4. Harley Quinn
Despite the solo series, videogame appearances, countless cosplaying costumes, and the name of Kevin Smith’s firstborn child devoted to the Joker’s girlfriend, many forget that Harley Quinn started of as what was originally supposed to be just a random Joker henchman – I mean henchwoman. After gaining popularity, likely because some lady hanging out with the Joker raises a surprisingly large amount of questions for a show centered around a guy who is really into rodents, Quinn was later given lines, a fully fleshed backstory in the comic Mad Love (later adapted into an episode of Batman: TAS with the same name). In Mad Love, we explore both Quinn’s origins and the Joker’s intent with Batman, specifically that while the Joker wants to kill the Bat, he has to kill him in the most spectacular way possible in order to demonstrate the full pants-wetting potential of his comic genius.
In this issue however, Quinn plays the part of battered girlfriend, seeking help from the Batman, claiming that her “puddin'” had gone completely off the edge, even for her crazy ass. Taking her act as genuine — which is somewhat true, as the Joker is a loving boyfriend in the sense that pizza is a vegetable– Batman lets his guard down just long enough for Harley to knock him out, resulting in a capeless crusader waking up suspended over a repurposed Joker-brand Dark Knight Death-Trap.
Utility Belt-stripped, recently drugged, and suspended upside down with blood rushing to his head over a tank of fishnapped piranha, Batman himself admits that Harley got extremely close to killing him — closer than the Joker ever did at least. The only way that Batman is able to escape is by convincing Quinn to get Joker to witness the death trap itself, wherein Mr. J single-handedly botches everything, throwing Quinn out of a pane-glass window for the sake of his own ego.
Even though the Batman is able to psychologically outfox a former pop culture psychologist, the only reason Batman is still alive is because of his own arch-nemesis’ ineptitude. Quinn proved she could improve upon one of the Joker’s ideas, but the Joker just couldn’t let her have the last laugh.
Of course, other writers would later say that the Joker merely wants to get caught in a game of “cat and also cat” with Batman and has no actual desire to kill him, rather wants to force the Bat to drop to Joker’s level by killing him. However, this depends on the Joker’s mood (not to mention the writer’s), as no doubt he has certainly strapped the Dark Knight to a gigantic piano a fair amount of times. Regardless, Batman said it himself: Harley Quinn outsmarted him.
It made me incredibly happy to see the Venture Bros on here!
I would have been tempted to include something about Ogilvy (who’s trying his hardest to supplant The Penguin in Detective Comics atm), but I have a feeling Penguin’ll win out in the end. Great choices.