Holy canoli, what a cover. To
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #4, I mean, and its insides offer another fun issue.
Paul Dini is back in the writer's chair this month, and not surprisingly the girls seem like themselves again. It's largely Harley's issue, but don't worry -- when Selina and Ivy show up, they are not to be taken lightly. By anyone. (An early highlight involves Ivy "listening" to the city for clues about what Tommy "Hush" Elliot is up to in the same way Superman might hover above Earth, listening for trouble.)
The best bits are the scenes between Tommy, who's still posing as Bruce Wayne, and Harley, who's still posing as normal. Their internal monologues are hilarious -- he's figuring out the quickest way to kill her, and she's figuring out the quickest way to inherit the Wayne billions.
Meanwhile, The Joker is annoyed by Harley traipsing around town with Bruce Wayne, and not necessarily for the reason you might think. His self-styled airship attacks Tommy and Harley at a rooftop restaurant, drawing out Selina and Ivy for a fantastic action sequence.
But of course Tommy finds a way to bend the situation to his favor (at least publicly), while the girls share an excellent dialogue scene at the end that gets interrupted with the makings of another cliffhanger.
This issue feels a lot like an adult episode of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, and Dini's Joker ignores the changes Grant Morrison made to the character during the BATMAN, R.I.P. storyline. In fact, this Joker is so similar to the B:TAS version that you can hear Mark Hamill's voice delivering every word. My only quibble with the issue is that The Joker doesn't see through Tommy's disguise; I'm of the belief that The Joker knows Bruce Wayne is Batman but only cares about the Batman side, but that doesn't mean he still wouldn't see that Bruce isn't quite himself. Furthermore, I think The Joker is smart enough to know Tommy Elliot when he sees him, particularly given their own sordid history.
This book continues to be a lot of fun. Guillem March's art is sexy and definitely cheesecake, but Dini's seemingly effortless ability to write real characters no matter what the situation or format is what really makes this book special. - John Bierly
