DC K.O.: Harley Quinn vs. Zatanna (2025-) #1 (DC K.O. All Fight

by Leah Williams, Mirka Andolfo (Artist)

DC K.O. All Fight Month, round 5 of 8! It's all-out chaos as Harley Quinn faces off against a surprise opponent!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics

Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2025

About the author

Leah Williams is an American writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi. She has written comics for Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and is working on more. Her debut novel was a YA Fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen and she is currently writing its sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen. Leah has nonfiction articles and essays published in The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, and Salon.

Reviews

[MrGlassWontBreak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zatana is forced to fight her good friend Harley in a best 2 out of 3, to-the-death, combat game, but Harley seems to only care about winning. In the final round it’s revealed that Harley, knowing she had no chance in winning the tournament, had to push the person who did, Zatana, into a morally grey area where she would do anything to win.

So she angered her and sacrificed herself to do just that and give Zatana the conviction necessary to power through the tournament. This one was a bit too light hearted for me, and the art work was not really my cup of tea.

[Machiavelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

That Andolfo art raises this for me

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 1 out of 5]

This issue didn’t make me as angry as the previous one, but it left me feeling equally, if not more so, defeated. The overly PG-ified portrayals of these characters were deeply disappointing, and I genuinely question what Williams was trying to accomplish here, or whether she has spent much time with the mainline versions of Harley Quinn or Zatanna at all.
Harley Quinn occasionally feels like herself, though noticeably toned down and restrained. Zatanna, however, feels completely off. She bears little resemblance to the confident, seasoned character readers know, and she is significantly underpowered. After surviving countless world-ending threats, seeing her reduced to someone who behaves more like a naïve bystander fixated solely on her “friend” is baffling. Even more frustrating is how little she actually uses her magic throughout the issue.
Overall, this was a thoroughly disappointing read. I wouldn’t recommend picking it up; just know that Zatanna wins and move on.
Grade: D-

[Cristhian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intrascendente

[Kamen Rider Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solo 5 estrellas porque harley no gano, literalmente realmente es 2 estrellas pero la loca duro más de lo que debía durar, suspire de alivio

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m impressed by how much I enjoyed this issue. Not all of the rounds have been so consequential (usually you can tell who will win based on who is the bigger player in DC Comics overall) but this one feels maybe the most evenly matched in terms of character popularity of all the fights, making it less predictable. What’s interesting about both Zatanna and Harley is that they’re both formidable fighters in their own right as well as emotionally intelligent. They both know that morality is not black and white. They also both know that this isn’t a fair fight, physically. Zatanna is one of the world’s greatest magic users, and Harley is a gymnast with a sledgehammer. The KO tournament has been hard on Zatanna, who is fiercely loyal to her friends, who are her competitors. Harley, on the other hand, isn’t sure how she even made it this far. When Zatanna won’t step up and use her magic or stop pulling her punches, Harley knows how to provoke her for the greater good.

[AJ Easterday · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is my favorite of the DC KO fights I've read so far. I think Harley and Zatanna are a great pair of characters to put together, but the writer did have the challenge of making this seem like a more difficult fight since most people would assume Zatanna could easily beat Harley with her magic. But Harley pulls out some interesting tricks throughout this issue that keep things interesting. Plus Zatanna really struggles with the idea of fighting someone she considers a friend and she has to overcome a lot in such a short time. Overall, a great fight that does both characters justice.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now we are getting some crazy stakes and character influencing, that’s what I’m talking about and I am terrified, in the best possible way, to see where Zatanna goes from here. And Harley had some great fourth wall breaking comedy throughout. So with this fight both of the fighters know just how unfair a matchup this is. World’s most powerful magic user vs…Harley Quinn. The first match puts the fighters in a reflection of Zatanna’s world, winding bookcases filled with magic flood the space. It feels so natural to Zatanna but she can sense the darkness that twists it. And then in comes Harley, like a truck barreling down the cases until she reaches Zatanna. Zatanna immediately sees Harley and approaches her with a handshake for a fair fight…Harley responds with the brilliant move of bashing the end of her mallet into Zatanna’s wind pipe to try and stop her from talking. Like I said, they both know this is an unfair fight so why not try and keep this on a strictly hand to hand level…no magic. Naturally with that dirty trick out of the way, Zatanna didn’t stand much of a chance in the first round and Harley delivered a nasty taste of defeat.

This of course immediately sent the pair into a costume change area, not of which opted out of it, before being thrown into a Tetris like world (as Harley is into retro games right now) to continue the next fight. Zatanna fully believes she can still take Harley down with just hand to hand, but as Harley gets the first hit in, and Zatanna uses her magic to heal, it’s immediately clear that this could never be a fair fight with someone who can heal themselves on a whim. But Zatanna jumps right back into the axion, refusing to use magic and only throwing straight hands. She has teamed up with batman before and it shows, delivering a few punches before one large knockout blow to Harley! But as the omega energy ruses into Zatanna and she feels the power she is thrown back into a gasp as her eyes fill with darkness.

Harley decides to throw out the rule book she was complaining about and use her time in the room of multiversal counterparts to borrow some of Zatanna’s magic for herself. As we are thrown into the third round Harley is greeted with a full control panel, only she can see, to unleash magic on Zatanna. Harley throws out cursed chains and Zatanna throws out astral fists. Harley continues to push Zee and even starts to throw personal insults her way, talking about how she will always be in the shadows of successful men like her father. All of this, coupled with a giant magic gun, is just to try and push Zatanna over the deep end…and it works. Eventually Zatanna fully unleashes her power and strikes Harley down with one large killing blow! Harley knew she couldn’t get past Zatanna, but she thinks Zatanna has a real chance and she wanted to get her into a morally grayer area to actually have a chance of winning. Unlocking her ruthlessness and weaponizing it. As Harley dies in her arms and she wins the third round, Zatanna doesn’t know how to feel. She only feels the power of the omega energy in her veins, she has never had to kill and now she has to do it to save the universe and undo the violence she caused. I have to admit, Zatanna is one of those easy characters you could 100% see it winning it all…but with this level of corruption? It doesn’t sound good, she is only on a path to falling in line with what darkseid and the omega energy wants. Ending the issue off we continue our watchtower interlude. Last we left off in titans #30, darkseid in Booster’s form was trying to use the omega energy rift to accelerate the destruction of Earth…but he forgot all about Grodd who doesn’t want to see that either. Grodd immediately starts attacking darkseid in Booster’s “puny” form and even though darkseid is still able to match Grodd physically…he can’t withstand his psychic influence and Grodd is now ordering darkseid to release booster from his control!! Yes!!

[Scratch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I make a conscious choice to avoid most Harley Quinn content. I like her okay when she's in her classic red and black costume, and when she's being treated as a morally gray side character. I like the queer representation when she's with Ivy, too. But whenever I see a comic book with her on the cover and she's got the Margot Robbie look going on, I actively avoid that book. That tells me that she is going to be 1) sexualized, and 2) way more popular and prominent than she used to be. I have picked up enough rumblings since Rebirth to know that now the Bat family treats her like a quasi member, and I'm just not okay with that.

Her popularity is the only reason this issue lasted as long as it did. Pairing her against one of the world's most powerful magic users was a joke, but the writer gave Harley every possible advantage.

[Jerry Aguirre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun fight. Going in I feel like everyone knew Harley wasn’t going to win. She was a means to an end. She helped move Zatanna closer to using her full power, she actually stands a chance in the tournament. Initially, she was holding back, even running away as not to fight. Until Harley pushed the right buttons, so now Zatanna is bloodthirsty to win. For Harley. For herself. For Justice. Pretty good story, just not a lot of action.

3 stars for not having a lot of action like Cyborg or WW, but still awesome !

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t read other series with these characters but I found this issue so underwhelming. This whole contest is about fighting to save the galaxy and we constantly get heroes holding punches while knowing what’s on the line. I also wish this fight was more brutal like the Red Hood and Joker issue. It was cool reading about Zatana for once though

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Vs books where the characters really grapple with the stakes of killing one another. These battles are also more brutal, with less cartoony violence than some of the others. Williams and Andolfo make for a great creative pair, too!

[Alexis Moreno · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found myself really enjoying this issue. im not entirely certain why. there was a layer of honestly that felt so true to the fight that i think was palpable. the frustration. the anger. the desire to not engage but the drive too? i’m not sure. but i was captivated.

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art was okay and Harley’s manipulation of Zatana was well done. I’m glad she lost. Zatana would make a more interesting character to get corrupted anyway.

[Ushnav Shroff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not fun but still fun, you know?

[Powerman61 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with either character in this issue,
and the storyline didn't do anything to want more.
So so issue and artwork.

[Joseph Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow I loved this

[Madeesonxoxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I can kick your ass without magic, for the record. Without gimmicks!”


harley stay ragebaiting in every universe

[Craig Schorling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might be my favorite of the fight issues. The story going along with the fight was quite nice and the artwork was terrific.

[Hades Grayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐️
Zatanna was so nerfed in this. It's understandable as to why she was but still, given Zatanna's recent run, this was a let down

[Ryan MacLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good round!

[Dan Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

These books are a waste of time

[Mark Cubillos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was on the fence at first because there was no way I could buy Harley being competitive against Zatanna, but it worked.

[Rhett Marak · Rating 5 out of 5]

My vote is Zatanna will reach the finals

[purplusly · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's always yuri for those with the eyes to see

[LUCAS FERNANDEZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

sigue siendo mí pelea favorita de todo el evento, q no es un gran logro viendo lo puta mierda q son las otras

[yekta · Rating 5 out of 5]

alles was ich mir erhofft habe wow 10/10

[Ian De Quadros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe a 3.5? Genuinely better than I thought it would be.

[Miles Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zatanna #1 forever

[spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOW KISS