HARLEY AND IVY: LIFE AND CRIMES #1 / Script and Art by ERICA HENDERSON / Letters by HASSAN OTSMANE-ELHAOU / Covers by ERICA HENDERSON, ELIZABETH TORQUE, SABINE RICH, NATHAN SZERDY & LESLEY LI / Published by DC COMICS

The romance between Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy was slow in coming. Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini did tease it a bit in Batman: The Animated Series, but was limited to innuendos thanks to the standards of the 1990s. Hints were also dropped into various Batman: TAS comics written by Dini, but nothing overt.

The two finally had an open, polyamorous relationship in the Harley Quinn comics by Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti. This gradually became something more serious as time went on. However, apart from the Harley Quinn animated series, no story has ever discussed just how Harleen and Pamela found love. Until now!

Harley and Ivy: Life and Crimes is the long-awaited canon answer to the question that opens this first issue – how did these two start to see each other as something more than co-conspirators? The answer, much like their relationship, is more complicated than the question.

Erica Henderson takes us back, textually and visually, to Harley’s introduction into comics in 1999’s No Man’s Land event. We see Poison Ivy caring for an injured Harley, after The Joker’s first attempt to kill off his psychiatrist turned moll. However, Henderson also blends in elements of Harley’s backstory in the New 52 era comics, with Harley having bleached skin after a chemical bath.

While this is sure to please continuity wonks like myself, it is not the focus of this first issue. Henderson examines these characters through a lens that few writers have in recent memory. Too many reflexively write Harley Quinn as all gags with no depth.

Contrastingly, Henderson embraces the tragic side of the Harlequin as well, with this chapter centering around a chance encounter between Harley and Ivy at Axis Chemicals. Ivy goes to the factory intending to destroy it, as Harley is contemplating ending it all where her new life began. And then The Joker (wearing his own cut-off face as a mask) complicates things even further…

Henderson’s art and dialogue work together perfectly to unveil a story of accidental love. The voices of Pamela and Harleen come through perfectly and one can hear Arleen Sorkin and Diane Pershing in every snarky but loving jibe as they recall their history. The visuals, rendered in Henderson’s trademark streamlined style, cut to the heart of both the story and the characters.

This is the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy story fans have been aching to read for years. I cannot conceive of any way this story could have been better told. This is a must read for all fans of these characters and anyone who enjoys a good love story.