Harley Quinn falls back into therapist career in Make 'em Laugh #1 preview

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And a consultant for art museums

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Harley Quinn gets a second title this week with the debut of the 'Digital First' series Harley Quinn: Make 'em Laugh. And in this first issue, the villain-turned-sometimes-anti-hero goes back into her pre-costumed career as a therapist.

"It’s hard out there for a freelancer! Looking to make some quick cash, Harley takes on odd jobs in her many wheelhouses - therapizing bad guys, tracking down stolen art from the Gotham Art Museum...but when it turns out the thief has his own mental baggage to unpack, Harley’s got a real Thinker on her hands!," reads DC's description of the first issue.

A relatively minor villain named Head Shrink appears in a preview of the first issue, but the publisher's description of the issue refers to the Thinker - a classic Flash villain who over DC history has featured four different people under the mask: Clifford DeVoe, Cliff Carmichael, Desmond Conner, and even an artificial intelligence created by Mr. Terrific. The DeVoe version of the character was the main villain in the fourth season of CW's The Flash.

Harley Quinn: Make 'em Laugh is part of DC's 'Digital First' line - a group of comic books sold on comiXology, ReadDC.com, Amazon Kindle, Apple, Books and other digital platforms for $0.99. Many of these stories originally debuted in DC's print-exclusive Giants anthologies, and make their digital debut in this repurposed format.      

Harley Quinn: Make 'em Laugh #1 comes from writer Mark Russell and artists Laura Braga, Luis Guerrero, and Marshall Dillon. This first issue is due out June 2.

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(Image credit: DC)
Chris Arrant
Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)