Not only is Valentine’s Day the gushiest, mushiest, most romantic day of the year, but Gotham’s Cupid of Crime, Harley Quinn, is ecstatic for a 24-hour bulletproof excuse to be cheesy with her partner, Poison Ivy. As she goes to obsessive lengths to ensure that her first February 14th with Ivy is the most lovey-dovey ever, a powerful orgasm sets off a chain of arousing events that causes everyone in the city to let their freak flag fly.
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special, which is airing on HBO Max amid the wind-down of Harley Quinn Season 3 and the kickoff of Harley Quinn Season 4, will also cover Bane’s efforts to impress an unexpected date that goes horribly awry, Clayface’s unfortunate online dating encounter, a reprisal of Zatanna Zatara and The Flash’s short-lived canonical romance, Darkseid’s cold and dead-eyed significant other, and The Riddler proposing to Clock King. The special debuts on Thursday, February 9, and you can check out the trailer below for more DC Comics Universe, uh, Valentine’s Day eggs.
Several months ago, Harley Quinn showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern told Inverse that, while Harley and Ivy would never break up on their watch, they wouldn’t be immune to relationship growing pains. As Halpern pointed out, Season 3 has explored the challenges Harley has faced to be herself in her own relationship.
How do you operate in a good relationship when you’ve only been in bad ones? What habits do you take to new relationships? Harley's only ever been what Joker wanted. Her wants were whatever Joker wanted. Now she’s back in a relationship, and she’s starting to ask herself, “Do I put everything into what my partner wants? Do I put in what I want?”
Valentine’s Day, and the mythical importance that can be placed on it, will presumably be the next step in that challenge, although given the tone of the trailer and the show, A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special will be a rather goofy look at the travails of an infamously overhyped holiday. Given the near-universal acclaim that Season 3 has received, it will likely be a successful look, too.
Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special debuts Feburary 9 on HBO Max.