'Harleen' Volume One Review: Now this one was a wonderful surprise!

Harleen was something I stumbled across here in Armenia. Something I had no idea about and found within a book shop that doesn't usually sell things that are comic book related. I do think that sometimes these are the best places to find unique comics given the few options they have available. I had never heard of Harleen before, and I instantly knew it was something related to the Harley Queen character which I think was fairly obvious based on the title. Though my interest piqued with the cover art which seemed pretty good. I looked online at home a few days later to check out the general synopsis since I didn't read the cover back then at the shop, and saw it was a three-part story in which it twists things a little bit and retells the character. I quite like stories like these that take an established character and tell a more new story with them, and that's actually some of the reason as to why I'm so deeply engaged within the stories of Absolute Batman and Absolute Superman as of late. So I figured I'd jump into Harleen and see what it has to offer. Partially wishing I was able to pick up the physical copy back there at the shop, though I not only had to leave Armenia, I also didn't want to pay the incredibly steep 2x - 3x markup price on the comic itself!

To no surprise the digital realm was the better option. And I have to say that this first volume was such a pleasant surprise that I wished I had been able to purchase the physical edition back at that book shop for a fairer price. This is a three-part story that somewhat feels like a retelling and more detailed origin story of Harley Quinn, and it's an absolute ride so far. Despite being three parts, each volume is a bit longer than your average comic book volume, it's a much more fleshed-out story with a lot of reading and a lot of character development to get through. It really doesn't feel like the usual comic book you might read that gets its weekly or monthly release. This felt like an actual graphic novel, standing up and way above the rest in terms of its story and art style. At first I found some of that art style a little odd, but it quickly grew on me once I realised how unique it was to the world of comics, and how well it actually worked in the story. A quality I haven't really seen elsewhere, not so much in the world of the usual DC and Marvel stuff, and more spanning into the outer areas of comics side with Image Comics and Dark Horse. So, for a DC product, this was quite a surprise. More so that it was published in 2019, really not that long ago!

I mentioned briefly above that this is somewhat of a retelling of the Harley Quinn character. A story that takes the origin of her character and takes a deeper look at it. Not particularly attempting to recreate the wheel here by mixings things up to turn her character into something mostly unrecognisable, nor just doing the usual retelling of the same story we've all known since the dawn of time itself. I quite liked the introduction of her character as someone that's really frail, someone that doesn't have the best luck nor make the best decisions. The comic starting with Harley having a very different name beforehand, and working in studying the human mind and trying to find patterns into the ways in which criminals think, and what happens to their concept of empathy. With her life and studies failing to gain the traction she wants, we see a woman that doesn't have much direction nor many people she can trust, mostly alienated and living in the past. It teases this idea that Harley is like many others in the world, someone that has the same foundations within that could cause her to crack and begin to either lose her empathy or simply feel that she's performing some sort of justice by causing destruction and harm. There's a constant question asked throughout this first volume regarding empathy, and whether it's the person that lost it as of their own broken nature, or the society that encouraged them to change and lose it.

This isn't anything particularly new to the story or realm of comics, especially when a character like the Joker comes into play. But it is interesting to see it considered from the point of view of a regular citizen in that world, where they are attempting to understand and fix people that have fallen out of the supposed norm. And it was interesting to see how Harley's attendance of Arkham only came as a result of Bruce Wayne's own financing. Which was an addition to the story that made Bruce and thus Batman look like a bit of a corrupt fool. Not only creating and connecting more people to the monsters he aims to stop, unintentionally, but also contributing to the corruption of the city of Gotham by utilising and leveraging the connections his family holds to get his way. Showing that his money is his power, and that he's one of the people that is causing society's problems through greed and the removal of empathy. Fortunately, Batman's appearance in this first volume is thin, and it's mostly mentions of Bruce rather than Batman aside from a few panels which show Joker and Batman head-on in the city, where Harley happens to be caught up in the action, leading to a myriad of nightmares to follow.

I really liked the exploration of Harley's character to begin with. This dive into a woman that has nothing and fears the world. And her engagement within the conflict, close to death at the hands of Joker, which led into nightmares for weeks, tormenting her ability to sleep and work. A slow fascination that led to realising the connection between him and the rest of the criminals at Arkham. Where some mention their killings for sport, or greed, Joker's endless toying with interviewers led to one discovery: he's not necessarily broken, but he does shine a light on how the world created that monster. This brings Harley into this deeper obsession with the Joker identity, where she still has her own sanity, but is slowly slipping with the lack of sleep and starting to question the world around her as well. She's far from the Harley Quinn character, but is realising how easy it is for a normal person to become the same subject she's studying. It's referenced in previous panels how even soldiers are conditioned to act before thinking, to remove themselves from the fears they hold.

The writing in this volume was incredible. Genuinely a dialogue heavy one, but I found that it really utilised the text to push the comparisons between chaos and normalisation. The idea of how a person ascends into madness, and whether that truly is a case of incurable madness or simply an outcome of the society we're in that can often birth such a mentality. The art style was another thing I thoroughly enjoyed, it was perfect for this sort of story. Really powerful panels with lots of beautiful colours, and a style that I haven't quite seen before but hope to see more of. It felt significantly higher in production quality than the average comic, but I think that's also due to it being a lengthier three-parter rather than a mini series or something greater. Even so, it's still a long read with tons of details and depth to it. And I'm really excited to spend my time tonight going through the second volume!