Can we just let Mariko Tamaki write whatever she wants in comics? With 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me', 'Supergirl: Being Super', her 'She-Hulk' run, and now 'Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass', it seems she can do no wrong in my eyes (I've only read her most recent work so far).
'Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass' is one of the best Harley stories I've read in a long time, and what a great, gulping, shuddering relief that is. The art by Steve Pugh is absolutely fantastic, and it is super, unapologetically feminist.
Harleen Quinzel is a teenage, new-girl-in-Gotham antiheroine here, leaning towards the "heroine" part. She is girly, adorable, angry, sad, not-so-stupid and trusting, and loves fairy tale analogies.
And she will not let anyone get away with fooling and abusing her. She kicks arse, takes names, wears her own clown costumes for different occasions, and is more altruist, egalitarian and brave than psychotic. She is able to learn and grow from her mistakes whilst keeping her bubbly, childlike personality, which is mostly a cover for a deeper shallow end.
Like 'Teen Titans: Raven', also by DC Ink, 'Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass' is aimed at a young audience, the YA crowd, and it doesn't talk down to them. There is excellent writing and character work all around.
Ivy in this version is a fellow high school student, and she becomes Harley's only friend there, albeit reluctantly on Ivy's part; for she is a lonely, frustrated, POC social justice warrior and feminist. Her focus is currently on her school's excluding film club, history, the big, corrupt building corporation and enterprise run by soulless and plastic rich straight white people - the Kanes - and her own gardens. Ivy's gardens and other, poorer properties and "ghettos" in Gotham are in danger of being termed "condemned", and shut down and bulldozed in the wave of the rich white-owned gentrification enterprise making their mark.
This affects Harley and her new home at a drag queen karaoke cabaret/bar, run by Mama, a gay, plus size drag queen who has been through so much and is beloved by everybody in his LBGTQ friends' circle, including Harley, who loves him as a guardian and mentor from the start.
The number of brilliant, colourful and passionate characters in 'Breaking Glass' is outstanding. And the real life issues it raises and their effects are devastating. Without Harley's excitable, infectious personality, and her positive influence, creativity and drive, this would be a dour book.
Wonderful symbolism on a number of gorgeously illustrated panels, and character development, particularly for Harley and the old and new ways she is starting to see the world. A world where people cannot simply be divided into angels and devils (or boogers, as Harley frequently calls baddies), for everyone is complex (except for the Kanes, they can go straight to Hell where they belong), and they are going through their own issues and problems. A world where, despite what history keeps warning us over and over again, human society never learns and we keep repeating past mistakes. Mistakes like trusting rich white people in positions of power who are more plastic than heart and brains.
The alternate interpretation of Harley's relationship with the Joker here is rendered irrelevant in the midst of all these themes going on. Slight spoiler, but there is no real romance in the book, and the abuse element to this (in)famous abusive relationship is about being careful about suspicious people and who you can trust; for not everyone who says they have your best interests at heart actually mean it. It's about learning who your true friends are.
I could talk even further about 'Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass', but I wish to let people read it and discover the depths and delight for themselves. I was immersed, hook line and sinker, from the first few pages, and I never wanted to let go. I never wanted it to end.
I love the characters and their terrific, heartfelt relationships with one another. 'Breaking Glass' is one of the most feminist books with the DC name in recent years (though it still centers on white people as the main players, and Harley and Ivy aren't a couple (yet)), threading subtle elements and surprises towards the end as well.
Harley can work well on her own, without the Joker. She can equal him, yet succeed him in better, healthier ways.
She can get herself out of that toxic legacy.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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