‘Harley Quinn’ Fans Don’t Have to Wait For HBO Max’s Season 3 For Canon Harlivy Content With New Comic Run
It’s been over a year since the Season 2 finale of Harley Quinn, the adult animated series, and a lot has happened since. For one, DC Universe, the streaming platform the show originally aired on for its first two seasons, no longer exists in that form. So for a bit of time there, fans were worried that the show wouldn’t get renewed for a third season. But it did, and now they’re just waiting for it to drop.
But in the meantime, if you’re tired of rewatching the same 26 episodes — although, you might not be because they’re hilarious — there are new comic books coming out all about Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s time right after Ivy’s disastrous wedding.
The HBO Max series ‘Harley Quinn’ just got a comic book run to pregame Season 3
When audiences last left off with our two favorite anti-heroes, they were being chased out of Gotham in a red convertible a la Batman: The Animated Series, by Gotham PD after Poison Ivy’s wedding literally went up in flames.
In March of 2021, Justin Halpern, co-creator of Harley Quinn, spoke with the Masters of None podcast and gave a hint to a release date. There’s isn’t a set date or trailer just yet, but he said it should come out at the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022.
They gave Harley and Ivy a decent ending, for now, in Season 2 just in case they didn’t get another season. Hence the driving into the sunset. Because of that, fans aren’t sitting here with a cliffhanger as they wait for Season 3.
But to hold you over, the comic book run Harley Quinn: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour just came out and it follows Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy on their felon road trip after escaping Gotham. It’s written by Tee Franklin and drawn by Max Sarin, with the first issue out Sept. 14 according to Syfy Wire. Issue #2 is also already available to read digitally, but the physical copy comes out Oct. 12.
So what can fans expect from the comic book run? It’s set to be six issues long and so far each issue has a variant cover like a lot of comic books do. The artwork isn’t the same as the series, but it’s sort of similar. Even so, it’s still gorgeous and fits the vibe the show and those characters within that world gave off.
Writer Tee Franklin shared why Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s relationship is ‘needed’ in DC and beyond
And as for the story, it’s one that needs telling, according to Franklin.
“Their relationship is needed,” Franklin said, according to SyFy Wire. “It is important to talk about, and I’m really grateful to be the one to tell this love story. There’s a lot of ‘will-they-won’t-they’ in the comics, and when they do, it’s just not as beautifully shown.”
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy first met back in the 1990s during Batman: The Animated Series, hence the car reference from before. They were close friends ever since, but even in the ‘90s, when queer characters on TV were scarce, the subtext — sharing clothes, the way Ivy acted around Harley, etc. — was definitely there.
And then through the years, as Franklin noted, Harlivy, as fans lovingly dubbed them, were never really confirmed as lovers until recently in the Injustice and Bombshells runs. In the meantime, the flirting and very gay undertones kept coming.
That’s what’s so groundbreaking about the HBO Max Harley Quinn series. It’s the first time that fans get a really developed sense of their relationship. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy start off as best friends with an already established history that the show dives into. Then it shows how that bond blossoms into more.
Again, Harlivy has been a thing for a while, but because comic books have often skirted around it, a lot of people do miss the fact that they love each other in a ton of comic book runs. Their story is important, as Franklin noted, so seeing it so obvious on a TV show and now in a comic book series is great fun for fans new and old.
The two characters face trauma, Gordon’s intense chase, and more before Season 3 even comes back
In addition to their continued love story, the comic book series touches on their trauma which the show already tapped into a bit.
“I wanted to delve deeper and turn it up a notch, because both of these women have these traumatic experiences from men in their lives,” Franklin said. “Ivy’s dad; Harley’s parents, her man… Harley has been through a lot, as has Ivy.”
Franklin goes on to say that even Ivy’s relationship with Kite Man comes back up because there are residual feelings of hurt with being left at the altar and with the way things went down.
“I mean, I’m sure she’s grateful, but she’s also dealing with the hurt of, ‘Damn, I hurt this guy who I really, really loved, and that’s on me, and I need to fix that,’” Franklin explained. “So, she’s going to go through a bunch of emotions to try to handle this.”
Not to mention these women have to deal with Jim Gordon as he continues to grow in his incessant need to bring Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy down in order to bring Gotham City back into the United States.
“He’s doing too much. He’s actually being a Harley right now, doing some impetuous sh*t, not caring about all the stuff he’s leaving in his wake,” she said. “In issue #2, we see a side of Gordon that has not been explored in the show… So, he’s going to do whatever he can, regardless of what and who he hurts, just to bring Harley to ‘justice.’ He really needs some counseling, but not from Dr. Harleen.”
