INJUSTICE: YEAR ZERO #8/ Written by TOM TAYLOR/ Art by CIAN TORMEY/ Colors by RAIN BEREDO/ Letters by WES ABBOTT/ Published by DC COMICS

I must confess I’d been avoiding writing about Injustice: Year Zero. Given how much I’ve written about the previous Injustice series, I feared becoming repetitive. Besides, if you aren’t already enjoying this twisted little corner of the DC Comics multiverse and alternating between cursing and cheering Tom Taylor, I don’t think my little reviews are going to do much to change your opinion one way or the other.

This issue, however, I had to comment on. Even though there is little I can say about it. And yet the image above says everything you need to know. For this story is a love story. A love story about the kind of love that keeps you sane even as a part of you knows it is crazy and can’t last.

In other words, it’s a story about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

There’s nothing here that really qualifies as shocking or surprising if you’ve paid attention to Harley and Ivy’s interactions in previous Injustice comics. Tom Taylor delivers more than a few nods to earlier chapters, from Kenneth (the hapless admissions clerk at Arkham Asylum) to the visualization of a scene that was referred to but never depicted. Suffice it to say, if you love Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and seeing them together, you have to get this comic.

The artwork by Cian Tormey invites comparison to Terry Dodson, in terms of how he draws expressions and the body language his character possess. Yet there is a darkness to Tormey’s work and a certain sense of grittiness despite the clarity of his linework. The image of Harley and Ivy leaving Arkham Asylum together tells you everything you need to know about them without a single word of dialogue being required. The colors by Rain Beredo convey a surprising sense of subtlety, with the tint of the glass changing the colors just enough to indicate the presence of a window between the characters and the audience.

The most astonishing thing about this issue is one could jump into it without having read any of the previous Injustice comics and follow along fine. For that reason alone, I must once again recommend it to anyone and everyone who is a fan of Harley and Ivy, alone or apart. Though I may sound like the political commercials that are continually rerun on various streaming services at this time of year, I’ll gladly repeat this once more; the universe of Injustice is one of the best locales of the DC Multiverse and well-worth reading even if you are sick of evil Superman stories.