What a step back in time!
'Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls' is a five issue miniseries based on 'Batman: The Animated Series' from the nineties, about Catwoman, Batgirl, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Renee Montoya. Despite the title of this specific trade collection, Harley is not the primary star and lead - that's done to cash in on the 2020 'Birds of Prey' movie. These comic issues are from the early 2000s, and they are very retro, very all-ages cartoony, and they bring Harley back to her original roots.
How I missed seeing her in her actual harlequin clown costume! How fun it is to see these DC women in action! They serve no man and they need no help from man.
I love all the Gotham girls - each with their own style, skill set, and pizzazz! Each are competent at what they do; in their own unique fields.
Batgirl is young, confident, quirky, jokey, clever, and never gives up. Renee is a Latina Gotham police detective making her mark in an all-white, all-male force. Police brutality against people of colour is an issue that's touched on - fantastic to see in a children's comic from 2002-2003. Despite idiotic, patronising men and the glass ceiling, Renee never gives up, either, and is fiercely determined, both to do good (undeterred by not being a caped superhero) and to prove herself to her family and colleagues. And while not stated, she is canonically a lesbian.
Renee and Batgirl/Barbara Gordon working together on a case is a brilliant idea. In spite of their disagreements, they work off of and reflect (plus compliment) each other in a way that's suitable and inevitable. They both wish to prove themselves and their independence in a frustrating man's world.
Harley perhaps suffers the most in terms of characterisation in this story. She is a fun and entertaining comic relief villain, but that's the most of what she is here. She is a ditz who slept and cheated her way into getting a psychology degree for fame and fortune, she is still in love with the Joker (not present, thankfully), and is Ivy's hapless lackey. There are hints of a caring partnership between the two, but it is abusive; which is acknowledged in the narrative, when Harley compares Ivy to the Joker, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
Maybe in light of Harley Quinn's recent and more serious and three dimensional development ('Harleen' by Stjepan Šejić comes to mind - a polar whiplash in contrast to this kiddie comic), this earlier portrayal threw me a bit. I can't not be relieved to see that costume again after so many years, however. I also missed seeing Harley and Ivy working together in any capacity.
Additionally, out of all the Gotham Girls, Poison Ivy is the only one with metahuman powers. They are all human, regardless - another thing they share in commonality.
'Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls' - the title of this collection is misleading, but the Gotham Girls part is truthful. Reading it is like being a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons again. The plot is a stolen plant formula hunt, going back and forth, a silly caper in Gotham: and that's okay. The women are at the center, they drive the action, they are the action. That is glorious.
In the end, the criminal and crime fighting women of Gotham don't need to prove anything to anyone. They are themselves, individual and awesome.
Final Score: 4/5
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