providing readers with a bevy of singular, engaging titles starring DC’s icons. This week, Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes joins those titles’ ranks.

Written and illustrated almost entirely by Erica Henderson, with lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Life and Crimes #1 opens with a mysterious voice asking the titular crime couple how they got together. That story, as most Harley and Ivy fans know, is quite complicated. Henderson quickly shows readers some of the highlights, but then focuses in on a previously-unseen moment from Harley and Ivy’s past.

That moment takes place sometime during “Death of the Family,” but the continuity of it all doesn’t especially matter. The versions of Harley, Ivy, and the Joker that appear here are (outside of the Joker’s wired-on face) iconic and instantly recognizable. Harley, especially, looks exactly as she looked in Batman: The Animated Series. As long as you know the basics of what these characters’ deals are, you’ll be able to jump right into this relationship retrospective.

Which is, of course, the point. There are a lot of Harley and Ivy (or Harlivy, as I learned while writing this review) fans out there, certainly more than are reading those characters’ solo titles. And in those titles, Harley and Ivy are not currently together. Someone at DC seems to have realized they should be publishing a comic starring their (arguably) most popular couple, and thankfully, that person gave the job of creating that comic to Henderson.

This is Henderson’s first time writing, drawing, and coloring an ongoing series by herself. As any fan of Henderson’s work likely expected, she delivers on all three fronts. Her character designs, paneling, colors, and takes on these characters’ voices and personalities are all perfectly in sync with each other, creating a package that is a) slick and b) greater than the sum of its parts. After my initial reads, I spent a good amount of time flipping through Life and Crimes #1 again to admire Henderson’s cartooning and use of color (especially in the issue’s final, frightening pages). I don’t do that with every comic I highlight here.

Not to be outdone, Otsmane-Elhaou perfectly complements Henderson’s tone and storytelling, making choices that enhance Henderson’s already-sharp takes on Harley, Ivy, and the Joker. Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering for Harley is especially expressive and creative; it really sells Harley’s excitable, sarcastic, and somewhat-manic personality. While Henderson is the one putting words in Harley’s mouth in this issue, Otsmane-Elhaou is the one making them “sound” exactly like Harley, via a variety of visual tricks.

Besides their artistic prowess, nailing each character’s voice and personality may be Henderson and Otsmane-Elhaou’s greatest success with this opening chapter. Harley’s reflections on her relationship with the Joker, Ivy’s intensity, the Joker’s crazed possessiveness. Every action and line of dialogue in this issue feels correct and true to character. So when Harley and Ivy (spoilers!) initially fight, that conflict makes sense. And when Ivy decides that (spoilers again!) actually, she needs to protect Harley from the Joker, that makes sense, too. As I said at the outset, Henderson clearly has her own vision of these characters. But that vision seems to hew closely to the characters’ iconic iterations, in a way that makes Life and Crimes accessible and likely to be an evergreen seller for DC.

Because Harlivy? Per my Google searching, that ship’s still popular. And I expect the pairing’s many fans will show up for this series, because Henderson’s take on Harley, Ivy, and their relationship is dramatic, funny, and compelling – everything those fans could want.

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The Round-Up

• • You’ve gotta say this for DC K.O. Knightfight#1: It delivers what was advertised. The first chapter of this four-part K.O. tie-in pulls Batman out of the main event’s tournament, shunting him into a future in which Dick Grayson has taken over as Batman. Writer Joshua Williamson does a serviceable, satisfying job with the story’s premise, but the main draw here is Dan Mora’s art backed by Tríona Farrell’s colors and Tom Napolitano’s letters. Fresh new fits, poppy neon colors, heavy blacks, and dramatic action scenes: This one’s got everything you want from the Mora/Farrell/Napolitano team. While you, like me, may be slightly tired of “Batman vs. his Robins” punch-’em-ups (recently, it seems there’s another every few months), Knightfight has enough interesting teases and dynamic artwork to make it worth a look.
  • I’d previously not been keeping up with writer Jeff Lemire and co.’s JSA, but JSA #13 intrigued me enough that I’ll be back for the second chapter of JSA: Year One. This flashback to the original super-team’s first adventure is running through JSA’s next five issues, and it features art by Gavin Guidry, colors by Luis Guerrero, and letters by frequent Lemire collaborator Steve Wands. Guidry and Guerrero do a great job conveying the story’s tone, delivering clean-yet-pulpy pages that match the mood of Lemire’s plot. That plot consists of a set of slow-burn mysteries that are surely connected and will eventually draw the currently-disparate JSAers together. How successful JSA: Year One is will depend on how satisfying the answers to those mysteries are, but JSA #13 is a strong opening chapter.

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