“Harley Quinn” #0 made headlines months before it hit stands today thanks to a bit of controversy. The contest itself was simple enough — fans were invited to draw a page for DC that could be featured in the issue — but what DC, Palmiotti and Conner asked people to draw saw many fans upset as it featured Harley attempting to kill herself, at one point naked in the bathtub. We covered it and shared some artistic interpretations of the scene and DC later apologized after being called out by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American Psychiatric Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, claiming that a lack of context for the sequence was what made it appear crass as opposed to funny.
Well, with “Harley Quinn” #0 now in stores (with a hat tip to Robot 6 for reporting on this first, as I’ve not actually read the issue), we now can see the finished page:
and it is quite clearly missing the bit in the bath. Illustrated by Jeremy Roberts, Harley now rides a rocket into space.
Palmiotti and Conner claimed that the gist of the sequence was Looney Tunes, and I think with context and dialogue you can sort of see what they mean. It’s in reference to Harley’s role in the “Suicide Squad,” which the writers claim to not know what it is, so the page features her attempting to commit suicide. It actually makes sense in a fashion, even if you still don’t like it or find it funny at all.
But what is important here, I think, is that DC needs to do a better job at delivering the context, rather than leave it up for blind interpretation — because as many fans pointed out, the script left it very open for crass exploitation.
So DC cleaned up the act, change the last panel and gave Jeremy Roberts a shot at the big time. Your mileage may vary on what you think about DC’s last minute change to the script, but it is certainly an interesting way to respond.
