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This story originally ran in 2015, just before Harley Quinn reached new heights of popularity viaappearancesinthreemoviesand her ownanimatedseries.
Were republishing it now withJoker: Folie a Deuxin theaters.
The comics industry is in the midst of a golden age for admirable female role models.
But theres a fly in the ointment, and shes wearing clown makeup.
Her real-world path to icon status is bizarre and unprecedented in the superhero ecosystem.
But here she is: Jewish, queer, morally questionable, deeply imperfect, and beloved by millions.
Writer Paul Dini is creditedas the creator of Harley, and thats technically true.
But unlike her flighty character, Sorkin was a skilled and experienced comedy writer.
I could never just come in and run my lines, she told Vulture.
I was forever suggesting stuff, probably out of boredom!
The tape sat idle for years.
But in mid 1991, Dini was sick as a dog and popped the tape into his VCR.
I thought,Maybe there should be a girl there, he said.
And I thought,Should the girl be like a tough street thug?
Or like a hench-person or something?And then suddenly the idea of someonefunnykind of struck me.
It had a weird 60s kind of vibe to it.
It was just odd.
Charming, but odd.
I thought we could improve on that.
So I immediately started researching traditional harlequin gear and did kind of a simplified super-villain version of that.
It was always intended to be just a one-off.
Dini invited Sorkin to record the voice for the character shed inspired.
She was committed on the microphone but didnt put a whole lot of work into preparation.
I picked a voice that came easily, she said.
It was, in essence, her own voice: high-nasal, sing-song-y, and filled with Brooklyn-ish inflections.
It is to laugh, huh, Mistah J?
Harley says to the Joker in her first-ever line of dialogue in that fateful 1992 episode Jokers Favor.
Most important, shes immediately expressing a kind of sycophantic devotion for superhero fictions preeminent bad guy.
But she was more than just a plot equipment, even in that first episode.
Hey, sugar, you wanna read me my rights?
a cop asks her at one point.
You have therightto remainsilent!
she barks, before she kicks him in the shin, hard, and mutters, Jerk.
A poor, innocent, little thing like her, led astray by bad companions!
(She then grabs a knife and tries to stab him.)
Paul started immediately planning her return and saying, Yknow what?
Im gonna bring that Harley Quinn character back.
Dini didnt just bringher back.
Harley stories grappled very directly albeit in exaggerated, cartoonish fashion with cycles of domestic violence.
Like all great superhero-fiction relationships, Joker and Harleys followed a template.
At the start, Harley is head over heels for Joker, but he treats her like dirt.
Then they separate, usually because Joker kicks her out or Harley decides shes had enough.
Harley fluctuates between pining for Joker and cursing his name.
Joker realizes somethings missing from his life without his gal.
Then some explosive turn of events reunites the murderous twosome.
At a gangster hideout, she has to create a diversion to allow Robin to break into the building.
As Sorkin croons, its hard to know whether you should laugh or cry.
Harley holds everyones attention with a vaudevillian flair.
Shes feminine but not objectified.
Shes in charge of the entire room.
And yet, she still misses her soul mate, no matter how awful he might be to her.
She walks up to him, armed with a machine gun.
Ever the emotional abuser, Joker taunts her: You dont have theguts.
Not in amillion yearswould you Harley cuts him off by pulling the trigger, her eyes welling with tears.
But a comical sign reading RAT TAT TAT is all that comes out of the barrel.
Surprised, Harley gives a sheepish grin.
Jokers scowl abruptly turns into a smile.
Baby, youre the greatest!
This act of violent defiance has rekindled his love.
She squeals and runs into his arms.
Even F. Scott and Zelda would blush.
As Sorkin put it: At least we know the Joker isnt an anti-Semite!)
Fans immediately responded to this strange, passionate woman.
Harley was the one person who can handle what the Joker can dish out.
Strand, like countless other viewers around the world, became Harley Quinn obsessives.
And for the most part, Strands Quinn-thusiast friends were women.
Together, they compiled online indexes about Harley and composed long essays about what makes her tick.
She doesnt make choices that are smart or good for a woman, but she gets tomakethose choices.
Men are allowed to be fuck-ups in all kinds of characters, and women arent.
We have to be idealized.
DC had a hit on its hands unlike any itd seen in a long time.
Harley was a character invented in a non-comics property with little fanfare and very few top-down editorial edicts.
But now she was generating a tidal wave of fan response demanding more of her.
The game changer was aconcise tale called Mad Love.
Soon Harley was a regular inThe Batman Adventures, a comics series set in the universe ofThe Animated Series.
In the early aughts, Harley was everywhere.
In 2001, she got her own monthly comics series, the eponymousHarley Quinn.
She starred in a goofy web-only animated series calledGotham Girls, which aired as minutes-long Macromedia Flash cartoons.
She bounced and laughed her way across DCs various platforms.
The high times were not to last, though.
In the mid aughts, things fell apart for Harley.
It was canceled in 2003.
Comics essayist and Batman historian Chris Sims offers a theory.
And comics Joker has killed a million people.
Hes a sadistic, torturing murderer.
You cant sympathize with her whenthatsthe Joker she likes.
On the other hand, if you move herawayfrom the Joker, you remove her defining relationship.
It would be like writing years worth of Joker stories that didnt involve Batman: empty and confusing.
Then, out of nowhere, Harleys salvation came from far outside the pages of monthly comics.
Indeed, shes the only major female character visible for most of the game.
And that visibility is where the great Harley Quinn controversies of the past few years began.
Her face was still painted, but her jesters cap was replaced by two massive, blonde pigtails.
It was, to put it mildly, a very different visual approach to the character.
It was clearly a little bit of pandering.
Does it fit Harley?
Dini and Timm are divided on their feelings about Arkhams Harley.
I wanted to make it clear that Harley Quinn was out of her mind.
I dont own the character, so whatever DC wants to do with it is fine with me.
Throughout the game, Harley assists the Joker in his plot to destroy Batman within the confines of Arkham.
She regularly issues classic Dini-esque lines to Batman on her lovers behalf.
Arkham Asylum was a gargantuan hit.
But the games were just the prelude to an even bigger outcry from fans and critics.
The real bone of contention came out of the comics.
Harley was one such character.
Before the first issue even came out, it caused a furor among longtime fans.
Turnout wasnt great, but she wasnt alone in her skepticism about the characters direction.
InSuicide Squad, Harley was a somewhat different animal from her classic depiction.
The book was, for the most part, critically panned and canceled after 30 issues.
In 2013, DC wisely tried to turn a new leaf with Harley.
But to DCs relief, future issues have drawn no such ire.
Shes still pretty bonkers, but she doesnt look or act like a fetish fantasy anymore.
The formula is working, atleast financially:Harley Quinnis consistently one of DCs top-selling comics.
Wonder Woman sort of represents perfection, whereas Harley represents everybody else, Conner said.
Let the villains be the messy ones.
