DC Movies

Well Harley Quinn seems to fare better when she pretty much embraces her villainous persona and is under no delusion that she and the Joker are somehow heroes/lovers and Batman is the real bad guy. Of course, that also happens to be the reason why she can easily break up with the Joker and stand on her own rights.

She does embrace it? I mean more often that not she is just a anti hero who does crazy things but rarely ever is a villian except when is part of the squad.

is not surprise DC really make her the DC deadpool.

They want her to be, but if BOP is any indication, it doesn’t work.

Punchline seems to be them trying to separate Harley from Joker for good, unless they somehow wrap it around and she ends up being an unwilling catalyst to reunite the two and put an end to Harley Pool.

I doubt it, I mean she was harley pool in the comic, to the point in new 52 she team up with a expy of him(redtool) just to drive the point on, her animated series kinda look like that, is a sort of compromise to not being a victim(which is repetive a this point and kinda sorta and artifact of the animate series) not being a villian(which I feel have something of unfortune implication) and not being a hero(which injustice did).

is a thing of the chararter, Harley never really feel like a villian in the animated series, she was more a joker peppy cheerleader until she was not.

The issue is the loss of Harley removes a fun dynamic. She & the Joker made a fun duo, being hilarious & entertaining which is why it became so iconic even if the Joker didn't exactly treat her right.

Only as the Joker became a more blatantly darker character & started more brutally abusing Harley, the fun kinda went away. Which lead to Harley leaving cause he became an outright abusive boyfriend.

And considering Punchline is working with the modern comic Joker who tends to be not as funny & she appears to be characterized as a totally evil villain, she might not be very funny either.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 12th 2020 at 10:14:14 AM

That is because harley while being a henchment of the joker never really participate that much, she was more a sort of assitent in part because it allow harley to be good without crossing the line.

if Anything it would see how punchline would deal with the joker since this one is pretty much brutal.

I mean there are various incarnations where she does help out immensely in his schemes.

Hell she was straight up his Dragon in the Arkham games, especially in 2 where he was too sick to do most of the work & she was quite efficient at being his hand.

Punchline is not unique. She's just the result of the direction modern Harley is taking.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 12th 2020 at 10:21:58 AM

I dont see her that diferent in arkham, just she is devoted to him to the very end.

I mean for what I see harley have two modes: harley as abuse victim or henchment and...Harleypool.

Okay here are some scenes of her in the game.

She is actually complicit in his schemes. Holding people hostage, torturing them, & straight up trying to kill Batman without a shred of remorse.

She is a full-blown villain here.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 12th 2020 at 10:25:27 AM

You know, I wonder if the Joker will ever go back to being a funny villain who is also scary at the same time. I don't know about you, but I'm not inclined to read books about Batman vs Joker if the Joker is just dark and violent with no sense of humor. That takes the fun away of seeing the contrast between the Bat and the Clown.

Is more that ther joker become less and less of a man and more of just a monster in human skin.

Is funny how many pay homage of the killing joke and all that part of making batman laugh and forget it also huminze the joker to great extend.

I would like to see a joker who dosent inmediatly treat harley like trash.

Well there's stuff like this.

Okey, that....was amazing, more that it should be.

The transformation is great.

Especially Harley's line.

"8 YEARS of college, 3 YEARS of residency, and HE SAYS NURSE"

Okey....I just want to see this movie so badly know

Arkham Harley stinks and is by far the worst incarnation of the character. The entire conceit for her in that game and it’s sequels is that she’s a pathetic joke who thinks she’s this important part of Joker’s life but whom nobody takes seriously, whose owns mooks insult behind her back, and who Batman can always take out in one punch.

I’m so glad other adaptations, even the ones that supposedly take place in the Arkham universe, straight up ignore those games’ interpretation.

Stories that actually do much with Joker and Harley dynamic outside of abuse are actually kind of rare, and pretty much stopped the moment she made the transition into the comics (arguably even earlier, with TNBA). The Batman has a fun, non abusive Joker / Harley, I guess, but even as far back as the early 2000’s they were giving Harley major runs about breaking off from the Joker and doing her own thing.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 13th 2020 at 5:38:40 AM

That... sounds more like an accurate depiction of Harley. At least, as she was conceived.

She didn't have a big role in it, but Joker and Harley had a pretty healthy relationship in The LEGO Batman Movie. At very least, the Joker didn't treat her like crap and actually seemed to enjoy her company.

Edited by chasemaddigan on Feb 13th 2020 at 9:59:37 AM

It helps that The LEGO Batman Movie was aimed at a family audience so they couldn't really have him as abusive,would have been wildly inappropriate

Also the clips I put here from the movie Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a general functional Joker & Harley relationship & that was a somewhat recent movie.

So its not like the dynamic has been completely abandoned these days.

Since when?

From her very first appearances BTAS portrays Harley as Joker’s moll, and essentially his Number Two (at “worst,” her first few appearances portrayed her as a Non-Action Guy who used tricks and disguises, but that quickly changed).

Both BTAS and TNBA make it clear that Joker himself doesn’t care much about her (with TNBA and Mad Love showing that he’s outright abusive) but she’s not disrespected at large in her original appearances, and both shows make it clear she’s no less dangerous than most of the other rogues on her own.

Comics Harley, meanwhile, has pretty consistently been Joker’s muscle since the beginning, ever since her official introduction composited her origin with Harley & Ivy with the noticeable addition of Ivy giving her a peak human buff.

I can’t think of any media before Arkham that portrays Harley the degree that game does, tbh. I’ve generally seen her depiction there as a casualty of how hypermasculine that game tended to be. I think her one appearance in STAS portrayed her as an idiot, but that’s about it.

If absolutely nothing else, Suicide Squad (and the Harley, which does it better) did it right when they depicted Harley as brawler to Joker’s schemer. She’s been consistently portrayed that way since her third or fourth appearance at least.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 13th 2020 at 8:42:27 AM

Mad Love actually shows Harley is potentially quite dangerous, exactly because people underestimate her. She tricks Batman and actually could have killed him if he hadn't manipulated her into calling Joker.

With the exception of her not being very competent (which varies from writer to writer), all that stuff in Arkham could describe Harley. As mentioned , not a lot of people in universe respect her and think of her as Joker's lackey.

As mentioned , not a lot of people in universe respect her and think of her as Joker's lackey.

Generally, when people disrespect her in other media, she proves them wrong. When a guy in BTAS tells her she’s a dim bulb to her face, she responds by beating his face in with a fish, then going on to take on the freaking army (well, a guy in a tank).

That’s typical and consistent for her, and yes - has been a thing since the beginning. The point of having someone disrespect a character like Harley is to have her show that they’re idiots for doing so, not to focus on the idea that she’s an idiot.

See also, her bit in Joker’s Asylum. Or the Harley show. Or Birds of Prey tbh.

This is because because disrespected and being portrayed as pathetic are two completely different things. Arkham doesn’t just portray her as not being respected. It portrays her as a pathetic fool for whom that disrespect is deserved, and who is incapable of overcoming it as a result.

Which, no, is not actually a good adaptation of the character.

A tool basically.