Batman General Discussion

she is buddies with my two favorites. I thought there was a reason why I would like her I wasn't aware of. nerdy intuition.

FYI her name is Jenna Duffy

edited 20th Dec '12 5:54:11 PM by HeroShepherd

Boy, did you see Harley Quinn in Death Of The Family? I didn't think she had it in her!

To be frank, I never liked Harley Quinn as a character for a long time. She seemed too annoying, clingy, and needy for my taste. When the Arkham City game came out, and had Mooks saying how annoying her voice was and how you got to shoot heads off of HQ statues, I was cheering. It was a big Take That, Scrappy! moment for me.

I know people seem to think HQ in New 52 seems a little too sexed up, but that's kind of hypocritical, considering that nobody complains about Catwoman being sexed up! I don't mind the look myself.

The big issue I had with HQ is how it was never about her, it was always about Joker, and she was just a boot-licking toady who loved him. Their relationship was as abusive as they came, and fans insisted that they had a great relationship. This is why as a rule I try to stay from shipping...too creepy.

Sure, she left him and came back to him...many times. I understand that abusive relationships often have this as a vicious cycle in Real Life. But with Comic Books, the question becomes how long can this cycle continue?

Many thanks to Scott Snyder for breaking that vicious cycle. Yes, SS more or less showed that the relationship between those two was not as sexy or great as some fans claim. Finding out that Joker had many Harley Quinns before her and killed them all, while she was the first one to escape alive was a big Plot Twist. At least Harley Quinn is finally standing as her own character and not letting herself be defined by Joker!

edited 22nd Dec '12 12:10:56 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Well, I never thought HQ's and her puddin's relationship was romantic. I liked it because it really defined both characters' insanity. Personally, I like a Harley Quinn who doesn't require the Joker to be present in every scene she's in. I like it when she has a life besides the Clown Prince of Crime, such as her friendship with Posion Ivy.

Harley isn't a character who works well on her own. She's esentially a tagalong, and people keeps trying to empower her up, but by doing that, you end up having to turn that character into someone who isn't Harley Quinn. But since they don't want to go the full way and reinvent the character completely, they keep pushing her back to being Joker's doormat.

As long as the woman who is Harleen Quinzeel keeps using an identity created for Joker and modeled after him, she'll always be in his shadow no matter how many times writers keep shouting "No, no, really, she's her own gal now!" If they truly want to make her independent, take a hint from Dick Grayson and help her move into something all her own.

edited 22nd Dec '12 5:54:01 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

YMMV on that one, but I see where you're coming from. The Joker is as much a part of Harley Quinn's character as she herself is. Still, what does everyone think of the Ivy-Harley friendship.

That friendship is essentially Thelma And Louise in cartoon and comic book form.

From the looks of New 52, that friendship may or may not have happened, though. Think about it... Harley Quinn has been revealed to be a Legacy Character out of a long line of Harley Quinns. Did Poison Ivy maintain a Les Yay friendship with all of them, some of them, or one of them?

Oh, yeah, and there's an upcoming issue that has a cover showing Harley Quinn fighting what looks like the Arkham Asylum version of Poison Ivy. I've heard a number of people claiming that it's not her, despite the resemblance. What shall we call her? Poison Oak? Poison Sumac?

So Joker had a long line of Harley Quinns before meeting one Harleen Quinzel? Okay. I've seen them more contrived, I guess.

Y'know, I was just watching some old Superfriends episodes and I saw the most insane Bat-gadgets ever whipped out. I'm talking about Bat-tire jacks and Bat-mouse traps. You can't make this stuff up. Anyway, I was wondering what you guys thought is the craziest Bat-gadget you've ever seen. Apart from Bat-shark repellent.

The Bat-Magic Wand. No, seriously. In a Superfriends episode, Riddler once, for no good reason whatsoever, pulled out a magic wand and casted a spell on Batman, who countered it with his own Bat-wand. It was insane even for Superfriends standards, and of course nothing of it was ever mentioned again afterwards.

Second place for the Bat-Master Card from Batman And Robin.

edited 23rd Dec '12 7:31:30 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Wow. So, Batman's a wizard now? I've also seen a Golden Age story where Batman has a life sized puppet of himself that he tells Dick Grayson to operate. The reason for this is that a mad painter or something is gunning for Bruce Wayne so he opens fire on the puppet. It was only luck that he didn't hit Grayson inside it.

Scroll down the page to see Robin's "Special Mummy Ray Gun"!

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4155691.html#cutid1

Wait, there's a long line of Harley's? When was this revealed?

edited 23rd Dec '12 9:03:51 AM by TheConductor

Ahem, from Death Of The Family, which you ought to pay more attention to. It certainly raises a lot of questions:

1. How many Harley Quinns were there before the one we see?
2. The one before New 52 was a blonde-haired psychologist/psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum. Was she the first one? Is she one of the dead ones? Is she the same one?
3. Before New 52, Harley Quinn seemed to barely survive murder attempts by Joker...at least, the ones that were shown. Has she actually been killed off-panel? Does that mean that we've been seeing different ones at different times?
4. Then there's Poison Ivy? Does she know about any of this? Does she care? Did she have a Les Yay friendship with one of them, some of them, or all of them? Was the friendship even genuine or was it just a case of False Friend?
5. Joker brags about how Harley Quinn is not the first one and she will not be the last either. That means we'll probably see a new Monster Fangirl at some point. Who wants to be that the two Harley Quinns will encounter each other at some point?

Number Five is dependent entirely on how long the New 52 actually sticks around. My bets are that it's gone within 5 years.

I wonder if Gaggy still fits in somewhere in there.

-Ahem- Thank you for being being vague, you may as well have said "the New 52". WHEN in Death of the Family? Was it in Suicide Squad? Cause if so, I may have missed it, was it Nightwing? Cause if so, I haven't read it yet.

It's one of the tie-in issues, specifically "Suicide Squad #15: Running With the Devil, Part 2".

By the way, do you think Joker has basically turned into one of those Slasher Movie villains? His new look makes me think of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Eek.

Huh...for the first time in a while I'm intrigued by New 52. A comic where Joker is off the fucking wagon and breaking HQ's heart terrifying other villains and more? Count me in. What New 52 book does Death Of The Family start?

Batman I want to say 13

Well, Death Of The Family started in October this year, and it'll end in February 2013.

For Batman, it starts at #13 and is going to go up to #17.

Is Joker off the wagon? I think so, considering that he killed 19 cops in the Gotham City Police Department...for starters!

Detective Comics 15 pisses me off. It's a decent story but I bought it because it said it ties into Death of the Family yet the Joker only appears for one panel. That's four bucks I could have saved DC! Stop pulling this shit.

@Kostya

lol

Make sure you check the synopsis of comics ya buy before going out ta purchase 'em ol chum.

Hey, what do you guys think of the all-black, Keaton-esque Batsuit? Personally, I think it's great and I think the comics should adopt it more. It's way more mysterious and bat-like than the black and grey suit.

@Tiggers Are Great: Multiple, disposable Harley Quinns. The fuck. Seriously. How do they not understand how misogynistic that is?

Well, to Joker, everyone but Batman and himself is disposable regardless of gender.

edited 25th Dec '12 11:39:01 AM by NapoleonDeCheese