Notice: Spoilers for Harley Quinn (2021) #46 ahead!
Since she broke up with the Joker so many years ago, Harley Quinn has been a rebel. While this anti-authority streak has made her a fan-favorite character, rebellion for the sake of rebellion can easily make the character seem hollow, and I fear that Harley's recent exploits to stop the gentrification of Gotham's most decrepit neighborhood, Throatcutter Hill, cross that line.
In Harley Quinn (2021) #46 – written by Elliot Kalan, with art by Mindy Lee – Harley destroys an expensive smoothie shop before being contacted by the Throatcutter Hill Neighborhood Retail Merchants Association. The group tasks her with stopping the flow of online delivery vans into Throatcutter Hill, hoping that this will help keep their physical locations afloat, a mission Harley eventually agrees to.
While Harley inevitably saves the day, I was struck by how the issues of inflation and e-commerce are presented as symptoms of classism rather than part of our contemporary reality.
Harley Quinn has become a champion of the “little guy” – but does she already know who the 'little guy' is?
Harley Quinn (2021) #46 – Written by Elliot Kalan; Art by Mindy Lee; Color by Triona Farrell; Lyrics by Lucas Gattoni
I feel like the problem in Harley Quinn #46 is that people who rely on online delivery are presented as privileged, needy urbanites who would rather order their groceries online than walk a block to the local store, or rely on ridiculously specialized products – i.e. “vitamins that don’t nothing,” or “spelt shampoo.” However, this is a straw man argument against the kind of people who place an arrogant and ridiculously expensive Starbucks order, rather than “real people” like you or me who just want a coffee. Even the acronym for the newly gentrified Throatcutter Hill, “NoWeGoSoE,” sounds suspiciously similar to “bourgeoisie.”
Listen: my background is in publishing. I'm writing about comic book series here. I know how harmful online retailers can be for businesses. Did you know that Amazon, one of traditional bookstores' biggest competitors, doesn't even make a profit selling books? The platform sells books at a loss because it helps drive people to buy more profitable items on Amazon. Online retail can absolutely be a huge threat to the kind of businesses and local neighborhoods that Harley Quinn is trying to protect here, but the world where it is only online and not physical no longer exists.
I hate to say it, Harley's fight feels like it's a decade behind the times
The fight to keep Harley Quinn relevant as a “rebel” character
Online shipping has become ubiquitous in contemporary America; ordinary families order from major e-retailers like Walmart and Amazon, not just the gentrifying upper middle class. Worse still, there are as many independent stores that rely on online deliveries to stay in business as there are e-retailers – a necessary change for any local business to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. By attacking delivery companies, who are largely the middlemen in America's retail wars, Harley is causing a lot more harm to the people she is trying to support than the greedy hypercapitalism it is trying to oppose.
It's easy to shake your fist and say "rich people are evil," but by presenting that argument in such an old-fashioned way, it's hard to relate to any of Harley's struggles.
To be honest, all the issues Harley stands against Harley Quinn #46 seems a decade out of date to me. She destroys a smoothie shop over a fourteen dollar smoothie, but given the current rate of inflation, that price isn't far off what she expected. It positions itself against online stores, but local companies have already adopted the online retail model. It's easy to shake your fist and say "rich people are evil," but by presenting that argument in such old-fashioned ways, it's difficult to relate to any of Harley's struggles - making it difficult to invest in her series.
I'm sorry, but the latest issue of "Harley Quinn" made me feel like the series was treading water
DC doesn't know how to deal with its trademark clown
Ultimately, this is a problem for Harley Quinn, because her place at the forefront of such a confusing discussion suggests that DC doesn't really know what to do with the character at the moment. It's telling that his next major impression is a fart-based series that left the internet furious, while the web-based series Harley Quinn in Paradise – written by CRC Payne, with art by Siobhan Chiffon and Cathy Le – which has some of the best characterizations of Harley I've read in years, is quietly underrated 2024 saw Harley go from meta-narrative explorer to scarecrow “bad gentrification” mascot, to “farting clown,” and it’s not a good look.
Harley Quinn needs to make arguments that aren't a decade out of date if DC wants her character to mean anything to contemporary audiences.
I really like Harley Quinn, and her role as the perennial underdog makes her the perfect champion for historic neighborhoods like Throatcutter Hill. Independent businesses are still important and gentrification continues to be a real problem. But the arguments in this book are reduced to such a black and white extreme that they are caricatures of caricatures. Harley Quinn needs to present arguments that aren't a decade out of date if DC wants her character to mean anything to contemporary audiences – otherwise your title will seem even more cartoonish than a world where people fly around in tights and fight supervillains.
Harley Quinn (2021) #42 is now available from DC Comics.