Comic: "Gotham City Sirens #1"
Published by: DC Comics
Written by: Paul Dini
Artist: Guillem March

Reviewer: Protoclown
Posted: 7/7/2009

Plot: Catwoman, recovering from a recently sustained injury, gets her ass handed to her fighting off a two-bit chumpass villain. She decides to team up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, at which point "wacky hijinks" are almost certainly to ensue.

Review: Being a fan of Paul Dini and his creation Harley Quinn, I decided to pick up the first issue of Gotham City Sirens, a new monthly series featuring Gotham's most infamous bad girls: Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn. I was kind of hoping there might at least be a little depth to this series, but unfortunately it's mostly fluff. After hearing good things about Catwoman's series from a few year's back, I'd hoped some of that good writing might carry over here--instead it's mostly the goofy fun of Harley's eponymous series of the early 2000s, which was vaguely amusing but ultimately very forgettable.

I don't know why every time someone writes a comic that has Harley Quinn in it, they go for cheap, childish laughs, but I for one would really like to see someone delve into the more serious side of the character. Yes, she is supposed to be funny, but like the Joker, she is mentally deranged (albeit not nearly as bad as the Joker, more in an extremely codependent kind of way). I'd like to see a writer take the character on as a villain in her own right and delve into what makes her tick rather than deliver the same boring shit we've seen over and over again. Let's have her grow as a character for a change (and no, that god awful character arc in Countdown doesn't count).

Anyway, enough about that--in the first issue, Catwoman (still recovering from having her heart literally ripped out--yes, silly, I know) decides rather unconvincingly after getting her butt kicked by a two-bit thug named Boneblaster that the bad girls of Gotham need to stick together, so Ivy and Harley (always the follower) eventually agree, but only on the condition that Catwoman tell them who Batman was (he's "dead" anyway so why does it matter, right?). This is how the first issue cliffhangers, and of course we all know that Ms. Kyle is never going to reveal Bruce's identity, so you'll forgive me, Mr. Dini, if I'm not exactly on the edge of my seat here.

Guillem March's artwork is quite a joy to look at, and I felt the almost-pastel colors by Jose Villarrubia really fit the book extremely well, so no complaints there. In fact, the book itself isn't bad by any stretch--it's certainly entertaining and competent (though I do find it tedious when writers rely on a cheesy no-name "villain" they've created in an attempt to either add "tension" to the story or give the protagonist an unnecessary punching bag to beat up on to show the reader just how badass they are). It's just that I was hoping for a lot more. I like the concept of the book (I would love to see DC launch more books along this vein), and I'll give Dini at least another two issues to hook me, but if I still feel like characters are just "going through the motions" by the end of the first arc, I'm moving on to greener pastures.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)