HARLEY'S NEW CREATIVE TEAM
By the character's very nature, the life of DC's Harley Quinn has always been chaotic. The DCU's femme fatale in clown garb gets another changeup later this year when Harley Quinn gets an top-to-bottom creative team changeover.
While the former art team of Terry and Rachel Dodson have already stepped down to tackle Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do at Marvel, writer Karl Kesel will follow with issue #25, making way for the new creative team of writer Andy Lieberman, penciler Mike (The Coffin) Huddleston, and inker Troy (Trout) Nixey to debut with November's #26.
Starting off a quick meet and greet of the new team, while a new name to comics, Lieberman garnered his writing experience from a different medium. "I started in TV - MTV in New York and Los Angeles," Lieberman said. "Once in L.A., I moved onto network shows, mostly half-hour comedy's - a few on UPN, USA Networks, and two pilots for CBS which never got picked up. I was like any other TV writer, which meant my nights were spent writing screenplays. I did and was lucky enough to sell a feature called Crazy School to Warner Bros. It's drama set in the public high school in Bellevue Psychiatric hospital here in New York. LL Cool J is attached and the guy who directed How Stella Got Her Groove Back is said to be directing it."
Of course, with something like Crazy School on your resume, it's easy to see where the connection to Harley Quinn came in.
"Matt actually read that very script which led to a phone call, a meeting, a lunch - which he paid for! - and then a handshake," Lieberman said.
For Harley Quinn editor Matt Idelson, Lieberman met all the criteria he set for himself when he started looking for a new writer for the series. "I was trying to figure out a direction to go in, writer-wise," Idelson said. "I didn't have a strong sense other than wanting to work with someone I hadn't worked with before, and a desire to work with someone who I thought 'got' the character and could put their own defining spin on it while being loyal to what came before.
"Dan Didio actually brought Andy to my attention with a screenplay he'd written and some shorter-length stuff, and I loved it. After meeting Andy, I wasn't so sure, but I was out of time so I just bit the bullet. Seriously, his ideas were so strong, and I thought his impact on the book would be felt immediately."
Along with the new writer will come a new focus for the series, according to Lieberman. "After talking with the creative team - Matt, Bob Schreck - God, and Natchie Castro my one goal was to give Harley Quinn more of an edge., and the series a bit of darkness. I look at Harley as someone who could either kick your ass or bed you down. Or both. Depending on what's best for her."
The writer added that he's not out to radically upset every apple cart, however - some of the initial beats for the character, laid down by Paul Dini, Karl Kesel and the Dodsons don't need to be changed.
"What I think makes Harley work is her instability," Lieberman said. "So I think that will remain a constant. The fact she can do anything at any time makes her unpredictable, as such she's 
dangerous. And a dangerous character is an exciting character to write."
And in what way will the character be different from what's come before?
"Well, the biggest difference is that she's now a guy!
"No, no, no. I'm joking.
"I guess the story lines will get a little darker and intricate. We'll see more of her at her day job - she is a licensed psychiatrist. I think we've come up with incredibly cool arc for the first five issues which will introduce the readers to this new tone and keep them guessing, literally, to the last page."
According to the new writer, stories that work best with Quinn feature her - to borrow an image from some Silver Age Batman stories - behind the eight ball and fighting for her life.
"Everyone seems to underestimate her & with someone like HQ that can be dangerous," Lieberman said. "She definitely turns the tables & heat up on any number of guys who've tried to screw her over, i.e. - the Joker. Let's just say the concept of revenge is a big part in the first few issues.
As for the look of the book, the change from the Dodson's distinctive artwork to Huddleston and Nixey is one that's needed, according to Lieberman, something that will match the change in story direction.
"The worst thing I could do was try and keep the flame of Dodson alive," Idelson said. "Who in that style can compare to Terry and Rachel? At best, we'd have Dodson-lite, which would have killed any chance of success. I really felt it necessary to go in a radically different direction while keeping certain core elements intact, such as her cuteness.
"I had Mike in my mind for a while, though I didn't know what for, exactly. After talking story with Andy, I knew Mike was perfect for the book. Troy was one of a few people in the running for inking the book, and, well, he's Troy. They really have something magical going together - platonically speaking."
For the future of the title, Lieberman has a specific location, character-wise that he'd like to reach with Harley Quinn. "I want to get to a place where we can explore all aspects of Harley's life. Personally what I think makes a reader follow a character is the connection they make with that character. There has to be a sense of the intimate familiarity but enough mystery and surprise and danger to keep it exciting. And someone like Harley offers all that. I mean there aren't many villains out there that would kill you if you got in her way and then rush across town to help a patient work through their suicidal thoughts.
"Plus she's hot."
Everyone's favorite respected psychologist-turned-insane-Joker-minion gets brainwarped again this November.
