I buy all the Batman related titles regardless of quality. It’s my favorite corner of any comic universe and I’d like to know what happens in it as it occurs. Having said that, I’ve been reading Gotham City Sirens more out of obligation than anything else. It’s not that the book has necessarily been bad, just kinda boring, which might be worse. Nevertheless, the last issue really caught my attention because of a number of interesting panel layouts throughout, but I didn’t think it was entirely successful. I am glad to say that what Calloway and Guinaldo attempted to do in the previous issue has, and this is no hyperbole, been perfected in this issue. This is the perfect Joker and Harley Quinn love story, even if a twisted one, and if you’re not terribly interested in their relationship you would still have to appreciate the level of skill displayed in these 20 pages.

The story has been about Harley Quinn attempting to break into Arkham Asylum in order to kill the Joker. She brought a handful of items in order to do so and the final item is a rusty nail, which is for the guard who holds the keys to the Joker’s box. This nail isn’t used with violence, though, it’s worse than that and it works. The storytelling here is perfect, featuring a terrific two page spread of the nail’s silhouette, a story being told entirely within it. This was attempted last issue, but here it works better, because of the set-up, the content, and the fall-out. But the zenith of the issue, what happens when Harley is once again face to face with the Joker, that cemented this issue as one of the best single issues of a comic I’ve read in a long time, especially out of the Bat-books. For the first time ever, I am actually curious about where this book is headed and can only hope this creative team sticks around and delivers comics of this quality.