Tradewaiting – February 5th, 2020 Releases: Bests of 2019

A lot of comics come out every week. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of #1s and dramatic new status quos as they crash. That’s why I’m here. Whether you said you’d revisit checking that series out when it was collected in trade or you simply never noticed the announcement of that awesome OGN, whether you’re just waiting for that hardcover to be published as a trade or have been longing for a collection of your favorite stories since childhood, Tradewaiting is here for you, with the complete Diamond list of graphic novels and collections as well as some recommendations to scoop up.
This is a big week for trades and collections, so let’s quit dawdling. It’s time to look at the releases for February 5th, 2020.

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Harleen

I don’t think there’s been as celebrated an entry into the Batman canon as Harley Quinn’s in the past thirty years. Harley has been a character who’s meant many things to many people. From wacky henchman to brilliant psychologist to embodiment of chaos and nearly everything in between, Harley contains multitudes. Not only that but her abusive relationship with her Puddin’ has provided opportunities to explore parts of Batman, the Joker, and more that normally would have gone unseen. So it was not surprising that Harley was a longtime favorite of Sunstone creator Stjepan Šejić. What was surprising was when, years after Šejić started posting fan comics exploring Harley, DC stepped in and gave him the keys to tell his own version of her origin.
Enter Harleen, the gorgeous retelling of how Harleen Quinzel stepped off the path and ended up our favorite Red and Black Riding Hood.
Quinn’s origin story had already been definitively told in the 1994 comic “Mad Love”, but Šejić dug into that story to find the details and connective tissues that the original lacked. Suiting Šejić’s stunning, realistic style, Harleen creates a vibrant, living Gotham City, full of men and women struggling to hold on to order and destined to hold too tight. It’s a series that really dives into the atmosphere of Gotham and the psychology of its characters, resulting in a grim but beautiful examination of people can, can’t, and won’t take responsibility for their actions.
Šejić has been a fan of this character for a long time and it shows. This is one of the best examples of an official book having a fan’s sensibilities that I can remember. It doesn’t debase itself with needless fan service, but Šejić remains tied to the emotional core that his readers are looking for, refusing to polish away the fascinating edges of his story. Harleen‘s story is a tragedy but its own that respects its lead and gives her agency as well as the dueling drive and exhaustion that pushes her into the Joker’s clutches. Even the science of Dr. Quinzel’s thesis is fascinating and the story’s refusal to dismiss caring psychological treatment in order to justify the Joker’s status quo makes it easy to hope against hope that this doesn’t end the way you came to see it end.
Plus, as I alluded above, it’s gorgeous! Šejić’s digital painting is known for its emotive force and he really wrings the spectacle out of the classic Batman villains and iconography. It’s almost hard to remember, in an age of plentiful superhero movies, but there is still something primal about seeing your comic book titans rendered in realistic and faithful fashion. Šejić delivers on this in a big way. You can feel like you’re really seeing the Joker, Mr. Freeze, and Killer Croc and, in a deeper way, Harley Quinn too.
Originally released in a series of three oversized prestige format books, Harleen will actually cost you slightly more in hardback, coming in at $29.99 MSRP. However, if you prefer to have your comics in trade I can still recommend this one. The difference is only $6.00 and you are getting a little bit for that extra money. Thankfully Šejić’s original covers are retained within the flow of the story and we also get all of the variant covers and some unused covers and concepts. There’s also a multi-page visual timeline detailing the origins of the series and a look at the author’s process. The last incentive applies only to early adopters. The first printing of the hardcover will feature an acetate dustjacket, allowing you to flip between the original cover to issue #1 and the gory reality, newly drawn for this collection.
Harleen was one of my top comics of 2019 and now you can own all of it in a single, classy package.

*****
2020 hasn’t slowed down the flood of comic collections and OGNs one bit. Here are Diamond’s complete listings to sift through for yourself if neither of these are hitting that perfect part of your comics-brain.

IMAGE COMICS

• DIE TP VOL 02 SPLIT THE PARTY (MR) $16.99