Harley Quinn. Vol. 2: Power Outage

This volume spares no punches: the art and coloring are superb in detail and depth, clearly illustrating and highlighting the moods and raising the quality of each panel with the close attention to facial expressions and body language. The artists are clever, pulling in references to movies, posters, and books. Each story collected here is a perfect representation of Harley Quinn—a blend of humorousness, innuendo, misguided good deeds, and mayhem! Harley participates in the sideshow her tenants run and even brings Power Girl, who has lost her memory, into the fold for hijinks. In Power Outage, Harley travels. Her vacation is wrecked as she lands on an island that isn't Bermuda, her future and past confront her once again, and she and Power Girl find themselves off-planet, in fact, off-galaxy. Sy Borg returns, as does Madame Macabre's son, who may turn out to be a future plotline. Harley visits Comic Con, and the metatheme of her knowing she wants to be in a comic while actually being in the one that we are reading is carried through, giving readers Harley's origin story.