With a tour schedule as chaotic as Harley herself, the newly coupled Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy head to Blüdhaven and plan themselves a nice, romantic dinner date. When you’re a pair of supervillains on the run from an overzealous Jim Gordon, though, do things ever really go according to plan? Harley Quinn: The Animated Series- The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour #3 written by Tee Franklin, drawn by Max Sarin, colored by Marissa Louise and lettered by Taylor Esposito.
Armaan Babu: I am grumpy about how tricky it is to follow this book’s schedule. That is about all I really have to say about that matter, however, because the comic itself continues to be a delight. The world of the Harley Quinn animated series has such fun takes on DC mainstays, and this comic keeps giving us more of those – all centered around great moments for Harley and Ivy themselves. How’d you enjoy this issue, Cassie?
Cassie Tongue: For a comic so casually graphic and comfortably absurd, should I be finding it so heartwarming? There’s a beautiful commitment at the heart of this fun, madcap series to exploring how, exactly, these two women – with all their associated hangups, baggage, trauma, flaws, and hopes – can forge a new life together based on a newly – or at least differently – intimate bond.
For all its butt worship (I’m sure there’ll be more on this later) and punchlines, this road trip adventure comic is a love story – and I’m a sucker for a love story.
Nightwing Butts In
Cassie: In this issue, Harley and Ivy find the time in their busy schedule of being fugitives for a romantic dinner date, after narrowly escaping (again) Jim Gordon, who is rapidly coming apart at the seams – with the help of a queer civilian and, much to Harley’s delight, Nightwing. The cartoon nods to the rhythms of normal life that operate parallel to the criminal underworld, especially to highlight the quirks of the DC stable of characters, and this comic carries on the tradition by showing how these realities and networks are intertwined; how much Harley and Ivy don’t exist in a vacuum. It also serves to humanize them a little more. How are you finding the world-building and character choices in the series, and in this issue, Armaan?
Armaan: I love me some good worldbuilding, especially in alternate Earths, which is, technically, what this series is set in. There have been a lot of humorous takes on DC characters in the company’s long history, but to my mind, this world specifically feels a lot like what Lower Decks is to the Star Trek universe. It’s not a parody so much as it is a loving but hilarious homage to all the things this franchise has to offer.
What I particularly enjoy is how rich this world feels, and that’s helped a lot by Sarin’s art. Every panel is so filled with detail, and no two people are quite alike. It’s a celebration of diversity.
As for the more familiar characters themselves, I love the takes on them. Take away the drama necessary for more conventional comics, and you’re allowed to see just how mundanely petty the supervillain community can be. Sure, Hush is obsessed with being more like Bruce Wayne, but he’s also a skeevy jerk who’ll interrupt a perfectly lovely date and throw a tantrum when it’s not going his way.
Also, always love seeing Nightwing. This version of him really cements his vibe as the fun but firm (firm in more ways than one, as the comic emphasizes at every opportunity) older brother of the DC Universe – to both heroes and villains alike.
What was odd for me is how abruptly the Batgirl/Jim Gordon face-off seemed to have ended. How do you feel about how this scene played out?
Cassie: I have to hope that Batgirl will be returning, because you’re right – it seems strange that their confrontation would last all of three panels, and feels imbalanced when you consider all the room the comic makes for Nightwing and even Hush.
Having said that, in those three panels the comic – in a particularly skilful collaboration between Franklin, Sarin and Esposito – forces us to slow down and take a moment to reckon with the brief clash before we can turn the page (where the scene shifts to an entirely new location); we’re tuned into the inner dialogue of both Batgirl and Gordon. For that third and final panel, the story is theirs and theirs alone. Batgirl raises the stakes on Gordons’s wildly unhinged pursuit by reminding him of how much he stands to lose; namely, his daughter. And in Gordon’s dialogue box, stained and messy as it is, there’s a wavering in it: Barbara is still able to reach him.
It’s this richness of detail – which has, at its heart, a commitment to character – that elevates this comic from a fun tie-in into a genuinely satisfying comic in which we can have a sincere emotional investment.
That we can all acknowledge and celebrate Nightwing’s great ass at the same time is just the icing on the cake. If you will.
Armaan: I think we can all get behind that.
Beatdown in Blüdhaven
Armaan: So before we get into the how Harley and Ivy’s rocky relationship road is developing, let’s talk a little about the action, because there’s some great stuff happening this issue – in fact we open with it, complete with ye olde fourth wall break “I betcha wondering how we got here” from Harley.
There’s no two ways about it, this is a goofy comic, and the slapstick messes here are excellent. Whether it’s Harley knocking the wind out of Ivy as they fall from a vine, or Harley being unceremoniously thrown into a plate of spaghetti, this issue gave me a lot to giggle about. At the same time, though, what we’re never allowed to forget is just how deadly of a fighting team Poison Ivy and Harley are.
One of the more appealing visual differences this issue is that Harley and Ivy aren’t in their superhero costumes. They’re dressed up in incredibly snazzy outfits, with their unique green and white complexions hidden under make-up. While the make-up doesn’t make that much of a difference on Harley, it does make the green-eyed, murderous rage of Poison Ivy that much more terrifying – especially with the carnivorous flowers she’s got done up in her hair (never underestimate the importance of accessorizing). What did you think of this issue’s action?
Cassie: I think I want to go on a date with a woman who is wearing carnivorous flowers like Ivy in this issue, because wow, what a way to breathe life back into the tired, now totally whimsy-less flower crown.
Oh, you meant the other kind of action?
I love the way that, during this dinner date dust-up, Sarin’s art gives the fight scenes a delightful elasticity. When Harley is thrown through the air by Hush, her face scrunches and morphs against the breeze and force of motion; Louise’s campy letters tumble sound effects on top of dishware and amplify Ivy’s new hair accessories. The panels are colourful and bursting with activity – flirting with messiness, never succumbing to it.
That Harley is participating in the fight scene while narrating the story to onlookers, (pilfering bites of their meals and stealing sips of their drinks as she does so) while still finding time to pop dislocated bones into place and flirt with Ivy, feels like a perfectly-pitched level of chaos, and that we don’t lose narrative clarity in the process is impressive.
Even the silliest fight scenes are there for a reason, because what turns the tide during their battle with Hush? Its his fumbling sexual harassment of Harley (he’s trying to score with the ladies a la Batman, I guess) that turns immediate threatening when he grabs her. Ivy is not having it – she makes short work of him with a roar of vines; messing with the love of her life on their first date, she says, is a deadly mistake. Ivy can shut down the worst threats in the world, given the right motivation.
Armaan: I like that we have all – but this world in particular – moved on from the idea that Poison Ivy is deadly because of her poisoned lipstick. We’re seeing it in Batman right now, and we’re seeing it here – Poison Ivy is a powerful force to be reckoned with – especially if you interrupt date night.
Hearts Escape Into the Air
Armaan: Now, the issue ends with Harley and Ivy having a truly wonderful evening together at crime boss Falcone’s expense in return for not tearing apart his restaurant, but let’s back up a bit, ‘cause we’ve saved the most important bit for last: there are some important relationship issues that this pair have just not had the time to talk about.
Ivy’s still holding a lot of guilt over how her wedding went down. From a certain point of view, she hurt a lot of people just so she can be with Harley – and it seems clear that that’s magnifying every little mistake Harley makes, blowing things out of proportion. Doubly so when you mix in the hunger and fatigue of a long and badly planned road trip. Harley, for her part, is typically engrossed in moving on to the next fun thing, when she ought to be slowing down enough for Ivy’s feelings to catch up to this whirlwind romance.
It’s always frustrating as an outsider to see two people with clear problems in their relationship not taking time to talk about it, but it’s still so very compelling. It’s the flip side of the will-they/won’t-they tension we’ve had for the first two seasons of the show – they’re together now, but how long before they address the issues that are slowly tearing them apart?
At #3, it feels to me like it’s taking just a little longer than it should. A part of me wonders how much freedom this comic actually has – after all, it’s a bridge between Season 2 and Season 3 of a show whose viewers may not ever actually read this comic. I assume there’s a limit on how much development can actually happen in these pages vs. how much is being saved for the TV series.
On the other hand, there’s a lot of love between the two. This issue especially is filled with moments that HarlIvy fans have been waiting years for – loving glances, heroic rescues, long lustful looks on the hood of a car after a delightfully romantic date…it’s easy to see why the two of them would keep choosing to push aside their problems to enjoy the dizzying romance of the moment.
Cassie: Is it weird if I say that Harley and Ivy’s insistence on avoiding talking about their issues feels deeply realistic?
Armaan: Not at all!
Cassie: It’s likely that I’m amplifying in my own head the work the comic is doing to showcase that tension between what Harley and Ivy want (hot sex, cute flirtations, to be happy and uncomplicatedly in love) and what they have (guilt, doubt and not a little fear about how they can make their love last) and applying deeper-aimed lens than is really needed. Lord knows I love to read into things!
Armaan: Heh, that’s entirely what we’re here for.
Cassie: But considering Harley’s background in an extremely volatile relationship where The Joker needed to be entertained, amused, kept sweet, and Ivy’s tendency in relationships and in her life to push her feelings down to avoid making waves and making herself vulnerable, their gritted-teeth determination to not look at their problems feels like an understandable and even sympathetic choice. Sometimes we know we’re handling a situation all wrong but we just… double down on it, you know? It’s terrifying to grow and take those risks when you’re not sure you can handle losing it all.
And we can see that Ivy is in constant negotiation with herself – her frustration builds, she blows up at Harley; she softens and apologises. And Harley can’t bear to spend a minute not in motion, not trying to be cheerful as all get out (Lately, she thinks, she can’t do anything right), even when she knows it’s not even remotely working on Ivy.
But the important thing over the past 3 issues – and what will, I suspect, anchor us even after an inevitable blow-up between the two – is that when when the pair needs to work as a team, they do so astonishingly well. They can take down any bad guy. They will do anything to protect each other. Slowly, they are beginning to listen and apologize. And when they need to get the hell out of somewhere? They reach for the other’s hand.
Maybe there’s only so far we can go into their love story in this miniseries. But maybe where we’re going – slowly, tentatively, like a lot of new relationships, suspended in weeks of firsts and fumbling sweetnesses to smooth over awkward transitional bumps – is just a little further into a beginning. Maybe that’s not the worst place to spend our time, where hope is everywhere and moments within a kiss feel endless? Every time Harley and Ivy kiss, hearts escape into the air. It’s like we’re all breathing in the possibilities.
Miscellaneous
- I (Armaan) love a lot of the background characters, but I have special admiration for the brave, brave, brave and foolish waiter who interrupted a supervillain confrontation to ask how their lobster was. RIP, waiter person. I’m sure the lobster was fantastic.
- My (Cassie) favorite character this issue hands-down was Reign, a worker at the Bludhaven rest stop chicken place who helps Harley and Ivy get away from Gordon because “us queer folks gotta support one another.” She tells the women that a lot of people are rooting for their suddenly very-public relationship. It lands exactly right.
- There’s a mysterious figure claiming to have the couple “right where we want ‘em” – looks like Gordon isn’t the only one our lead couple have to look out for!
- Between the gratuitous Nightwing workout page and his cocky response to Gordon threatening to shoot – “Don’t threaten me with a good time” – the golden boy of the Batfam has a particularly good showing here!
- Saying that kind of thing to Gordon with a straight face – the absolute cheek!
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Cassie is an arts and culture writer living on Gadigal land in Australia. For 10 years she’s been working as a professional theatre critic, and is delighted to finally be writing about her other love: comics, baby.
