Warning: SPOILERS for DC’s Harley Quinn Romances #1With one clever Aquaman Story DC Comics has hilariously called out its own character-rebooting habit. Though he isn’t the only character to suffer from DC’s reboots, Aquaman’s character seems to constantly shift depending on the decade—something Harley Quinn is quick to point out.
Since the 1980s, DC Comics has become known for its willingness to reboot its own continuity, a habit that has only radicalized over time. Beginning with Crisis on Infinite Earths—a classic universe-wide crossover story that changed the superhero genre forever—DC’s continuity reboots have resulted in a number of different classic stories and eras for the publisher. 2011’s notorious flash point The story resulted in the most radical reboot to date: the New 52 era, which saw most of DC’s history spun back to the characters’ earliest years as heroes. All these reboots, of course, result in a number of different personality changes over the decades for even DC’s most iconic characters.
Aquaman Is The Perfect Example Of How DC’s Reboots Affect Characters
Aquaman is the perfect example of this phenomenon, and Harley Quinn points this out (in a classic Harley manner) in a story titled “Splendor in the Foam” from DC’s Harley Quinn Romances #1 by Ivan Cohen, Fico Ossio, Sebastian Cheng, and Carlos M. Mangual. The story sees Harley Quinn meet up with a group of superheroines, all of whom exchange wildly conflicting stories about their “romances” with Aquaman. In each story, Aquaman not only has a different costume, but also a strangely different personality. Harley asks them if they’re all really talking about the same man in their stories: “Were these pre-Crisis? Post-Flashpoint? Dark Crisis tie-in? Makes a huge difference.,
Harley Quinn may not always be “all there,” but she’s rarely actually wrong, and this point is both metatextually tongue-in-cheek and astute. This isn’t the first time DC has made fun of its reboots and character inconsistencies, but this Aquaman story is the perfect vehicle for revealing just how fun those inconsistencies can actually be when framed in the right light and context. By having Harley use the kind of terminology usually used by fans and industry professionals to refer to DC’s different eras—including the very recent Dark Crisis event—DC is giving all of its readers a huge wink.
Though fans will likely never get a consistent version of Aquaman—just as the women’s stories in this tale will never match up—that inconsistency is part of the fun of DC’s long, 85-year history. When a publisher has this many years under its belt, with all the events and reboots and creators and characters to go with them, it’s hard to keep a single character consistent. But as long as DC Comics continues its self-aware streak, readers and creators alike can embrace the fun of that convoluted history, and maybe even make it part of the never-ending story.
check out DC’s Harley Quinn Romances #1, available now from DC Comics!