Monday, March 9, 2020
Rebound Relationships
If you've been reading recent issues of Harley Quinn, you may have noticed that the relationship between the title character and her recurring guest star, Booster Gold, is not what you might have expected from a pair who this time last year were trying to kill one another.
Some of us readers might call that bad writing. Others might say that people forced into dysfunctional relationships have been known to form traumatically bonded pairs. Still others are so happy to see their heroes in a relationship that they'll ignore all that went before. That's more or less the tact that Brandon Zachary takes in his article "Harley Quinn's New Love Interest Could Be... a Justice League Hero?!" for CBR.com.
Booster Gold is far from the worse candidate, especially given their shared sense of humor, similar optimistic personality, and mutual attempts to move past trauma. While Harley has long conquered much of the trauma in her life, she's suffered more of it in the recent events in her life. Booster has been through his fair share of problems too, and the two can probably be helpful to one another as they try to sort their emotions out. Booster also proves to at least be trying to be more empathetic, immediately apologizing when Harley reveals the full extent of what's been happening in her life. The fact that they met during the tragic circumstances of Heroes in Crisis but ended up able to work together proves they're at least somewhat compatible.
Counterpoint: They didn't "work together" in Heroes in Crisis so much as they just sort of succeeded in not being killed themselves.
That said, who am I to judge? Harley Quinn #71 writer Sam Humphries' interpretation of the characters isn't any worse than Tom King's take on the pair in Heroes in Crisis. (No take can be worse than that.) If Humphries decides he wants Booster and Harley to couple up — a sentiment that even Zachary admits isn't explicit yet — so be it.
But I have to warn you, I've heard that relationships based on intense experiences never work.
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