Harley Quinn: The Animated Series

Harley is getting an adult animated series for DC's new streaming service. It'll be done by the team that created Powerless.

Concept art◊.

edited 20th Nov '17 6:00:48 PM by comicwriter

aw boy, more harley quinn stuff. (i'm being sarcastic but i do hope it's not too raunchy.)

<wince>

Well, setting aside pretty much everything else about this project, I can really get behind that piece of concept art.

I'll probably watch a couple of episodes.

This sounds really interesting...

Powerless?

This is DOA.

Little surprised to see Magpie.

> Powerless? This is DOA.

Could you elaborate further for those who don't know what Powerless is?

Certainly.

Powerless was a single season comedy at NBC about people in the DC Universe who worked for a security company owned by Wayne Enterprises. The joke was that it was about people who didn’t have powers, mixing a Work Com with some superhero antics (offscreen).

It got cancelled before the first season ended. The jokes fell flat and no one was really likable.

Also, Powerless was seen as something of a riff on a show that never got made called Damage Control, which was about a Marvel agency that cleans up superhero battles (they show up in Spiderman Homecoming). This feels like a riff on the upcoming Deadpool cartoon with Donald Glover (the writer behind FX series Atlanta )at the helm.

edited 21st Nov '17 7:09:18 AM by Beatman1

Deadpool > This possibly flat series.

They didn't get to do much with the Damage Control-similar plot because they reworked it in at the last minute and changed it to Wayne Enterprises lab testing and forced in a bunch of Batman references.

I'm a huge Harley fan*, but this makes me more worried than happy. I'm not fond of New 52 Harley or Suicide Squad Harley, but I feel they'll use them as inspiration due to how popular they are.

Please, please don't let Bruce Timm ANYWHERE near this.

I’d take Timm over the Powerless staff 10 times out of 10.

I'm sorry, but no. Say what you will about Powerless, at least it's not fucking gross.

I'm not down with Harley being having sexual scenes out of nowhere for the sake of looking "adult" while accomplishing the exact opposite, so I'm wary about Timm as well.

Maybe Paul Dini though. Not to write, but perhaps to consult.

edited 21st Nov '17 8:31:01 PM by KnownUnknown

No, it's just written incompetently with no one being likable. At least Timm gets these characters. He can write them fine when he reins himself in. The thing is someone needs to rein the guy in (like the censors or Dini).

I doubt he's involved with this. His last two animated outings didn't exactly set the world on fire for good reason (I could rant all day about The Killing Joke, but my quick fix is simple - Dump Timm's gross prologue and replace it with an adaptation of Going Sane) and that will probably lessen his chances to work on this.

I have very low hopes for this, mostly because I see it as the Alternate Company Equivalent to the Deadpool cartoon. Except that's Donald Glover, and anyone who's seen Atlanta knows how talented a writer he is.

edited 21st Nov '17 8:33:39 PM by Beatman1

The extent to which Timm "gets" Harley is arguable. Between the two of them, the one who lived and breathed Harley was Paul, and the reason I would want him involved is because I'd be confident he would get what makes her work even if they go in a completely different direction with her.

If that awful Batman And Harley Quinn movie this year is any indication, Timm perception of Harley is "LOL random! But also really hot!"

edited 21st Nov '17 8:39:35 PM by KnownUnknown

Well it is modern day Harley who is pretty much Deadpool-lite.

Honestly I'm not very excited for this cartoon primarily because I am fucking burnt out on Quinn.

Now Deadpool though, thats some real shit I can get behind.

People tend to forget that Bruce Timm is mainly an artist, and 90% of what was good about the DCAU, writing-wise, came from Paul Dini.

Probably less than that. I'd give credit to Eric Radomski, Alan Burnett, and Dwayne Mc Duffie as well.

Yeah that's true :P I was thinking more of BTAS though, which has Dini's marks all over it. Less so with later DCAU products.

I'm not particularly fond of the DCAU's Harley 100%. It's stil my favorite incarnation, but I like some elements that later depictions went with. For example, Harley being a psychiatrist instead of a psychologist and her actually being interested in the career instead of being in it for the cash.

I wonder how the series will do her backstory. I'm bored of seeing it, but Harley still isn't that mainstream so it has to be done.

I don't care if she's a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I just want her to be intelligent. Nine times out of ten, she's depicted as a brain-dead moron who couldn't sleep her way through a Bachelor's Degree. This woman is crazy, but she's supposed to have a PHD; she should be highly intelligent, not the Joker's dim-witted love-starved boob-lackey.

Recent adaptations of the character have done better with that aspect. While the Suicide Squad film is heavily flawed in a number of ways especially in their depiction of Harley, we do get to see her psychoanalyze the other characters, which I appreciated.

But this is Harley's show, so I really want them to play up that intelligence and talent for reading people and determining how they tic.

edited 22nd Nov '17 7:05:53 PM by TobiasDrake

[Looks At Concept Art]

Kite Man? Hell ye-

[Reads that its based off on Powerless]

Done. Not giving it a chance. Fuck this shit I’m out. At least the Deadpool animated seeies has somebody who did an actually funny show that deserves a second season.