Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools' Special #1

That's the best I can do with a touchpad and a lack of caring.

The Review
I suppose this is the first Rebirth book to be put out since it's merely a prologue for the next version of the Suicide Squad. And guess what? That Suicide Squad's membership is based on the upcoming movie's Squad! Big surprise there, right? I suppose if you're a Suicide Squad Starring Harley Quinn fan, you can't pass up this book even though it's just more and more and more of the same. How am I the only person completely sick of Harley Quinn?

The Commentary
I purchased this comic book without ever seeing the actual cover of the comic book because it's one of these "Convince An Artist To Draw On Your Comic Book And, In Exchange, You Will Never Criticize Them Again Because You Feel Like You Have A Personal Connection" covers. If I had, I wouldn't have purchased it on principle. First, it's just another fucking Harley Quinn book and I have plenty of those. Second, it has fucking Man-Bat on the cover with Harley. Man-bat?! Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke?! Do you take me for some kind of a fool?!

On the plus side, it's not written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti so it might contain some fresh jokes. Plus the Suicide Squad is in it and, since it's an April Fools story, maybe one of them will actually die! You know, I'm surprised the regular monthly Suicide Squad book isn't called "Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad". You know, just in case somebody somewhere hasn't gotten the message that Harley Quinn is now a permanent member of the Suicide Squad to help it sell better.

I should also say that Jim Lee's cover is gorgeous. Jim Lee's work doesn't always do it for me because he's in love with extraneous scribbles. But this cover almost makes me interested in Man-bat.

This is definitely a new joke but I'm not sure I understand it. Is it because they eat a lot of chili in Texas?

The story begins with Harley doing the whole "I'm commenting on the comic book" thing. Hey DC! You already have a character who does that and he was around long before Deadpool! Why isn't this an Ambush Bug April Fools' Special?! Harley's taking Ambush Bug's job! I knew there was a reason I was sick of her!

Harley gets a pamphlet about some thing called Evil Anonymous where super-villains help work through their issues. Wasn't there a group like this in the Sinister Six where C-List villains went to try to change their lives? Is Harley just going to steal a little bit from every comic in this Special? And I'm not even going to mention the person people thought Harley was acting like instead of Ambush Bug because that fucker stole Ambush Bug's shtick himself.

The first super-villain Harley Quinn...I mean, Dr. Quinzel decides to help is Man-bat. I suppose she's going to work her way through every member of the Suicide Squad, right?

Harley cures Man-Bat by running his head into an oncoming fire truck which cracks open his skull and causes him to transform back in Kirk Langstrom. But the cops try to arrest her so she has to leave him dying in alley as she runs to get away. But she hit her head too so now she has to have some hallucinations and dream sequences. It's what Harley does in her specials because they're usually drawn by a whole bunch of different artists who need some kind of gimmick to explain all the style changes.

A lot of changes in artists and directions of story lead to Harley being strapped into some Clockwork Orange contraption run by Amanda Waller. It was all a ploy to get Harley motivated to work with a team to kill superheroes. I suppose that's the plot of the next version of the Suicide Squad? A version composed of Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Katana, and Killer Croc. I guess the characters who are added to this team are the ones who might actually die because this is yet another core Squad without a disposable member.

By the way, Amanda is beginning to put on weight! Did somebody at DC finally give the go ahead to embrace a fat Amanda Waller?