Continuing it’s celebration of Harley Quinn, DC Comics has a brand new ongoing alternative take on the aforementioned character. In the new story Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity we get a look inside the life of a perfectly sane Harleen Quinzel who works alongside James Gordon & is a respected member of the GCPD as a criminal psychiatrist & profiler. When her roommate Edie is killed by The Joker and the case after five years suddenly goes cold, Harleen goes on the hunt to put him down.

Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity is a 2019 crime drama comic book, it is written by Kami Garcia & illustrated by Mico Suayan and Mike Mayhew. It is developed by DC Black Label & published by DC Comics.

Editor’s Note: A review copy of Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #1 was provided by DC Comics in support of this review. Medium to near complete spoilers may be present within this review.

DC Comics’ “Year of the Villain” event continues with a new storyline focusing on a rivalry brewing between former lovers Joker & Harley Quinn. In this version of the characters the Clown Prince & former Joker aide turned hero are completely sane individuals. With the former just rising in the ranks of Gotham’s criminal underbelly and the later working as a GCPD profiler out for revenge after Joker kills her roommate. Using her skills as a criminal psychiatrist as well as the resources provided by the GCPD she hunts The Joker down in an ongoing storyline set in an alternative Gotham world.

THE GOOD: Joker/Harley opens with an immediate establishing of the relationship Harley shares with James Gordon. It’s been made clear that they’ve been tight since Harley began working at the GCPD & she trusts Gordon more than anyone else working at the precinct. It’s shown that Harley was likely working as a nurse before the death of her roommate Edie got her involved with police work as a respected & renown criminal psychiatrist in Gotham. Harley also teaches classes on criminal profiling on occasion.  After the aforementioned death of Edie, Harley has become a bit obssessed with The Joker (a common theme of the character) and when Edie’s case suddenly goes cold after five years of research she takes it upon herself to trace The Joker & bring him to justice.

Not everything is peachy for Harley in the GCPD as she has at least a handful of enemies, namely Detective Maddox whose a very brash individual and routinely takes opportunity to mock Harley only for her to quickly snap back a retort that gets under his skin. One of the running themes of Joker/Harley is “what makes a criminal sane/insane?” there’s even a run down of sorts on some of history’s worst, most infamous real-life murders which sets the tone of what kind of story Joke/Harley will be. There’s some small teases on The Joker’s possible identity and even some Dark Knight easter eggs, but I don’t to spoil too much of the first issue. Just a heads up, this is probably going to be a bit of a gory series if some of the panels are any indication. With that said issue one is a good first jump into a DC adaptation with a lot of promise, of which I hope it lives up to.

THE BAD: Like with most ‘Black Label’ this is a mature take on some of DC’s most celebrated characters and storylines and it gets crazy dark & gritty. So if  you’re not into seeing that type of style with these characters Black Label certainly isn’t for you.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Joker/Harley #1 is a a fine introductory issue into this new take on the iconic DC villains (or former in Harley’s case). A mature, crime drama based game of cat & mouse, while unexpected fits perfectly with the two titular characters and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. Otaku Dome gives Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity #1 an 85 out of 100.