Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing Harley Quinn 3, originally released February 19th, 2014.

Drew: When someone accuses a joke of “going too far,” they tend to mean that it is offensive — that it has left the concept of good taste behind in the pursuit of a bigger laugh. But offensiveness isn’t the only metric of taste. Indeed, I would argue that even the most family-friendly humor can take its core concepts “too far,” neglecting to cultivate the expectations that jokes are designed to subvert. Taken too far, scenarios become unrecognizable, characters become unrelatable, and irony curdles into nihilism. It’s the reason I can’t really get into Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! — I’m unable to form a frame of reference for why it’s even supposed to be funny, making the experience little more than a parade of one-note awkwardness. I found myself feeling the same things as I read Harley Quinn 3, as the series continues to stretch its own rules to the breaking point. When absolutely anything is possible, it’s hard to be surprised by a punchline.

It’s Valentines Day on Coney Island, and Harley is feeling kind of lonely. She decides to head out for a night on the town, but first decides to randomly eat a couple berries from the mysterious plants Ivy left her, because why the fuck not? It causes her to release irresistible pheromones, and comic high jinks ensue. Honestly, I’m not bothered by the arbitrariness of the premise — it’s basically that scene from the Pepé Le Pew cartoon where (in a case of mistaken identity) he’s madly pursued by the cat — but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. My biggest beef lies in Harley’s pursuers — a group of conveniently just-escaped convicts who all arrive with their one-note joke horses already dead and beaten.

Get it? That last guy’s a stoner, so he says DOOB-alicious instead of delicious! Actually, it doesn’t matter if you got that or any of the other “jokes” in this panel — they’ll all be repeated throughout the issue (often in this order). I’m not sure what’s to be gained out of repeating these weird-for-the-sake-of-weird quirks, other than testing my patience. Not that it’s a hard test — Harley makes quick work of the convicts, killing them all before walking away from the crime scene Scot-free.

I don’t want to begrudge this series the leeway it gives Harley in terms of getting away with violence — as I mentioned, it has more in common with a Loony Toons short than anything else in DCs publishing line — but I have a hard time reconciling all of the madcap action with the issue’s conclusion. Writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner wrap up the story a little too neatly, with Harley concluding that she’s “over” Valentines Day. Only, her adventure here has nothing to do with the expectations of Valentines Day. I could understand her declaring that she’s “over” eating pheromone berries and being chased by still only quasi-amorous escaped convicts, but her conclusions about romance feel totally unearned.

Moreover, the thought that this issue could achieve emotional immediacy after the events that preceded it is beyond tone-deaf. This issue isn’t the kind of character-based humor that can turn warm and fuzzy on a dime, this is mostly about pushing the envelope of over-the-top violence, meaning we have basically no emotional investment by the time the heads stop rolling. In fact, the thought that Harley is ruminating on why Valentines Day is icky so immediately after beating a guy to death with a pipe wrench only emphasizes how crazy she is, making it even harder to relate to her in those closing moments.

Ultimately, the aesthetic of this series may just not be my cup of tea — beyond its tin ear for humor, I can’t really get behind the way Harley is drawn by artist Chad Hardin. I get that the empowered pin-up girl is Conner’s forte, but a lot of the sexualization — from Harley’s towel flapping open to the kiss with the female cop — feels totally gratuitous. I get that this issue is kind of about Harley’s sexual power, but when that power also has nothing to do with how she dresses or acts, and everything to do with what kind of weirdo berries she just ate, it seems kind of unnecessary to make sure she’s barely clothed. Isn’t Coney Island cold in the middle of February?

I was charmed by the cartoony attitude this series had early on, but as the groans to gags ratio continues to tick upwards, I’m starting to lose patience. I could excuse the series lack of heart as long as it made me laugh, but Harley’s total unrelatability is starting to alienate me. Spencer, it feels like I’m always bitching to you about series lately. Am I just being a killjoy here? Was there fun to be had, or did these jokes fizzle for you, too? I think this issue may have convinced me that this series isn’t for me, and I’m curious how you’re feeling about it after four issues.

Spencer: Y’know Drew, if you had asked me how I felt about Harley Quinn after the first three issues I would have told you that I absolutely loved it, that it was one of my favorite books on the stands, and I’d have essentially spent the next 900 words or so telling you why you were wrong, but the truth of the matter is that this issue’s a bit of a dud.

Harley Quinn is a humor book; it lives or dies on how good the jokes are, and the jokes this month just aren’t up to par. You already hit on the main reason why, Drew — those one-note convicts and their constant repetition of their one unfunny joke. Two whole pages of this issue consist of almost nothing but the convicts saying “yum” over and over — nine times total on both pages — and somehow that’s supposed to be funny? Or is it one of those gags that’s just so bizarre that it’s supposed to become funny because of the sheer lunacy of it, like one of those Tim and Eric sketches you mentioned? (By the way Drew, I’m with ya’ on that show; it grosses me out so much that I’ve nearly vomited almost every time I’ve watched it).

I also had a problem with the violence in this issue, but not the same problem you had, Drew. I’m not really bothered by Conner and Palmiotti’s decision to make Harley so murderous and violent, and I think violence can be funny. In fact, making violence funny is something Harley Quinn‘s excelled at up to this point, and that largely has to do with discretion. If issue two had actually shown Harley feeding that mercenary to her dogs, for example, it would have just been dark or horrifying, but skipping over that scene entirely and just showing this sunny, serene moment of the dogs chewing on his skeleton with their noses caked in blood? Now that’s comedy!

This issue could have really benefited from some of that discretion. The entire fight scene in the hardware store was a little too violent even by this book’s standards, and the worst part was that, while it felt like Conner and Palmiotti were going for laughs, the violence just came across too straight to actually be funny. I know I can be a twelve-year-old at heart sometimes — I’m still laughing at those beaver jokes from last issue, for example — but I’m not twelve enough to sit there and guffaw at a guy getting a screwdriver shoved through his head or at that poor shopkeeper getting his neck snapped. “Going too far” has always been a part of Harley Quinn‘s charm, but this scene kind of went past “going too far” and skipped straight to gratuitous.

Connor and Palmiotti can usually let Harley get away with doing horrible things by making sure her victims are even worse than she is; her victims in the first few issues were animal abusers and mercenaries out to kill her, and this issue ups the ante by pitting her against a bus full of serial killers (and a peeping tom!). The thing is, just this once, I feel like this kind of works against the story because it gives Harley carte blanche to be as gratuitously violent as she pleases. This book is already basically Looney Toons, this issue specifically is already a Pepe Le Pew story, why not embrace that and make her suitors somebody she can’t dispatch so easily? It feels like a missed opportunity.

That said, Drew, the rest of this issue worked a lot better for me than it did for you; if you removed the pages with the convicts this would be a quite good, albeit short, comic book. You mentioned that Harley’s insanity makes her unrelateable to you, Drew, and while I admit that Conner and Palmiotti are very much playing up Harley’s lunacy in this book, I still feel like Harley’s one of the more human of Batman’s rogues, and a lot of that comes down to her tragic romance with the Joker. It’s no surprise, then, that the most effective moments in this issue play off that relationship, even though Mr. J never shows his face.

I’m rather fond of the more obvious joke here that the kind of love Harley’s describing is exactly the kind of love you receive from a pet, not a significant other, but here’s the thing: Harley’s also describing the way she loves the Joker. I don’t think Harley’s cognizant of this — in fact, she seems to be specifically referring to the Joker when she describes someone who who worships the very ground she walks on, which is, of course, preposterous — but whether she knows it or not, her words perfectly describe how she acts around Joker, and the fact that this statement is at the same time describing the affection between a pet and its owner certainly doesn’t speak well of Harley. That’s why the ending of this plot is all the more effective.

Maybe the way Harley reached this conclusion isn’t all that solid — nothing about the convicts really works, we’ve established this — but the fact that Harley freaking Quinn of all people made a sensible decision about love is not only amazingly sweet, but a surprisingly significant moment for the character.

I’m also fonder of Hardin’s art than you are, Drew. While he still occasionally has issues with Harley’s face fluctuating between being soft and being angular, he’s shown tremendous improvement with this issue, imbuing Harley’s face with a remarkable amount of personality while also keeping her much more consistent.

Just look at the impressive range Hardin gives Harley here! I’m also a huge fan of the way Hardin sometime stretches reality; Harley’s visible pheromone trail is another touch straight out of Looney Toons, and the way the panel borders become increasingly wavy and unstable as the convicts fall prey to the berries’ effects perfectly captures the hazy spell they’re under. My favorite touch, though, is the raincloud that follows Harley in her sorrows; it would be out of place in any other book, but for Harley Quinn, it’s just life.

This issue was ultimately a rather disappointing step down in quality from the ones that came before, but I see plenty of signs that the series I fell in love with is still alive and well, even if it’s buried beneath a billion word balloons saying “yum,” so I’m not giving up on it yet. And hey, look on the bright side: all those convicts are dead, so we’ll never see them again!

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page.  Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore.  If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to DC’s website and download issues there.  There’s no need to pirate, right?