Harley Quinn, vol. 4: The Final Trial collects Harley Quinn nos. 64-69 and the Harley Quinn’s Villain of the Year one-shot written by Sam Humphries and Mark Russell with art by Sami Basri, Mike Norton, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Tom Derenick, and Trevor Scott, colors by HI-FI, Jessica Kholinne, and Ivan Plascencia, and letters by Dave Sharpe and Steve Wands. The volume begins with Harley Quinn processing her mother’s death due to cancer. Poison Ivy finally makes an appearance in issue no. 64, helping Harley to keep vigil at her mother’s bedside, though this is more of a cameo. Fans looking for some real interaction between Harley and Ivy will leave this volume disappointed, particularly as their relationship was something that defined Harley Quinn from the New 52 reboot on through DC Rebirth and DC Universe.

The story continues the running theme of Harley reading M. Clatterbuck’s comic book about herself, creating a metanarrative within the main narrative that both comments on the primary plot and on larger DC continuity, including the “Year of the Villain” that was occurring at the time and influenced titles throughout DC’s publishing line. As a concept, this works rather well, but Humphries must also balance it against the story of Harley’s mother dying from cancer and the last trial and resolution of the storyline involving the Lords of Chaos and Order’s challenge for Harley to become their Galactic Angel of Retribution. While Harley Quinn is a good series for discussing the overuse of event storylines, the plot becomes rather tangled from trying to do too much at once.

The final story before the Villain of the Year one-shot focuses on Harley helping out the Hambezzler, recently released from prison for embezzlement, clear his name as he works with Grumpus, Captain Playhab, and Clown McCrown to uncover who stole their McGobble’s employee pension funds. The clues lead to Councilman Cheeseburger, but he in turn points to the company owners, Mitch and Murray McGobble, a reference to the unseen bosses from Glengarry Glen Ross. Overall, the story features entertaining satire reminiscent of the kinds of stories featuring the fun weirdos of Coney Island that helped established the current series of Harley Quinn. Similarly, the Villain of the Year one-shot offers a nice chance to comment on DC’s continuity-wide events and, since the readers chose the winners, this volume includes bonus pages that Humphries and team created to be ready for the outcome of the vote. It’s a fun idea and helps the volume to end on a positive note. ( )