DC Pride 2023 #1: Harlivy and Crush in DC Pride’s ‘A Baby Makes Three’: You, Just As You Are, Are A Whole

‘A Baby Makes Three’ is a short comic that will delight Harlivy fans, sapphic nerds, fans of a delightfully heartfelt and beautifully illustrated story about relationships and love, and, most importantly, queer teenagers. Cause, of course, Paulina Ganucheau’s art makes it seem effortless when every line is vivaciously alive, every kiss and every jump, and every dinosaur is carefreely jumping on a page that screams queer joy. But this pie is made with very consistent dough, as it sees Crush (the teenage lesbian) asking for advice to two bisexual women who have lived through a strong, committed, loving, but always playful, vibrant, and not without conflict (at this point epic) relationship. 

“Listen, kid; you need to disabuse yourself from the idea that any kind of love is going to complete you. You, you, just as you are, are a whole.”

There are many reasons this story is delightful, and honestly just healthy for queer young readers seeing Harlivy as an inspiration (it helps that the Harley Animated Series is running parallel now, as well as both of them having astounding solo comics). Here, in the story, Harley and Ivy act as kind of surrogate mothers to Crush, a teenager with a childhood marked by parental abuse by Lobo and deeply hurt by it, giving her a positive role model for relationships, and in turn, Pamela and Harleen get to see themselves reflected in someone who gets to have relationships they weren’t able to have themselves. They get to help a child that was abused, just like them, and it’s clear how that’s healing for these characters, even while maintaining a cheerful tone throughout the story.

It’s just really cathartic, and the only possible add I see that would have made the story even better is a mention of how Harlivy’s relationship being somewhat non-monogamous has also shaped the way they approach relationships and the healthy messages they project on this kid (and I do believe that would have been magical, to see a young queer child learning about non-monogamy). Still, I understand how that’s not possible within the constraints of a really short comic.

The ice on this cake is how it beautifully builds up from the excellent series Crush & Lobo by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher, which expands on how Crush’s trauma affected her relationship with Katie. And this story does the job of completing that side of her character and being an excellent point for new readers if they want to know more about where Crush is coming from. This is an excellent short comic in all lights.