Convergence - Harley Quinn #1

[icon_uk]

The Harley Quinn Convergence is perhaps closer to a "Gotham City Sirens" reunion as it involves the main three members; Harley herself, Poison Ivy and Catwoman.

Harley's back in the classic BTAS outfit (always my preferred version, stylistically)



We open, a year ago, in Gotham....



Allowing a LAUGHING hyena skull in Gotham? That's not insulting, it's suicidal! One shoulld perhaps be relieved it' "only" Harley who showed up!

The hesit goes sour big time, Harley's hyena's enjoy chomping down on her henchmen more than on attacking the cops, and even the cops are annoying.



And it's at this particular point that the Convergence event happens and Gotham City is trapped inside a giant dome and transported to... know one knows where, and no one knows by who. A number of heroes are trapped there, as are villains but, and this is important, the dome cancels out all superpowers and altered biologies (pretty much). So Harley loses her enhanced strength and resilience that Ivy's powers gave her way back in "Mad Love".

With some degree of order maintained in the city by the mostly non-meta-powered-anyway heroes, and many people adjusting to life under the dome fairly well (but more on that in the Nightwing/Oracle post) Harl(een) actally starts to make progress in her own recovery. Her therapist introduces her to the cop whose hand she crushed (as part of a process of making her deal with the crimes she had committed as Harley Quinny) and they form a rather nice, normal, romantic relationship (Mr J is not featured in this issue, well, not personally).



The floating fish are a recurring motif in the story, at her worst she remembers them singing to her as they swam around her fingers, but as she improves, they appear less frequently, and she doesn't like the memories they bring.

Later, we meet up with Ivy, who has also turned over a new leaf (sorry for that one), and is now largely repsonsible for keeping the city fed with the plants that she maintains (She no longer has her plant control powers, but she IS still a genius level botanist) though some wanting to profiteer from her stores of food find that Selena is keeping an eye on her.

And at this point the dome disappears and the metahuman powers kick in again (so Ivy instantly changes into her old green skinned self again) and a giant alien voice thingy announces the start of the Thunderdomw/Hunger Games/Arena. rules of Convergence (Basically; "Fight to the death, the city whose champion eins, saves their city, the other is destroyed). The voice announces that it's chosen combatants are Captain Carrot (from Earth-C back in the day) and... Harley Quinn.



Dick in Harley's costume? Okay, I don't make many demands, but to put it frankly and simply, I want fanart of that NOW!!! Ahem... sorry.

The gangster guy immediately announces that he is not going to let a screw-up like Harley decide the fate of the whole city, and that if they can kill her first, the dome guy will have to choose another champion! Ivy... does not approve that idea




That image is perhaps my favourite of the story, I'm not sure why, it's just such a beautiful depitcion of mundane, happy ordinariness. Two people slumped so comfortably together.

It doesn't last, as Ivy and Catwoman storm in and Ivy injects Harley with something to cancel out the mood regulators she's been on, but she does so BEFORE Louie gets a chance to yell that Harley ran out of her Meds months ago (with no supplies getting into the city) and that all the progress she's made she's made on her own. So Ivy has just pumped extra-powerful psychotropics into someone whose hold on reality is a little shaky....

The ending, as we see the Harley we knew return is both powerful, and heart-breaking (which is not what I expected from this issue).

Well worth a look IMHO.

Comments

[captainbellman]

...I assume Harley and her new squeeze just made out until they dozed off?

[icon_uk]

If you like, though given she'd just had one of her little episodes, I think it's as likely they just cuddled, him holding her close so she knows she's safe, and both dozed off.

..

[thepinkperil]

She jumped him in the previous scene, all you see is the back of the couch. One voice says "Okay.." the other voice says, "Wow!"

[lego_joker]

I still gotta say the whole Sirens thing doesn't make much sense in the DCU proper - prior to Dini launching GCS, both Harley and Ivy had a long and storied history of being complete shitheels to Selina. It's so weird to see them as semi-BFFs.

I think that Gotham Girls (which Dini was ironically totally uninvolved with, if memory serves) was the one that got that ball rolling.

[miramira]

I wonder if "try to disarm the supervillains with puns" is a standard part of Gotham police training.

[icon_uk]

It got Dick Grayson through his formative years, but I suspect for others this would only work for Harley, and only if she was in a good mood.

[shadowpsykie]

Ok... I am confused.... pre 52/post crisis characters (oracle/the sirens/titans/Stephanie/Cass/Red Robin/Question) are they ALL in the same dome?

[thepinkperil]

Yes. Through various plot convenient methods all the heroes featured this week are in Gotham just prior to Flashpoint. No one has powers or abilities. Even poor Two-Face can't use his coin. Roy's mechanical arm doesn't work. But those who fought street crime without powers still do, well those who probably have Bruce's permission. You know how he can be.

Gotham being a big place, the heroes just end up policing small sections. Even Clark gives it a go.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Alright, now this is where I go "I thought Harley was an anti-hero now, and living in Brooklyn," and someone tells me "oh no, this is some other version of Harley," and I go "oh, so what does this one have to do with anything?" and someone tells me and I in all likelyhood just want to say eff it.

Not that I don't like this, I just feel a bit confused.