Writer: Karl Kesel Pencils: Aron Wiesenfeld (pages 1-8), Paul Grist (pages 9-17), Paul Chadwick (pages 18-25), Amanda Connor (pages 26-34) & Steve Lieber (pages 35-38) Inks: Aron Wiesenfeld (pages 1-8), Paul Grist (pages 9-17), Paul Chadwick (pages 18-25), Jimmy Palmiotti (pages 26-34) & Steve Lieber (pages 35-38)
Publisher: DC
Plot: When the hapless Jimmy Olson manages to get himself trapped inside an escape pod that crash-lands in the middle of Gotham City, he is forced to run for his life when the people of Gotham figure he's a disguised alien spy. Jimmy is then rescued from a pair of real alien spies by Harley Quinn, and when a terrified Jimmy comes up with a lie designed to make Harley spare his life, we see Harley is so moved by Jimmy's lie that she decides to personally see to it that Jimmy arrives safely home. What follows is a road trip, where Jimmy & Harley battle their way past a gang of henchmen, a hostile alien, and the Female Furies. However during these struggles Jimmy develops a crush on Harley & when he professes her love to her, his lie to her is exposed, and Jimmy is forced to run for his life. However, Harley's fury is short-lived, and Jimmy is able to escape, so that he can run head-on into another threat.
Comments: Well this isn't a particularly great story, nor is it all that original, as it seems like odd couple road trip stories have littered cinemas ever since John Candy & Steve Martin made Planes, Trains & Automobiles way back in 1987. However, with this is mind I did enjoy this issue enough that I'll give it a tentative recommendation. Karl Kesel may not be breaking the mold, but he did capture a nice little dynamic between Harley Quinn & Jimmy Olson, as the interaction between the two is often time quite amusing. Sure there's some god-awful puns, and the critical part of my mind finds it odd that trouble seems to be drawn to this duo with uncanny precision, but Karl Kesel does deserve marks for at least attempting to keep the tone of the regular series in this one-shot. My only quibble is that there are some scenes with no payoff, such as Jimmy's occasional burst of binary code, and the Female Furies pulling off a vanishing act that would make David Copperfield green with envy.
Normally I'm a sucker for characters who are cursed with horrid luck, and whose heroic deeds often serve to make the problem worse than better. However, Jimmy Olson is a character who rubs me the wrong way, and given how little I've been exposed to him, I must confess the vehemence that I feel toward him must result from some deep-seated childhood tragedy that I've blocked out. Actually my main problem with Mr. Olson is that he's a flat character who is driven by the events of a story rather than having the story impacted by his presence. Karl Kesel needs Jimmy to be afraid of Harley, but he can't run away from her the second her limited attention span is diverted by something else, so naturally Jimmy develops a crush on Harley. We also have various threats drawn to the duo, as Jimmy is a threat magnet, but unlike most characters of this type, Jimmy is a completely useless tool, and as such he relies on others to save him.
If nothing else this one-shot is a curiosity on the artistic front, as the art is handled by a small army of artists, who are rarely seen inside the pages of a mainstream comic. Now I know Steve Lieber from a brief stint on Doom Patrol & his covers for the Flash, and Paul Chadwick turned in a recent arc on Deadpool, but all the other names are largely unknown to me (except of course, for inker Jimmy Palmiotti). Karl Kesel also manages to set up the story so that each artist is given a different story to detail, as Harley & Jimmy face a gang of henchmen, an alien monster, and the Female Furies on the road to Metropolis. For the most part all the artists do a great job keeping the book interesting when it comes to the visuals, though if pressed I'd have to say that I enjoyed Aron Wiesenfeld's art the most, as it reminded me of Frank Quitely's work. Amanda Connor's nicely energetic chapter is also quite good.
Final Word: It's not going to grace any of my best of lists this year, as it's a fairly ordinary little story, and while some of its humor made me smile, a good deal of it suffers from the fact that it feels forced & unnatural. However, having read close to a dozen of these Our Worlds at War one-shots, I'd have to say that this one at least earns marks for not hiding the fact that it has next to no reason to exist, other than to add an extra book for compeletists to purchase. This is a Harley Quinn adventure first & foremost, and even if one can find better material in the pages of her monthly book, one could do worse than giving this one-shot a look. It's a fairly engaging attempt that I found kept me somewhat entertained.
