Gotham City Sirens #5-11

Gotham City Sirens #5-11

Originally released in 2009

Written by Paul Dini (#5-7, 9-11), Guillem March (#8)

Art by Guillem March (#5-6, 8-9), David Lopez (#7), Andres Guinaldo (#10-11)

Paul Dini's time with this series wound up being shorter than I expected, only lasting eleven issues. (the series as a whole lasted 26 issues)  While Dini's time on this series doesn't get as deep into the interactions between Gotham's criminal element as I hoped, it's still a fun series of events.

This series feels like it played a large part in making Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy into more sympathetic characters, between Harley doing her best to move on from the Joker and Ivy trying to interact with people beyond Harley and Selina. (even though she still has a tendency to use pheromones to get whatever she wants)

Part of Harley's development comes from the reveal that the Joker didn't attack the Sirens - in fact, he's been missing for quite some time. (presumably ever since Bruce Wayne, as Batman, died and Dick took over)  Instead, he's been imitated (with the help of a costume and some stilts) by Gaggy, the Joker's diminutive former sidekick that the Joker now sees as being part of a regrettable era for him.  Gaggy is obsessive over his time with the Joker, to the point where he wants to kill Harley to go back to the "good old days".

Of course, Harley's quick to go back to "maybe the Joker will have changed for real if he does come back!", but for a moment, she reflects on Gaggy's obsessive behaviour and realizes that she isn't much different.  Meanwhile, when the Sirens go to different places for the holidays, Ivy heads for the rainforest, where she comes to realize that a part of herself feels like it's missing if she avoids people entirely.

As a result, she gets a job at the Gotham division of STAR Labs, where she takes a page out of Lex Luthor's playbook and immediately fires the people who were higher-ups in her division.  This immediately backfires on her.  Meanwhile, Selina appears to be regaining her strength after attacks from Hush and Black Mask, with her heart problems fading, and she has sparring matches with Ted "Wildcat" Grant from the Justice Society to stay in shape.

Harley is a highlight of this series (understandable - Dini was one of her creators, and she's great comedic relief), though Selina and Ivy are still great protagonists, with Catwoman being more outright heroic and Ivy being more of an anti-hero.  The three of them work well together as foils, and I'm hoping their dynamic continues to work well once the next writer has taken over.

The Riddler also gets focus here, investigating a murder mystery that the trio gets wrapped up in.  Unfortunately, it seems like his time as a private detective is coming to an end at this point. (mention is made of a bomb going off in his face, and it's caused him to feel dissatisfied with his new law-abiding life)  There was a point where I thought I knew where the story was going, only to be incorrect - we hear about the victim (a woman who fell from the sky, crashing through the skylight of the Sirens' base), but we only see the visuals for Harley and Catwoman's stories.  This led me to suspect that Ivy was responsible, given that we didn't see her part, but it turned out to be a villain that I had never heard of.

I do wish that Paul Dini's time on this series was longer, but it was enjoyable while it lasted.  I wonder what else he's written, particularly for characters who are outside of Gotham - going by what I've seen of the DCAU, I feel like someone on the production team really liked Etrigan (he appeared in Batman: The Animated Series and several episodes of Justice League/Justice League Unlimited), but I'm not sure if Dini is among them.  The lower stakes and more comedic tone make for a nice change of pace.