YMMV / Harleen

• Awesome Art: It's Stjepan Šejić, so this is a given. The art is gloriously detailed and absolutely beautiful, with Harleen's dream sequences being especially impressive.
• Complete Monster: The Joker is a deranged, sociopathic madman out to bring carnage to Gotham. Under the nihilistic belief that everyone's "honest" selves are bloodthirsty monsters, the Joker has spent untold years leaving nothing but murder and misery in his wake, from fatally gassing innocents to blowing up police cars and murdering guards in his breakouts from Arkham Asylum. In his latest endeavor to "paint the town red", the Joker kills one of his men for incompetence and holds Dr. Harleen Quinzel at gunpoint, only sparing her so she can be traumatized by the experience. When Harley instead becomes his psychiatrist, the Joker presents himself as the perfect subject for her research in order to manipulate and seduce her over the course of months, corrupting her good intentions to make her obsessed with him. After Two-Face's Executioners cause a breakout at Arkham—during which the Joker prematurely sets off a riot that butchers many of the Executioners and Arkham's staff—Harley's devotion causes her to accidentally murder a man in the chaos. The Joker uses her subsequent psychotic break to mold her into his death-dealing henchwoman, with the few lucid remnants of her sanity left horrified, trapped, and unable to do anything to save herself from her mad fate.
• Fandom Rivalry: The book's fanbase somewhat has this going on with fellow Black Label title Joker/Harley Criminal Sanity which is pretty similar but is often accused of being the poor man's version of, escalating in 2022 when it got nominated for a Bram Stoker Award when Harleen received no such nomination previously.
• Growing the Beard: For the DC Black Label. After mixed receptions for things like the unnecessary Darker and Edgier tone of Batman: Damned or the general Frank Miller-ness of Superman: Year One, Harleen is the first of the imprint to be truly critically acclaimed, especially for taking advantage of the freedom from continuity to tell a definitive and compelling character study without the baggage of canon.
• Misblamed: Sean Gordon Murphy claimed that it was Harleen, not Batman: White Knight, that started the trend of "redeemable Joker". Not only did Harleen come out after White Knight, but Murphy must also have misinterpreted it badly or not read it at all if he thinks the Joker in Harleen was remotely sympathetic.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In the middle of this absolute tragedy, Poison Ivy thanks Harleen for using a recorder rather than pen and paper during their sessions, because Ivy previously mentioned how much she hated that her doctors would write on "tree's corpses." It's a small gesture of respect and courtesy towards her patient, but Ivy's genuine appreciation of it is oddly kind of sweet. And later on, Ivy saves Harleen's life. It's even better when you remember that later on, the two will fall in love — and their relationship will be much better for Harley than her "romance" with the Joker.
  • At the end of the day, Batman still firmly believes Harley began her research out of a genuine desire to help the criminals reform, and indicates he still believes in her capacity for good. He's also furious at the Joker for manipulating her kindness and sense of goodwill. Batman never truly gives up on his rogue gallery, and still has compassion for the ones who suffered.
• The Woobie: Harley, even more than usual, as she is not only manipulated into falling in love with the Joker, as usual, the whole thing starts when she gets caught in a crossfire between Batman and The Joker, after which she develops PTSD like symptoms including having nightmares every night. She originally seeks out the Joker is in hope of finding some relief from her mental torment, and only falls for him later.

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