HARLEY QUINN TURNS DIRTY 30!

BY: Tony Brown

If you told the average fanboy, back in the early 90s, that their future comic-book-pinup-girl would be a clown inspired by a stock commedia dell’arte character, they would have laughed like you dosed them with Joker Venom and then said, huh? But then, one funny, sexy, and certifiably nuts, Harley Quinn, appeared and proved you correct. In September, HQ turns dirty 30, and this old lady’s at the top of her game. As one of her creators says, “like Mickey Mouse she’s everywhere” (movies, TV, comics, etc.). It’s Harley’s world; we just live in it.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn, aka Harls, has had an unlikely path to the top. For one, like Batman, she is superpower-less. Secondly, she did not get her start in the pages of comic books. Lastly, also like Bats, she tends to get in her own way.

In the world of DC, no characters have dared to challenge the sacred pantheon of the Hall of Justice; Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are referred to as the Trinity for chrissakes, such hubris. These three alone have held court for 80-some years. That is, until September 11, 1992, when Harley Quinn burst onto the scene.

In the last three decades, she has gone from a sounding board to darling of the comic culture to America’s Sweetheart, voiced and portrayed by Hollywood heroines. Jim Lee, comic legend and DC co-publisher, told Vulture, “I refer to her as the fourth pillar in our publishing line, behind Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.” Take that, Trinity!

Harley Quinn’s Evolution

Back in ’92, Paul Dini was writing a script for episode 22 of Batman: The Animated Series called Joker’s Favor. He wanted Bats’ arch enemy to have a moll (a female yes-person/hench-person). He was having a little trouble working, and then he remembered his college friend and co-writer on Tiny Toon Adventures, Arleen Sorkin. She had been a regular on Days of Our Lives. For a string of episodes, a dad was telling his kid a story. In these dream or fantasy sequences, Sorkin played a bike horn-wielding, roller skating court jester who dropped non-sequiturs like, “We’ll throw the peasants in the moat and watch them drown!” (*bike horn*) and “Is it true what they say about men with big crossbows?” (*bike horn*)

Dini wrote Harley with this DOOL character and Arleen’s genuine personality and voice in mind. “Harley’s accent is pretty close to the way Arleen talks,” Dini told Digital Spy. When Sorkin went into the studio to record, she did a Judy Holliday from Adam’s Rib thing. Mark Hamill, who voiced The Joker, was blown away. Years later, he tweeted, “When Arleen began reading her lines in that unforgettable voice so poignant & full of heart, I nearly fell off my chair! She brought SO much more than was on the page & a legend was born.”

Bruce Timm is also responsible for co-creating Harley. Dini wrote her, Timm designed her, and Sorkin gave her a soul. Much of the Harley Quinn foundation we all know and love today was fleshed out in Batman: The Animated Series: her origin, troubled relationship with the Joker, and tight friendship with Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy. See episodes: Joker’s Favor, Laughing Fish, Harley and Ivy, Harlequinade, and Mad Love.

Finally, in 1994 Harley made her comic debut in Batman Adventures #12 and soon had her origin story in print in Mad Love (upon which the episode above was based and won an Eisner Award for Dini and Timm). However, DC claims they didn’t know how popular she was until the 2011 Suicide Squad New 52 relaunch/renumbering when the comics with her on the cover outsold those with other characters. Since then, she has been a staple of the comic series.

Harley is so famous a week into the theatrical release of Birds of Prey, and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn premiered, the WB changed the name to simply Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Margot Robbie is the Harley of the big screen. She has played her for three films and still loves her, recently telling Newsweek, “I’m so excited to play her again in different scenarios with different characters and actors. I just think it would be really tough to find someone I find more exciting than that.” Robbie’s Harley is the best part of The Suicide Squad. The movie is ok, but every second she is on screen is electric. Fans are like, Let’s just have a Harley Quinn movie already!  It could be a great film based on Harleen’s words and art by Stjepan Sejic. This graphic novel kicks Mad Love up a notch.

 

 

On the small screen, Kaley Cuoco is Harley. Cuoco went from playing the girl fanboys drooled over in The Big Bang Theory to the girl everyone drools over in HBO Max’s hit Harley Quinn. “I think she actually represents more of the women out there than we think,” Cuoco told EW, “Getting away from a bad relationship and having your friends around you to make you feel powerful and believe in yourself, that’s like feminism at its core. That’s what I love about her: She kicks ass, she loves her friends, she does bad things but for what she thinks are right reasons, she’s strong, she’s quirky, she’s fun (let’s not forget how much fun she is), and absolutely adorable.” This series is so, so good! WB has taken all the best things that make Harley, Harley. In this animated show she is the “unpredictable, manic, sprite” Dini has talked so much about in the past. In two short seasons, the showrunners have explored HQ’s independence, intellect (her psychiatrist self appears in mirrors), and sexuality. Ivy and Harley fall in love. This is continued in the comic Harley Quinn: The Animated Series Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour written by Tee Franklin and drawn by Max Sarin. 

 

 

We can’t wait to see what is next for our favorite funny gal.

Happy Birthday, Harley!