Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

After reading Hot in the City, book one of this ongoing Harley Quinn series, I ordered book two -- or so I thought -- but then I found out that Hot in the City is part of The New 52 series, while Joker Loves Harley, the second book I ordered, was part of Rebirth. Not the same continuity at all. So, I finally got the right book and can continue the story.

The cover of Power Outage implies a big showdown between Harley and her ex-beau, the Joker, on a tropical island. The first story, however, is about Harley's guest appearance in a burlesque show, and the second story is about her first appearance in a no-holds-barred, no-rules fight club on skates.

The main story is actually about Power Girl, not the Joker. In fact, due to poor planning, the reprint edition ends one issue with PG coming in like a meteorite and landing in a crater, unconscious and fetal, at Harley's feet. Then, boom, the next page has Harley shipping herself (to save airfare) in a box to the Bahamas, from the standalone issue Futures End, but of course the plane crashes on an uncharted island with primitive natives and, of course, the Joker living as chieftain/god over the people. He decides to marry Harley but, of course, it's only because he wants to sacrifice her to the local volcano ... which, of course, erupts. It's a whole lot of silliness, and not a very good or interesting story.

And then, boom, she's back to the Power Girl storyline. Harley, in her wisdom, decides to haul the unconscious superhero back to her place, dress her up in different clothes and convince her (when she wakes) that they're partners in a crimefighting duo. (Mostly, it's an excuse to show PG discreetly naked, I think.) Of course it works, Power Girl buys the lie, and HQ takes PG on a shopping spree (they wear very different sizes) until a couple of low-rent villains, Clock King and Sportsmaster, attack the mall and send the would-be heroes through a portal to a distant galaxy ruled by a giant dog, and where the writers riff on the Avengers/Thanos storyline for a while. Then it's back home, where HQ and her friends convince PG she's the strong woman in a Coney Island freak show. (Hey, I didn't write this stuff.) But then Clock King and Sportsmaster show up, and a bird poops on Power Girl's head, and....

The collection ends with Harley Quinn and her Coney Island pals jetting off to San Diego for Comic-Con and a meta-laden story involving various characters and creators from the DC stable, and a convention hall full of Joker cosplayers, and a limo full of Harleys. Harley, meanwhile, decides she wants to be a comic-book artist, but she keeps getting thrown out of the con.

Power Outage is light and fluffy and sometimes amusing and mostly well-drawn, but the aimless storytelling gets tiresome after a while and I didn't really enjoy it. Maybe I'll give the Rebirth series a try. (Although, given that it has the same writing team, Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti, I expect the tone will be fairly similar....)