Man-Bat was still in Arkham, but all leads point to him being the culprit of strange occurrences in Issue #35.
Warning there are spoilers from that issue in this review.
At the very end of the tale we discovered that Big Tony had been taken by a flying bat and transformed into a bat as well. Harley stubbornly went to investigate without her friends and ended up getting captured, and injected with Man-Bat serum.
But who was doing all this if Man-Bat is still in Arkham? Come to find out it was his wife, Francine. This issue starts off with Harley and She-Bat wreaking havoc in Coney Island. She’s even attacking the Thunderbolt roller coaster. The gang of Harley’s are trying to reason with Harley-Bat, but she’s attacking them too.
While all this is going on Red Tool and crew are with Langstrom trying to find the antidote. They have been travelling to multiple labs in search of it. Toolsy is getting really annoyed with Langstrom.
But, it looks like they may have finally found the cure. Harley’s team quickly injects Big Tony and they wait to see how he reacts. And, he changes back into a bat for a bit attacking Eggy and Goat Boy, and Toolsy. While all the commotion is going on Langstrom escapes, but good news Tony is back to normal.
While all this is going on the gang is back trying to get Harley-Bat to calm down by giving her food as peace offerings. It’s not exactly working as Francine Langstrom is also in her She-Bat form and seems to have control over Harley. Francine reveals that she would love to have the Gang of Harley’s as Bats. Hell, she wants all of Coney Island to be batty like her.
Toolsy and the gang make the way to Harley and they work together to shoot her with the antidote. While still in Harley-Bat form she goes nuts on Francine and slowly gets back to herself. Things are finally back to normal. Harley and her friends can get back to everyday life. Nothing to look at here. Right? I can’t tell you how it ends without spoiling the issue. Sorry Harley fans, you’ll have to read this issue to see its exciting conclusion.
Well overall this part of the story was pretty predictable. I don’t think we could have Harley-Bat for the rest of this run. Of course the team had to cure her and Tony. But, the nice thing is the ending of this tale wasn’t predictable. The story is continuing in a direction I saw as an option, but wasn’t sure would be the path taken by the writer. I always like it when classic Gotham villains are brought into Harley’s life. And, it seems something bigger is going on if all these Arkham inmates are suddenly free and escaping. So with that being said I look forward to seeing how the writers move forward with Harley in the next issue.
Rating: 8/10
