Pamela Isley and her cohorts had been under fire by the current GCPD commissioner, Vandal Savage, so to give herself the upper hand, Ivy ran for mayor. After a brief time skip, she actually convinced the public to vote for her, and Ivy’s now running the show in Gotham. However, the first issue of this new arc revealed that becoming mayor cost Pamela her relationship with Harley Quinn, something that perturbed fans of the couple everywhere. Well, now DC has clarified what broke the couple up, and unfortunately, the reason is pretty weak.
Poison Ivy’s New Job Drove Harley Quinn Away
Poison Ivy #43 by G. Willow Wilson, Jaime Infante, Arif Prianto, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou begins with a flashback that takes place during the time skip, not too long after Ivy has been elected mayor. The couple is in the middle of a big conversation, and Harley Quinn is in tears. She can’t understand Ivy’s perspective and fears that her partner no longer loves her. Ivy clarifies that she does, in fact, still love Harley, which only confuses her more, since Harley thinks that love should be the only thing that counts.
Unfortunately, that’s not how things work now with Ivy working as the city’s mayor. She tells Harley that Ivy has actual, legitimate power, and it’s the only thing keeping people like Savage off their backs. Harley is incredibly frustrated, as she’s tried to play the part of first lady (being on her best behavior, dressing up like Jackie O, etc). But as Ivy says, it’s not enough. Ivy stresses that it’s not that being mayor matters more to her than Harley, but she needs the job and can’t allow anything to put it at risk.
It finally dawns on Harley what the problem is. Harley is too erratic and unpredictable (or, as she says, too much of a ‘clown’), and Ivy fears the kind of behavior Harley could exhibit at televised events. Ivy tries to minimize the pain that Harley’s feeling, telling Harley that she’s not ashamed of her, saying how much Ivy values everything about Harley. But her words fall on deaf ears. Harley leaves Ivy in the Mayor’s office, leaving Pamela to ruminate on the conversation for weeks.
Optics Shouldn’t Be Enough to Tear Harley and Ivy Apart
This might be controversial, but I’m not exactly opposed to Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn breaking up. Stories need conflict, and under the right circumstances, exploring how an intense job like being mayor affects a relationship would have been an interesting direction. But the way that it’s done here seems more to write Harley off as quickly as possible, based on the thinnest reasoning. I could understand it if Ivy’s new job caused her to ignore Harley or cause an issue if Harley got in serious trouble. But ditching Harley over optics just doesn’t feel right.
The time skip in this series is a big ask because it glosses over how the hell Gotham ended up voting for Poison Ivy. But we accept that for the sake of this narrative. Yet we’re simultaneously asked to believe that Harley Quinn is too much of a liability to Ivy’s career? Ivy literally has a former crime boss overseeing Gotham’s infrastructure and development! I get that separating Harley and Ivy causes friction for the story, but we just had them break up just a few years ago. Why are we retreading that so soon?
I can kind of accept that Ivy wants to play it safe because Vandal Savage is going wild as the city’s police commissioner. And I can even see Ivy thinking that keeping Harley around isn’t good optics. But even with all that in mind, it doesn’t seem like Harley being around would change much. The voters obviously know who Ivy and Harley are and still voted Pamela into office. I really don’t think the powers that be needed to break them up, and hopefully, we’ll see Poison Ivy correct this mistake before it’s too late.
What do you think about DC’s reasoning for Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn’s breakup? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!
