Harley Quinn: Convergence pt 2

Harley Quinn: Convergence pt 2

2015

"Rabbit Season"

Writer: Steve Pugh

Pencils: Phil Winslade

Where we last left off, Harley Quinn had been selected as Pre-Flashpoint Gotham City's champion, her boyfriend was assaulted, she was drugged by her friends and the battle was looming. 

This issue has a bit of time skipping, we start out in the battle where Harley has apparently killed on of Captain Carrot's team mates after he was sent to warn Cap that HQ was a demon. 

Harley Quinn meet him outside the Hall of Mirrors featuring the Joker's visage and introduces herself comically. Captain Carrot is an all around nice guy and tells Harley politely that he's not here to hurt her. Harley however, has several tricks and traps set to ensure her advantage on top of this. 

Sometimes they work, like her bluff about what super powers she has. Other times... not so much.

Back at Harley's apartment, Ivy talks about Louie like he's a thing, Catwoman stokes her ego and Louie reminisces about how horrified he was when he saw Harley's costume and for good reason as he states that the fatality rates for cops when a costumed thug is involved skyrockets. 

A psychic (empath?) among Captain Carrot's Zoo Crew picks up on the groups's feelings and come in at a time of Louie recalling a frankly, scary image of - as he puts it - the devil's ex-girlfriend emerging from the smoke, wielding a massive hammer. This of course, gives the Zoo Crew a reason to panic because they now need to find a way to warn Cap about the monster he's up against. 

This brings us to the very start of the comic. 

Louie elaborates about meeting Harley sans costume for the first time after the incident and it changed how he felt about her. Instead of being afraid of her, seeing the normal looking but obviously disturbed person in front of him with smeared donuts on her face and apologising - made him worry about her, and want to protect her. 

He reveals the extent of his injuries - several surgeries over about two years and the prospect of losing his hand. Louie knows what he wants though, he doesn't want to have a prosthetic because he believes in rehabilitation, he doesn't want to leave Harley and like back in the beginning, knew he wanted to be a cop, still does. 

Louie's a good person and a good character. Catwoman makes a little joke about Ivy's dislike of rabbits as a gardener which I quite like despite the fact that Ivy is obviously overlooking the fact that she won't have to worry about rabbits.. or... like, anything ever again, should there be a loss on Gotham's side. 

Meanwhile in the battle, Cap thinks that Harley has actually killed his ally and is angry enough to shake Harley Quinn and reveal some of her 'powers' as tricks. This part of the fight leads to the rickety old roller coaster they're travelling on to break apart, and they fall to the ground cursing each other's lack of abilities. 

It ends with them talking over snacks. Harley casually mentions she has immunity to poisons and then Cap starts choking. Despite the emphasis on the TOTALLY IMMUNE TO ALL POISONS five seconds ago, Harley keeps chatting normally and after a while, notices that Cap doesn't look so good. 

And so the leader of the Zoo Crew dies offscreen?

The issue then comes to it's inevitable sad ending. Louie again hears the door buzzer and opens the door the Catwoman. Instead of physical violence, this time she brings emotional pain courtesy of Harley Quinn's return to insanity instead of her own home. 

Catwoman turns a corner and there's Harley waiting to see how it went. I think it's pretty telling that both parties in this relationship ask first and foremost - "How is s/he?" 

Hipster Ivy drives probably the most conspicuous van ever in their hurry to get away (Frickin' Gotham villains and their gimmicks...shit, they're still in their costumes - how are they still out of Arkham???)

In the back of the van, Harley acts like a child, asking for the radio on, getting a rabbit or stopping for donuts to which Poison Ivy responds like a put upon parent or babysitter... no, no, shut up, no. Hell, she even tried to kill her damn goldfish! 

This kind of supervisory or care taker/governor role is just another reason why they reeeally shouldn't be shipped as a couple.  It's really freakin' creepy. 

The look on Louie's face after she's gone and all he has is Fishface the Goldfish for company is haunting. There's a literal earthquake or something after the dome is released - his roof is literally crumbling around him and yet he doesn't move or acknowledge it. 

THE GOOD

* Again - the art, the colour, the characters... frickin' amazing. Makes you wonder why flashpoint even flashpointed. Stupid Flash. Stupidest man alive, more like. 

* Harley - being pushed over the edge again, still has the sense to leave a man who loves her and who she loves too... because she knows she's not safe. Breaks my freakin' heart but Harley being no stranger to relationship pains and yeah, abuse, knows where to draw the line even if she's manic. 

* Having never been introduced to the Zoo Crew before now, I found them quite interesting. 

THE BAD

* The colourist is amazing in this series but there was still one part - where costumed Harley was peeking out from behind the wall and one of her liliripes was the wrong colour and I had to point it out. 

* DC trying to get everyone to buy every issue to get the 'full story'. So I don't know all the convergence fight rules, or how they both came to be in the arena, where it is, if it's randomly selected and how they get out? Are they televised? Like, what?

* Captain Carrot was WEARING carrots! Why didn't he just eat his own?! 

THE UGLY

* It's a bit ambiguous if Harley straight up murdered Captain Carrot or unknowingly gave him a poisoned carrot. Or even if she played mind games with him to make him think he was poisoned? 

I looked up this on the interwebs and people have confirmed that no, the fight is until someone stays down, but not necessarily has to die. Or that the Zoo Crew may exist somewhere else because if there's one thing DC loves doing, it's messing with continuity. Part of me hopes that Harley isn't a straight up murderer again, especially to someone who was never actually antagonistic towards her. 

* That darn Poison Ivy.. don't get me wrong, her characterisation was perfect but when I think about what it means for Harley it makes me angry. Also Ivy/Quinn shippers make me angry too. That psychotically sinister smile Ivy flashes at the end of Harley's fight was creepy AF and me, I love me some creepy AF. That one smile though, like she knew at that second that she'd at once gotten Harley back under her green thumb and made her an an accomplice if not an accessory to murder, maybe?

THE VERDICT

While I enjoyed this two parter, I feel like the first issue was the stronger of the two. It had a lot of work put in filling in some behind the scenes gaps which is good because the story-line here and the fight is something that you probably couldn't get away with if you were using any other character. The attention to detail is amazing in some areas - continuity with the costumes/locations/backgrounds for example but in other parts like explaining where the oil came from when Harley staged Iron Pig's death, or showing us if Captain Carrot has actually passed on or not were a bit vague and I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. It's also a story so focused on Harley Quinn that we don't really get a proper introduction to any of the Zoo Crew but I enjoyed reading Captain Carrot - he's just so earnest and actually believed in awesome-portation (temporarily). Which itself was a good strategy against an actual hero with powers - bluffing and special effects. Current Hardly Quinn would probably just roller derby in and straight up murder a rabbit while attempting to be funny, which shows how little the writers understand the character, and is an absolute shame. 

Definitely worth checking out and highly recommended as a remedy from the bullshite DC has spread upon us with the New 52 and Rebirth and whatever other crap they'll come up with next.