Premiering on the now-defunct DC Universe app before migrating to HBO Max, Harley Quinn premiered on November 29, 2019, and broke out with critics and audiences as a dark adult-orientated comedy show about superheroes. The series focuses on the titular character voiced by Kaley Cuoco after her breakup with Joker, and her crew (with an amazing voice acting cast) consisting of Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), Dr. Psycho (Tony Hale), Clayface (Alan Tudyk), King Shark (Ron Funches), Frank the Planet (J.B. Smoove) and Sy Borgman (Jason Alexander). The first two seasons garnered rave critical reviews and a passionate fanbase for its unique comedic spin on the DC Universe that helped it stand out in a world filled with both adult-aimed animation and superhero adaptations.
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Harley Quinn follows a long line of DC Animated stories, with the biggest arguably being Batman: The Animated Series, which cast a large shadow over not just Batman stories but all DC stories. While Harley Quinn is very far from Batman: The Animated Series in terms of tone, target audience, and creators, the series make for perfect complementary pieces of one another, with Harley Quinn expanding upon and then subverting the classic notions of what audiences would expect from a story focused on Batman characters. Harley Quinn takes the character beyond her place in Batman: The Animated Series and grows her relationship with various characters and offers exciting new spins on classic characters similar to what Batman: The Animated Series did 30 years ago.
Harley Quinn Grows
Warner Bros
Harley Quinn originated in animation as Paul Dini and Bruce Timm created her in Batman: The Animated Series, making her first appearance in the episode ‘Joker’s Favor’ in 1992. The character was introduced as an accomplice to the Joker, and since her creation and for a good portion of her tenure when she went to the comics or other media, she was defined by her relationship to the Joker. Even when Harley Quinn was put as a member of the Suicide Squad in the New 52, the Joker cast a large shadow over her.
In many ways, Harley Quinn acts as a spiritual continuation of the character’s journey in Batman: The Animated Series. In the first episode she wears the classic red and black jester outfit and is working with the Joker, but by the end of the pilot sheds the outfit in favor of a new look resembling the one found in The New 52 and DC Rebirth after having finally broken up with the Joker. Most of the first season is about Harley breaking out on her own, defining herself as a criminal without the Joker where the two come into a head-to-head battle by the end of the season.
Season two digs further into this, acknowledging that despite season one being about her breaking up with Joker, much of her actions were defined by him, so what does she want out of her life now that he is gone? Does she still want to be a villain and if so, what is her overall long-term goal, and who does she want to be with? Harley Quinn is now a rich character where the Joker is now only a small part of her origin story, and arguably she is now more interesting apart from him.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s Relationship
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While Joker is the first character audiences think of associated with Harley Quinn, the second is Poison Ivy, Batman’s iconic villain. Harley Quinn takes a page from recent comics and positions Ivy more as an antihero, acknowledging she does not fit in with many of Gotham’s super-villains as her goals of environmental protection don’t seem quite as sinister in recent years, although her methods are still quite extreme.
Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn have teamed up on multiple occasions in the comics and in Batman: The Animated Series. Unlike most super-villain team-ups the relationship between the two is one of both mutual respect and care as Ivy seems to want Harley to move on from her abusive relationship with Joker while Harley really does see Ivy as her best friend.
Like in the recent comics, Ivy and Harley develop a romantic relationship. The two originated as friends, but after Harley and Ivy hook up at Ivy’s bachelorette party, the two begin to grapple with their true feelings for one another. Season two of Harley Quinn ended with the two driving off into the sunset together ready to start a relationship, and will be explored in more detail in season three showcasing how Harley will adjust to a more stable healthy loving relationship and Ivy opening herself up after being shut off for so long.
Harley Quinn Subverts The DC Universe
Batman: The Animated Series is fondly remembered for its reverence for the larger Batman mythology, giving the character a dark atmospheric Gotham that felt stuck in time, capturing the tone and spirit of the Tim Burton movies. It treated the characters seriously, drawing from multiple comics to give what are to many the definitive interpretation of many Batman characters.
Harley Quinn is the opposite, that instead of treating the world as something that is sacrosanct, the series instead has a great time toying with classic characters in unexpected ways. The character King Shark, often depicted as the simple animalistic super villain in various DC projects like The Flash or The Suicide Squad, is a sweet peaceful tech genius in Harley Quinn who can speak in full sentences, often offering the team self-referential observations about their various dynamics. The series plays up his more animistic shark nature when he smells blood or someone makes a fish joke at his expense. Clayface, who is a classic Batman villain in the series steers into the character’s origin as an actor as a classically trained but inept thespian who would rather be the star of the show than a career criminal.
The best example might be Bane, who maintains his original comic book appearance but a voice that is a comedic riff on Tom Hardy’s version of the character in The Dark Knight Rises. In contrast to most versions of the character which are highly intelligent and command great fear and respect, Bane is treated as a joke by many of the other super villains who are often making fun of him and taking advantage of his good nature. Bane is different from any other incarnation but one that not only fits within the world of the series but is great in his own way. This makes Harley Quinn very much the modern R-rated version of the 1960s Adam West Batman series, a very fun, comedic, and often silly look at various characters and concepts in the DC Universe.
Breathes New Life Into DC Characters
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Batman: The Animated Series not only introduced Harley Quinn but helped define many versions of popular characters in Batman comics. The modern version of Mr. Freeze originated in that series (one which Harley Quinn also riffed on, with Alfred Molina voicing the villain). Harvey Dent aka Two-Face was left out of the Adam West series for being too scary, but his involvement in the animated series helped catapult him to the A-list of the now-familiar foes in Batman’s rogue’s gallery that he has been featured in Batman Forever and The Dark Knight.
Harley Quinn’s supporting cast of characters is by design a variety of low-level super-villains nobody takes seriously (more than two years before Peacemaker). That freedom allows for them to re-imagine many of these characters. The aforementioned King Shark, Clayface, and Poison Ivy have been re-imagined in exciting new ways that could become the default status for these characters for years. Yet nowhere is this more apparent than Kite-Man, one of the most popular joke villains in Batman’s rogue’s gallery, even being one of the punchlines in The Lego Batman Movie.
While writer Tom King gave Kite-Man a tragic backstory in the pages of his Batman storyline ‘A War of Joke and Riddles’, the Harley Quinn Kite-Man is a dimwitted wannabe ladies’ man who also is a well-meaning criminal who ends up in a relationship with Poison Ivy. The series version became so popular, plans are underway for him to get his own spin-off series on HBO Max. Batman: The Animated Series launched multiple spin-off series with series like Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League to form the DC Animated Universe; Harley Quinn might be the beginning of a new comedic take on the DC Universe.
