Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity is published by DC Comics under their Black Label imprint. It is written by Kami Garcia with art by Mico Suayan and Mike Mayhew.
Que the immaculate voice of Mr. Steven Zirnkilton (the narrator of almost every Law & Order series)
“In Gotham City, where heinous acts of violence are a daily occurrence, the GCPD relies on Harley Quinn, a young forensic psychiatrist and profiler, to consult on their toughest cases.”
Five years ago, while she was still doing her medical residency, Harleen Quinzel came home to a horrible scene. Her roommate, Edie (and totally her girlfriend who happens to look A LOT like Poison Ivy), had been murdered, and all signs pointed to the notorious serial killer dubbed, The Joker. Despite the years that have gone by, Edie’s murder is still unsolved, and now a new series of gruesome murders are happening throughout the city. Harley is convinced The Joker is back and her obsession with these cases is leading her down a dangerous road, but Harley isn’t afraid, she’s determined to put an end to it once and for all.
I’m obsessed with true crime. I’m also obsessed with Batman and pretty much all characters connected to him. A true crime story about Harley Quinn as a criminal psychological profiler and the Joker is a realistic serial killer? I’m hooked. This story, while it references Bruce Wayne, does not mentioned Batman. It’s not a story that takes place in the world of superheroes, it takes place in ours. While giving a lecture at Gotham University, Harley references some of the most notorious serial killers of our modern world, including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein, and Richard Chase. It’s worth noting as well that while she’s giving the lecture, we are shown someone in the crowd doodling some kind of large case (like one of those magicians use to preform dangerous escapes) as opposed to taking actual notes. Quite suspicious, if you ask me.
I cannot get over how amazing Mico Suayan and Mike Mayhew’s art is in this series. Not just looking at it from a stand-alone perspective, but how they work together to bring to life this noir true crime tale inspired by comic book characters. Their art styles are so real compared to what we normally see in comics. Mayhew’s flashback pages look like a photographs, while Suayan’s current time pages look like charcoal on canvas. They’re both simply stunning.
Kami Garcia has given us a Harley/Joker story that is, if you follow true crime, totally plausible. Which is probably what makes this Joker even more unsettling than he already is, but it also makes Harley’s obsession with him more understandable. Same amount of obsession, but for a totally different reason.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Make sure you check out Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #1 at your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
