Batman’s most adorable nemesis, Harley Quinn, is poppin’ up in May’s Loot Wear! With that knowledge, I thought I’d drop some more knowledge about this psychologist-turned-bad-girl in this week’s Trivia! Let’s see how much you know about Miss Quinzel…
1. Harley Quinn, despite being one of the most popular in the Rogues Gallery of Batman villains, actually didn’t exist before Batman: The Animated Series. Paul Dini created Quinn to give The Joker a decent way of telling his backstory. The character became so popular that she eventually became a reoccurring character that spun into villainous gold within her own stories.
2. Harleen Quinzel wasn’t just some girl who fell for the wrong man, she learned rather quickly that Joker had manipulated her but also knew the damage was already done. In the Batman: The Animated Series episode and comic book issue Mad Love, Joker admits that he used his story to appear sympathetic to her and gain his freedom.
3. In The New 52 series, DC Comics changed up Harley’s origin story to show her ambition in becoming a psychologist that could help the inmates of Arkham Asylum. She fought to get through school despite her family not accepting this and her peers doubting her only to try a method nobody approved of. What was this method? Blending in with the inmates and posing as one herself. This was when she met The Joker and became instantly berated and turned away by her colleagues, thus giving Joker his chance to brainwash her into believing order was not always the way. Enter Harley Quinn, Joker’s brand new accomplice.
(DC Comics/Warner Brothers Animation)
4. Harley Quinn had previously only been seen as a human villain with no ‘super’-like powers until Poison Ivy gave her a serum which increased her speed, a slight health regeneration and agility but also an immunity from poisons. Sooo, you may say that friendship she forged with Poison Ivy ended up very beneficial in more ways than one.
5. Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, stated that her and the other castmates of the movie had spent an extensive amount of time rehearsing together but not Jared Leto, who played The Joker. David Ayer, who directed the film, stated it would work better for the chaos and unpredictable nature of Quinn and Joker if they weren’t comfortable with one another from the start.
6. Speaking of Margot Robbie, three separate Harley Quinn features are in the works within the DC Film universe. One is a solo film speaking on her origin story, the film based on the Gotham City Sirens, which would also have two other favorites Catwoman and Poison Ivy and Birds of Prey which is another incredible comic series. This isn’t including Suicide Squad 2 which is still mired in rumor on if it will be made or if the focus will remain on taking Harley Quinn into other adventures.
Yes, you can even become your own Harley Quinn in Injustice 2! Trust me, it’s ‘insanely’ fun. (Warner Bros. Games)
7. Curious about Birds of Prey? Well, imagine if Batman left Gotham. Imagine a world where the female superheroes and villains of Gotham were all pitted against one another. Okay, well, perhaps the movie version will fare better than the short-lived show that came out on The WB back in 2002. This was before our huge obsession with comic book films, mind you, so let’s cross our fingers that we’re ready for it this time around! Harley was amazing in it and flexed her mastermind chops flawlessly!
8. Harley hasn’t always been an enemy to Gotham, if you can believe it. While she definitely never stayed on the side of the good, Harley pretty much got a thousand chances by the likes of Batman, the Gotham PD and several other notorious good figures to try to come through from her life of crime. While it never stuck, she always helped to her very best to help reform not only herself but the other villains that found themselves under Batman’s boot time and time again.
9. Paul Dini cites Arleen Sorkin as the impetus for Joker’s sidekick based on a role that Sorkin had in a soap opera’s dream sequence. She was dressed as a clown and had the most manic silly behavior and Dini even sought out Sorkin to voice Quinn in The Animated Series after writing it.
(Warner Bros. Animation, DC Comics)
10. Harley Quinn’s origin story sheds a lot of light if you’re willing to read her solo comic books. Coming from an abusive backstory in which her mother treated her terribly, her brother inspired her to make something of her life due to his own inability to launch and her father’s criminal background, Harleen was ripe for the picking when it came to a life of crime. Definitely check out those comics, you’ll see everyone’s most beloved clown in a whole new light.
