I love both covers for this issue. Sitting on a captive Santa’s lap with her bat and Christmas list could not be any more Harley. Harley smiles and exudes happiness, while ol’ Chris Kringle is sweating his beard off, wondering if he will live through this. The second cover with Harley and her snowman is simply a great piece of art. Either would make great posters. Even the title page is pure Christmas Harley.
As you open to the first couple pages of this issue it quickly becomes clear this might as well be the Clark W. Quinn Christmas Vacation. Harley’s mom bends her arm and talks her into attending an all-family Christmas for the first time in awhile. This does not sound like a regular occurrence, and once you see her family you understand why.
Everyone tries to help make Harley’s vision come true, but in typical Christmas disaster tradition, each proceeds to destroy Harley’s vision, causing her to to explode in typical Harley rage and frustration.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, a true bombshell is dropped on Harley, sending her fleeing from the home. I won’t go into what happens here as I encourage you to read the issue first. While it is again a bit of a holiday Cliche, it is a twist that really sucks and is hard for Harley to cope with. I love the pages and panels that follow as she has a heart to heart with her mother. They are both pure Harley as well as very moving.
Harley returns home and starts the real party – FOOD FIGHT!! At this point Tina and Catwoman show up to the party and there is a very cool panel of everyone yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS! This is a fun Christmas issue that looks to affect Harley down the road in more ways than one.
Besides the personal issues, we get a glimpse in the final panel of something even bigger that is about to go down over the next couple issues. Earlier, Harley and her mother watched a shooting star hit the new mountain created last issue. Turns out it was not a meteor but Starfire! Upon realizing it was Christmas, Starfire curses in typical Starfire form and says she is late for the trial of Harley Quinn!
Even the end symbol makes a reference to next issues story, probably containing Catwoman, but then the big issue and story that will team up Batman and Harley. Something is about to go very wrong for Harley, and it will drag quite a few of her friends and family with her.
