I just finished reading the first issue. For people that don’t know, this is some big event DC’s doing where heroes from before New 52 get to come back for a couple issues, and there’s an implication in the story itself that DC will only choose one comic book to keep going.

Which is bullshit, but what can you say.

I need to stress this. I’m a fan of the real Harley Quinn, this one. I didn’t go out and buy everything Harley Quinn, but I read and enjoyed all of her ongoing series (except the last dozen or so) in the late 00s; the series was released from 2000 to 2004. I greatly enjoyed her presence in anything Batman-related. I hoped she’d be in a Nolan film, and while I didn’t like her costume in Arkham Asylum, I accepted it purely because it was a video game adaptation and the real Harley Quinn was still intact.

Then DC threw her away because they have no respect for her, and replaced her with a completely different character that they slapped the code name on despite that other character not even so much as using the harlequin theme.

Since New 52, I haven’t touched ANYTHING DC Comics unless it had the real Harley Quinn in it. I don’t watch DC cartoons anymore. I don’t read DC Comics anymore. I don’t see DC films. I avoided Dark Knight Rises specifically because of this.

So to finally see Harley Quinn again… I can’t quite say “I’m thankful” because I don’t feel like I should have to be thankful after DC Comics poured so much effort into trying to make everyone forget about the real Harley Quinn and replace her with the random non-Harley character that is New 52 “Harley.” But I am definitely happy to see her again, which is why I bought this.

With that covered, onto my thoughts about Convergence: Harley Quinn #1.

It starts out great, and I get the feeling from the opening that Steve Pugh recognizes and understand how a lot of Harley Quinn fans feel about the past few years. Lots of hints at the beginning along the lines of how Harley’s taken for granted, followed by her showing her spunky, zany, off the wall self. The opening is an excellent revival of the character and everything she is and stands for.

Then we get into this dome situation, where she’s out of costume and seemingly almost recovered from the mental issues that led to her becoming Harley Quinn. This is where we see a more emotional human side to Harley, which is great too. All her insanity is playful, charming insanity without her causing bodily harm when she’s in this phase. Loopy is a good word for description. There’s also the bits of good playful geeky girl I’ve missed for so long.

She chows down on chocolate. She downs coffee. She has hallucinations about little fish swimming around, and while she can be really rude, it’s a fun and unintentional rudeness. She’s got the naive wonder thing down. THIS is Harley Quinn, and I’ve missed her these past few years.

The only detail I’m not quite sure on how I feel about is linking her Harley Quinn madness so closely to Joker. We know he’s the origin, but I feel like to imply her being Harley Quinn getting tied so close to the Joker implies she would need to ditch her harlequin theme in order to fully move past him. I would’ve liked it a lot more if they used a face that looks like Harley Quinn instead of one that looks like Joker.

But, I can shrug it off by simply interpreting the Joker face to represent when Harley Quinn as Harley Quinn is cruelly violent, rather than the playful cool self she otherwise exhibits.

We see Poison Ivy and Catwoman in this too, which I think fans of Gotham Sirens and those specific characters greatly appreciate. The issue wraps up with Poison Ivy and Catwoman getting Harley Quinn suited up and back to her insane violent self.

It was a great issue, worth every page. I’m looking forward to the next one. As much as I would like for her to get to exist again like she should, DC Comics wants to suck lately, so I expect this is the last we’ll see of her for another 10 years or so. Hopefully I’m wrong about that.