Harley Quinn: The Animated Series

Season 2: Harley begins dating Plastic Man, who ends up being her 'Mr. Peanutbutter' and tries to "fix" all her problems in well-meaning but misaimed ways.

I like Plastic Man but is he even in Gotham?

It more or less is an official take on joker's Draco in Leather Pants and Batman's Ron the Death Eater statuses which states that batman must be the reason joker is the way he is right.

Hoping Condiment King shows up

Surprised he hasn't shown up already given the nature of this show.

I haven't read White Knight but from what I've heard it does sound like grade A whitewashing.

This is what shows up under Adaptional Heroism on the comics page.

The Joker. No, really. While not much of Jack's past is shown, this version of the Joker is far less malevolent than his mainstream counterpart. Even before the Heel–Face Turn, this Joker didn't seem to focus on using death as a cruel punch line and was more focused on being the Clown Prince of Crime than a Monster Clown. Before he became the Joker, Jack was just a country kid looking to make it in the big city, disillusioned by how it wasn't as exciting or wonderful as he thought it was. He tried to be a comedian, but that didn't work, so he put on makeup and turned to crime. Not long after, Batman showed up and made the whole thing a grand adventure for him. While the mainstream Joker sees Batman as part of his act and a Worthy Opponent, Jack was more like a Loony Fan of Batman's and saw being the Joker as a way to get close to Batman.

What really demonstrates how less horrible this version of the Joker was is the fact that the police have very little evidence of serious crimes on this Joker. Gordon stated that Jack never assaulted the other patients or staff while in Arkham, and it was when Harley Quinn suspected that the Joker killed Jason Todd that she left him. Lastly, Harley states that "[The Joker is] a narcissist that suffers from dysthemia and a schizoid personality disorder. Likely made worse by a chemical imbalance, which is why the medication is working.", while the mainstream Joker is a Psychopathic Manchild that kills on a whim and loves the sound of people screaming in terror. Seriously, this version of the Joker seems saintly compared to the mainstream version.

And this bit about Harley under Deconstruction.

The Draco in Leather Pants view on Harley Quinn is given one by splitting her into two different women, one seemingly based on the controversial New 52 Harley and the other the original Batman TAS Harley. Due to her abusive relationship with the Joker, it's oft forgotten that Harley was capable of some very despicable things such as being complicit in torturing a child and driving him insane. Murphy distills all of Harley's negative traits, most of which were present in the original animated series where she debuted, into the New 52 Harley, which seems to leave the person labelled as the "original Harley Quinn" with the positive traits of Harley's occasional longing for a normal domestic life and the repressed psychiatrist personality that she abandoned to get Joker's attention—but flashbacks suggest she had more of her classic traits prior to her reforming pre-story. Ultimately, in the final confrontation between the two, New 52 Harley accuses Harleen of hating her because she's ashamed of what she used to be, a villain in love with a serial killer.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 28th 2020 at 1:45:18 AM

The original DCAU Harley Quinn was honestly just kind of a weak person in the end. After getting numerous chances to reform and leave the Joker, her final act before his death was aiding in the torture and Mind Rape of a child and then trying to rationalize it. She was only able to move on from her life of crime after he died.

The original Harley wasn't even very smart. She only got her doctorate by sleeping with her teachers. Honestly, most of her subsequent portrayals have gotten a pretty healthy dose of Adaptational Intelligence and Adaptational Heroism.

The Batman who Laughs sounds dumb. "Joker dindu nothin'" also sounds dumb.

It's no dumber than everything else that happens in comics.

The Batman Who Laughs is essentially what happens if Batman becomes Jokerized & White Knight is what happens if Joker becomes sane & decides to redeem himself as a hero.

Both good concepts its just the latter's story misses the point of a redemption story if the redeeming party never did anything to be redeemed over.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 28th 2020 at 5:54:45 AM

It's like pitting the sillier, tamer Joker against the modern Batman on his worst moments.

Edited by Blueace on Feb 28th 2020 at 10:58:35 AM

So, I just looked up what "Batman Who Laughs" means, and my god, that is really messed up.

Look up the rest of the Dark Knights and cringe. Their whole concepts came out of a bad darkfic.

That's what they are, nightmare's Batman thought of while on a bad trip.

And that's only the start. Now we're getting stuff like Lois Lane becoming the Eradicator or an entire universe full of Lobos from an insane Sinestro.

"Batman who laughs" just makes me think of that one episode of The Batman where Joker tries to swap roles with Batman.

That was legit one of my favourite episodes of The Batman.

I had a Batman artbook as a kid, an it featured a some pretty cool Bat-Joker art by Carl Critchlow.

I think you could do a decent story with a good Joker and evil Batman, but you'd have to do it from the ground up as an Elseworlds story or something. Tweak a few things here and there so their lives take slightly different routes. Give the Joker Batman's iron will and iron morality instead, and let the insane, deformed hoodlum with a weird sense of humour become a lawless, corrupt city's best defence against an otherwise-unaccountable billionaire vigilante.

Edited by Iaculus on Feb 29th 2020 at 8:25:24 PM

Okay I have a question. What is everyone's favorite episode of season 1? For my money it's either one of two. The one with Robin. Due to being the funniest one in my opinion. Or on the other hand it's the one right after Harley joins the Legion and where Joker manipulates her again. Due to having the best emotion near the end in my opinion.

Edited by Bullman on Feb 29th 2020 at 8:18:38 AM

The second pick sounds good. I'm definitely a bigger fan of second half of the season. Maybe the one where they saved Ivy?

On unrelated note, it's crazy how much DCEU Harley hair caught on. Does anyone even remembers that she used wear half of her hair black and other half red?

I remember that look because it was used in The Lego Batman Movie. It's not really a great look, TBH. It kind of just looks like a budget attempt at evoking the jester outfit.

It's kind of ironic that this show makes Harley's classic jester outfit into a symbol of the Joker's patriarchal hold on her. I mean, when the Arkham games, which I think started or popularized the trend for changing Harley's outfit, started giving her alternate (and generally skimpier) costumes, it just kind of came off as an excuse for Fanservice.

The funny thing is that White Knight goes in the opposite direction. Jester Outfit Harley is classic Harley, and Suicide Squad Harley is all the negative aspects of Harley. This flips that script.

That was a fun episode. And would be more preferable as a Batman who Laughs concept to me than "BDSM Batman with gimp Robins he keeps on leashes".

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go poke out my mind's eye.

That is Joker as Batman though.

The other one is Batman as Joker.

Joker does try to make Batman take his place as the Joker in that episode. And we do get Batman laughing like a maniac.