It is time for the Doomie awards hosted by the great Harley Quinn! With great categories like Most Obsessed Villain and Best Justification for Evil; it is sure to be a blast. Come check out Harley Quinn’s Villain of the Year by DC Comics!

HARLEY QUINN’S VILLAIN OF THE YEAR #1

Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Mike Norton
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Alex Antone
Publisher: DC
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 11th, 2019

Previously in Villain of the Year: Not to be confused with the Year of the Villain crossover event (I made this mistake); this comic book brings us to the peaceful event of the Doomie Awards! A place where all villains can come together to celebrate one’s accomplishments. However, when a threat comes to Harley Quinn’s attention and she must pinpoint who would disturb the peace among villains.

WHO DISTURBS THE PEACE

Harley Quinn is hosting the Villain of the Year Awards this year and is visited by Apex Lex who reveals that someone is threatening the event. However, Harley Quinn seems more distracted by the stationary that the threat was written on rather then the threat itself. As the Award Ceremony starts, there are many fun small interactions between the characters reminiscing about events in DC continuity.

Early in the issue, it is revealed that Flamingo is set to kill all the villains for never thinking about the losers  and we see his inner monologue throughout the award ceremony. However, as Harley Quinn is about to announce the final award for Villain of the Year; she announces Flamingo. Flamingo abandons his plan, falls from the rafters, and crawls to the stage to accept his award where he is trapped in a cage. Harley Quinn revealed she knew who the culprit was because she saw a pink flamingo on the stationary.

THE WORLD’S GREATEST VILLAIN DETECTIVE

This was a fun story and showed off the strength of Harley Quinn as a character. Harley Quinn has had an interesting history. She started as a cartoon character and quickly transitioned to comic books due to her popularity. Often depicted as a partner to the Joker, she has become a popular character all on her own. In this issue, we see her strength and intelligence in solving this simple crime by incorporating a very important idea. Pay attention to the small stuff. 

Look at Apex Lex. He hands Harley this stationary and couldn’t see the flamingo on the background because he glanced at the words and moved on. If he had taken a moment to study the note, he could have solved the problem without Harley. This is a profound thought. Sometimes we just need to pay more attention.

The book itself was fun and didn’t take itself too seriously. The art was fun and I think the creative team enjoyed taking on so many different characters. The writing itself spent a lot of time explaining what the rewards were and who are the nominees while also interlacing fun jokes between the characters. I found it very enjoyable to see the story featured villains who solved a crime with a non-violent solution! Fun stuff.

BOTTOM LINE: FUN AND NOT SERIOUS

If you are looking for an easy read that will give you a good laugh; the this is the book for you! Harley Quinn is a great character because she is quirky and quirky characters allows different storytelling techniques to come through. 3.5 out of 5 stars for Harley Quinn’s Villain of the Year.