![]() ![]() I admit I’m coming to Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey as a fan of Conner and Palmiotti’s series and not as someone who’s had a chance to see Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Failing that, a mature readers Harley series (or series of annual miniseries) seems distinctly what the world needs while I’m eager to start Stephanie Phillips and Riley Rossmo’s new Harley Quinn run, clearly anything outside Black Label Harley must be considered watered down. Here again, then, what I want is a “director’s cut” edition of Conner and Palmiotti’s 100+ issues of the Harley Quinn series with the swearing and other attributes put “back” in. ![]() Equally the “nudity” doesn’t seem much different than those Harley issues, with modesty preserved in the Austin Powers vein by well-placed scenery (and, in one case, heavenly cloud cover), excepting perhaps there’s more of it. If anything, the “Black Label” is not so much the existence of the violence as what the creators are allowed to do with it - see sometime-Batgirl Cassandra Cain shooting a cold gun up Clayface’s rear and pantsing the Penguin with a sword. The violence here is really only mildly stronger than, especially, Conner and Palmiotti’s later issues of Harley (notwithstanding a specific moment at the end). That feels like a change, where the other Black Label titles have been slightly more violent but haven’t cursed like TV’s Cliff Steele. Striking in Hunt for Harley (which is not, mind you, objectionable, just notable) is the language, with DC freeing the team to use every expletive imaginable, often and loudly. I’d be happy to see more short-run returns to the Harley-verse of this type by Conner and Palmiotti, keeping a “Harley in Brooklyn” sub-continuity even as the rest of the DC Universe pulls her elsewhere. There is kind-of, sort-of a bit of alternate-Harley-ing going on here, with Conner and Palmiotti picking up specifically from the end of their run rather than some unspecified point in the future. This is just about everything one could want from Conner and Palmiotti’s return to Harley, and they get a bunch of their greatest hits in (short really only of not being able get a Vartox cameo). The tone feels spot on, even from moments of characteristic mundanity to the humor and surprising drama that the team manages to evoke in the space of just four issues. If ever there was a concern you can’t go home again, creative team Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti put that to lie. After (at least as far as I’ve read) a couple Batman and Wonder Woman stories that were maybe a little darker, a little bloodier than your normal DC fare, in saunters Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey: The Hunt for Harley to push the limits wonderfully near to the breaking. ![]() It’s not perfect – the cutting back-and-forth in the first act is a rather off-putting and there really should be more focus on the titular group of DC heroines – but strong characterization, a decent plot and some of the best action scenes in recent cinematic history ensure that Birds of Prey might just be the DCEU’s most enjoyable showdown yet.We’re rapidly approaching a place where maybe we can’t call DC Black Label so “new” any more, though we’re still exploring the extent to which, thankfully, DC is willing to push the limits with these books. Robbie stole the show once more, but she was given solid competition from Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ewan McGregor – all of whom delivered in their roles as Black Canary, Renee Montoya, Huntress and Black Mask. Now, cumbersome title aside, the film promised to offer fans yet another different side to the continually-experimental DCEU and, for the most part, it pulled it off.Ī fabulously enjoyable picture, Birds of Prey was a vivid experience in every way imaginable – though we’d expect nothing less from a film headlined by Harley Quinn – that gave life to an admittedly light story, while also managing to introduce some of DC’s most iconic heroines into the its shared universe of big-screen heroes. Enter Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn). Given how Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was the silver lining of the reviled Suicide Squad, it was only a matter of time until she got her own starring vehicle. Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) Photo by Claudette Barius/ & © DC Comics 7. Pictures’ “BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN),” a Warner Bros. ![]() (L-r) JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL as Black Canary and MARGOT ROBBIE as Harley Quinn in Warner Bros. ![]()
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