Harley Quinn is a great show largely due to its stellar cast of characters. From Harley Quinn herself to Kite Man, the show specializes in bringing out what makes each villain funny and absurd. Its comedy is based on DC characters and the versions of those characters the show creates are both amusing and heartfelt. Like almost any good parody, this show, which can be streamed on HBO Max, displays a love of the original material as it mocks it relentlessly, and that extends to how well they captured most of the characters in Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery.
If looking for standout characters, you would be really spoiled for choice when it comes to Harley Quinn. A lot of the B-listers of the comics stand out, even more so than the A-lister villains. Many characters are a full-on parody of their comics selves, while others are more grounded to their original forms, but with aspects of their personality heightened for comic effect. Of course, even among standouts, there are the best of the best. And before Harley Quinn season 3 or the Kite Man spinoff series, per Variety, it makes sense to rank those characters. So, here are the best characters of HBO Max’s Harley Quinn, ranked.
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7 Bane
Warner Bros
Bane is, perhaps, the most out-of-character from his comic incarnation, yet he still manages to be hilarious. Bane in Harley Quinn is more a parody of The Dark Knight Rises Bane, or at least his distinctive and somewhat silly way of speaking is. Despite having not too much connection to the comic character, he manages to be a fun side character audiences get to see quite often. Bane ends up as somewhat adorably lame, at one point attempting to do magic and screwing it up. It’s also sometimes funny to just see him saying somewhat mundane things in the bane voice he does.
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6 Joker
The Joker is always a masterful villain, and that’s no exception in Harley Quinn. Even when everyone is a villain, the Joker goes that extra mile to be the ultimate bad guy. Joker’s indifference and mistreatment of Harley were what led to her leaving him and becoming her own villain. There’s much talk about the mythical, grandiose, larger-than-life, almost demonic Joker that Heath Ledger played and the malevolent trickster that Mark Hamill portrayed in the animated universe. This is for good reason, as both Jokers are good in their own way, but the Joker in Harley Quinn gets points for portraying the character as an unpleasant narcissist without demeaning the character. For all the mythologizing, the Joker is a human, and Harley Quinn is faced with the very human reality that he never cared about anyone but himself.
5 Clayface
HBO Max
Clayface is a surprisingly charming and funny character. Much like Bane, he’s been reinvented as an overly dramatic aspiring actor who often has dramatic backstories when he shape-shifts to disguise himself as people for a mission. He can be a bit one-note, as most of his jokes revolve around him being an actor, but in general, he has enough personality and sells the idea of being an actor who is also a villain very well. Clayface also pulls off the physical comedy well, as he is able to survive lots of goofy damage that would kill other characters, like being decapitated, but also he can be the most expressive of the characters, having a literal face of clay.
4 King Shark
Via Warner Bros
King Shark is a fun character because of his swings between pleasant likability and murderous bloodlust. The show gives the character a lot of humanity, too, and he’s a bit more well-rounded than some of his colleagues in the Harley Quinn gang like Clayface. Shark has a few moments that define his character, especially in season 2 when he mentions his loyalty to the crew as one reason he will be staying above the surface. Shark also has a lot of shark-related jokes that stem from his ocean heritage. The voice actor, Ron Funches, really helps sell a lot of his lines with his performance.
3 Kite Man
While most other characters on this list are characters who are made funny by the show, Kite Man is a joke character who is sometimes given pathos by Harley Quinn. They don’t have to work particularly hard to make his whole gimmick seem ridiculous, but they do go the extra mile by exaggerating the comic Kite Man’s more mistakenly overconfident nature. What makes him work is that the show is merciless in its mockery of Kite Man, to the point where you really feel sorry for him. Kite Man’s culminating moment is in season 2 where he realizes that Ivy will not admit that she doesn’t really love him and breaks off the engagement.
2 Poison Ivy
Poison Ivy is a real surprise, in that she’s very likable and, at the same time, very distinct from her comic counterpart. Ivy, in Harley Quinn, is a more snarkily cynical version of her character, but one with more emotions and moments of empathy than she typically gets. Typically, Ivy is portrayed as a seductress or femme fatal archetype, and not often given all that much depth or nuance. Poison Ivy in the HBO Max show is much more a fully rounded character, who despite her cynical side cares for people. Even when she’s dating Kite Man and realizing that she doesn’t love him, she still tries to preserve his feelings, and she also cares deeply about Harley, wanting her to break out of her toxic relationship with the Joker. Eventually, she even finds that she has feelings for Harley.
1 Harley Quinn
Speaking of Harley, the main character of the HBO Max show is fun in the same way a lot of modern sitcom protagonists are, like Elenore from The Good Place. They are often people who are deeply flawed who need to examine their own flaws and grow. Harley Quinn is no exception, as in the first season she learns that loyalty to her crew and friends is more important than recognition, while also learning to stand as her own person. In the second season, she learns that she doesn’t actually want to be as evil as she thought she did. The show benefits from this approach as we get the comedy of Harley Quinn being a villain while also working towards a character arc.
