Animating Women

Harley Quinn’s first comic book appearance was in The Batman Adventures #12, September 1993, then appeared in the seventh episode of  Batman: The Animated Series, Warner Bros.

Here we find Harley working as a psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum where met the Joker and fell in love with him during their therapy sessions. Harley helped the Joker to escape, her medical license was revoked and was placed in a cell of her own. Eventually Harley escaped the  Asylum herself, joining the Joker as his loyal side kick against arch enemy Batman.

Harley Quinn
Graphic from Batman: The Animated Series, Warner Bros, 2001.

What makes an intelligent woman fall in love with psychopath?
The relationship between Harley Quinn and The Joker was abusive - he hit her, shouted at her and left her. As battered women do, Harley continually returns to the Joker because she saw his abuse as his jokes. However, Harley receives some home truths about her hopeless love for the Joker when she teams up with Poison Ivy. Demanding that Quinn stand up for herself, Quinn said “I’m nobody’s doormat—am I?” Ivy replied, “If you had a middle name, it would be ‘Welcome’.   

What makes Harley Quinn a Superhero?

• Exploding Glove Gun.
• Rubber chicken.
• Stink bombs.
• Exploding cigars.
• Flying playing cards that serve as daggers.

Where are the Men of Gotham City?
See Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in the Gotham Girls. In an excellent series of web toons, the men of Gotham City disappear, leaving the women mayor and the acting commissioner in a struggle for power. Meanwhile Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy continue to loot the vacant Arkham Ayslum regardless.  This series illustrates Harley’s quirky humor and her hopeless infatuatuion with the Joker.

Posted on March 23rd, 2007 by animatingwomen
Filed under: Women in Comics