DC’s Convergence storyline was just finished this month. I have been waiting to write about it in a small series and to break it up into a more digestible format because there are so many issues to go through and contains many problematic themes in it’s writing. The first issue I would like to discuss is Convergence: Harley Quinn #1. Part of the Convergence arc, we meet up with Harley as she is has been recovering awhile from her traumatic relationship with the Joker. There is nothing new about the abusive relationship that her character has been subjected to since her introduction. In this issue we get to see the effects of it in the beginning as she is clearly being haunted by the memories and experiences with the Joker but trying to deny it. She even attempts to hide her pain by joking that she can’t even be nice to a guy without him trying to kill her.
Harley is allowed caffeine and as a part of her rehabilitation she goes to the hospital to visit a cop she injured. They end up becoming a couple and he “takes care” of her, implying a control over her in return for keeping her in line and not on the streets. It’s in these pages that we are first exposed to the writers desire to convey to the reader that the women in this story clearly need strong male characters around to keep them from “misbehaving”.
Shortly after we are shown a scene where she thinks the Joker is there and in a moment of ptsd she thinks the Joker is in her apartment. After screaming for her partner Louie, he comes to her rescue by aggressively grabbing her and trying to talk her down from her attack. The episode must not have been too bad for Harleen as she then decides to reward Louie with sex, which is all to please to take advantage of despite her shaken and disturbed condition.
As the action escalates, Poison Ivy and Catwoman bust into Harleen’s apartment demanding the old her back. Louie resists them, trying to maintain a sense of his male control over the situation but Poison Ivy manages to give her an injection that results in changing her back to her previous state. She then is projected to traumatic echoes of past experiences including the Joker and her partner Louie. We get to see how unstable the Joker has made Harley Quinn throughout their relationship and how she will now be unleashed onto the word again. It’s a story that walks a fine line between empowerment and victimization of her character. While on one hand, Harley is strong enough to be a survivor of this style of abuse over and over again, but we are left asking ourselves if there is any other way the writers could convey her strength as anything else but a side effect of the psychological abuse she has had to endure.
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