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Comics Relief: Harley Quinn Becomes an Independent Woman

It’s that time again: time for your Wednesday edition of Comics Relief, where today we’ve got news on everything from Power Rangers to Archie. First off though, DC’s Harley Quinn finally gives the Joker what he’s had coming for years. Read on for all the details…

Harley Quinn finally gives the Joker what he’s got comin’

Harley Quinn is currently one of DC’s biggest titles, and easily their biggest title featuring a female hero—outselling Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and the rest. There are probably more fans cosplaying as Harley at conventions than any other character, and yet, there’s always been something troubling about her rise in popularity. Although she’s a fun, wacky character, she almost always been defined by her mentally and physically abusive relationship with her psychotic boyfriend, the Joker. He’s humiliated her, beaten her, thrown her out of windows—you name it. And yet, she’d always crawl back…”because she loves her puddin’.” Needless to say, it’s kind of an awful message to young female fans, grown more troubling as she’s gone from side character to A-lister.

Now onto the SPOILERS: In this week’s issue of Harley Quinn, by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Chad Hardin, DC Comics finally put a nail in the coffin of that relationship for good. In issue # 25, Harley takes a moment to go into her former lover’s cell at Arkham Asylum and beat the crap out of him, and lets him know that it’s over between them forever. With that, DC has made Harley Quinn the comic version of Tina Turner, and as long as they stick to their guns and don’t have Harleen running back to Mr. J, Harley can be a feminist icon along the lines of all the other badass ladies at DC. [io9]

 DC’S Rebirth, whatever it may be, is NOT a reboot

Speaking of DC, it seems we are one step closer to finding out what’s the deal, exactly, with this whole DC Rebirth business. Thanks to a tweet from DC CCO Geoff Johns, we now know what it’s not: A reboot. The following tweet he put out this week kind of says it all:


OK. Hopefully DC won’t keep us in the dark on this whole Rebirth thing too much longer.

BOOM! announces Pink Ranger spin-off series

After the first issue of the new Power Rangers book from Boom! sold like crazy, the publisher has announced its first spinoff comic, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink, a new six-issue miniseries that will feature Kimberly Hart, the first Pink Ranger.

The new mini is coming to us from Batgirl writers Brenden Fletcher and Kelly Thompson of IDW’s Jem and the Holograms. Daniele Di Nicuolo will be the artist, and the first issue’s cover by Elsa Charretier. For more on this, be sure to read our article on the matter. [Nerdist]

The supernatural side of Riverdale set to return this summer

One of the things that helped bring Archie Comics back into prominence these past few years was their two series which mixed the Riverdale High School highjinks with more supernatural overtones. These were Afterlife with Archie, which features a Riverdale overrun with zombies, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, featuring the Teenage Witch just a little more witchy than before. For various reasons, both of those books haven’t seen a new issue since last July.

Lucky for fans, that’s about to change, as Archie Comics has announced that the two series will return this summer. Both books will again be written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who confirmed that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will be back with issue No. 5 on May 18, and Afterlife With Archie will return with issue No. 9 on June 1. Writing the CW pilot Riverdale forced him to put the books on hold, but hopefully they’re back on schedule for good now. For more info and some preview pages, click on the following link: [Vulture]

Dynamite Entertainment re-teams your grandpa’s favorite heroes in King’s Quest

In the era before comic books were king, it was newspaper comic strips that were the thing that Americans were obsessed with as a culture. Most popular among these were comic strip heroes from King’s Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Prince Valiant.

Now, Dynamite Entertainment is bringing these characters together once again in an event series called Kings Quest, set to debut in May from the creative team of writers Ben Acker, Heath Corson, and artist Dan McDaid. It follows 2013’s Kings Watch miniseries and last year’s King crossover, which also brought the characters together for a modern audience. This time, the heroes are united on “a disastrous intergalactic rescue mission.” Kings Quest #1 is scheduled for release on May 4. [Comic Book Resources]

Digital sensation Fresh Romance coming to print from ONI Press

One of the big splashes made last year in the world of indie digital comics was the anthology series Fresh Romance from Rosy Press. Now Rosy has announced a deal with Oni Press to bring the series into print. Later this year, Oni will be publishing a collection of Fresh Romance stories in a new 224 page collection. Fresh Romance Vol. 1 is scheduled to debut July 2016. [Newsarama]

Penny Dreadful #1 gets a series of variant covers

Announced last year, Showtime’s gothic horror drama Penny Dreadful is coming to comics with a new prequel series from publisher Titan Comics, with issue #1 now announced to arrive in stores on May 4—just a few days after the start of season three.

The issue will be written by TV series writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns and come with a number of different covers, including some from artists Guillem March, Ben Templesmith and series artist De Martinis. You can read more about these illustrations in our featured story, and you can see all the covers for issue #1 in our gallery below. [Nerdist]

What do you think of today’s comics news? Let us know in the comments below.

IMAGES: DC Comics / Rosy Press / BOOM! / Dynamite Entertainment /Archie / Titan Comics

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