One time is fine
Two times is a bit cliche
Three times is officially extreme
All over the course of 5 years
Normally I find comic book relationships to be pointless every new writer will have his preferred pairing and choose to pair said main character with whoever they want and then the next writer comes in and status quo reasserts itself spin cycle repeat rinse forever
But in this case I see the clear times DC has put their thumbs on the scale and either forced a hetero lens on harley and ivy or broke up their relationship for no discernable reason right after they got together
To me forcing artists to redraw pages of them kissing is homophobic
This was allowed to happen a couple times over the years I can't post the examples on my phone but there are numerous articles on bleeding cool attesting to this practice
Is there something bad about two women kissing?
Then you have the constant state of Harley and Ivy suddenly being incompatible because they lead different lives? to me this smacks as another I'll thought out editorial mess from DC
Ivy is a villain or anti hero fine that should have no impact on her relationship with Harley
Harleys status never seems to matter
Classic artificial roadblock and its become more and more apparent as this has become the go to method for breaking them up
Imo this is another instance of DC putting their thumbs on the scale
To me the root cause of all of this is DC is tacitly aware of how popular Harley and Joker are as a couple even as abusive and toxic as that relationship is they are still controlling Harley and by extension Ivy not being seen as a couple.
A hetero Harley and Ivy are more marketable
A decision that is primarily based on the bottom line