The Evolution of Harley Quinn

WatchMojo

Daddy's Little Monster is all grown up! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at how the DC Comics character Harley Quinn has developed over the decades.

Transcript

00:00Hi, Joan. Call me Harley. Everyone does.

00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at how the DC Comics character Harley Quinn

00:08has developed over the decades.

00:10Run, piggy, run!

00:17It's not often that somebody can come along and change 50 years' worth of continuity

00:21for one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, and have those changes be so

00:25well-received that they're widely adopted. But that's what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm

00:30managed to do in 1992, when Batman the Animated Series began on Fox Kids.

00:35If anyone should be getting a testimonial, it's you.

00:37I'm just a night shift.

00:39For kids born in the 80s, this and its later sequel, The New Batman Adventures, became

00:43the definitive version of Batman.

00:45The Animated Series remains the backbone of DC's ongoing animated universe, which

00:56still puts out high-quality animated movies and shows to this day.

01:00Naughty, naughty! Jump around like that and Doctor won't give you a lollipop!

01:05But there was one standout character from the Animated Series, and it wasn't Batman

01:09or any of his most well-known rogues. It was Harley Quinn, an original creation for the show.

01:15Excuse me, but the teeth were my idea. So's this!

01:21Quinn began life as simply the Joker's Harlequin-themed girlfriend, first appearing as a minor character

01:26in the early episode, Joker's Favor.

01:29Here, here!

01:34But she quickly started to develop, thanks in no small part to the talents of Arlene

01:38Sorkin, her voice actress. The entire character was actually written for Sorkin, who was a

01:43close friend of Paul Dini. He was impressed seeing her play a jester in Days of Our Lives,

01:48and Harley Quinn was born.

01:49Okay, two drummer boys going to a bar! Ba-dum-ba-dum-bum!

01:53Boy, you're a rough crowd.

01:55Harley was a hit, both with audiences and with network executives, and she helped the

01:59show tackle some of its most serious issues. Notably, the extremely toxic relationship

02:04between Harley and the Joker.

02:06Know this, my sweet. The death of Batman must be nothing less than a masterpiece!

02:11The triumph of my sheer comic genius over his ridiculous math and gadgets!

02:17We see him consistently mistreat her, sometimes hurting her or leaving her for dead in his

02:22pursuit of Batman. In 1994, Dini and Tim wrote the Mad Love comic book, showing her origin

02:28story as Joker's obsessive psychiatrist, which was eventually toned down and made into

02:33another episode of the cartoon, since the comic wasn't suitable for the show's audience

02:37of children.

02:39Face it, Harl, this stinks! You're a certified nutso wanted in twelve states, and hopelessly

02:45in love with a psychopathic clown! At what point did my life go looney tunes?

02:50But the show also gave us Harley's other most enduring relationship, her best friend

02:54and later love interest, Poison Ivy. But we'll get to that later.

02:58Harley Quinzel. Rework it a bit, and you get Harley Quinn.

03:03Like the clown character Harlequin. I know. I've heard it before.

03:07By 1999, Harley was brought into the comic books fully, after appearing in a few One

03:12Shots and Elseworlds stories here and there, and officially became a DC character.

03:17Who's to blame? Batman, that's who! Batman! It's always been Batman, ruining my life,

03:24spoiling my fun!

03:26But she wasn't an instant hit with comic book readers, with her first ongoing series

03:30selling poorly and getting canned in 2003. Things changed when Paul Dini got his hands

03:35on the character yet again, though, with The Gotham City Sirens in 2009.

03:39Sirens ran for over two years, ending its run in 2011 to make way for the new 52, and

03:44followed the antics of the iconic criminal trio of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman.

03:49Hey, aren't you that plant lady, Poison Oaky?

03:53Ivy! Poison Ivy!

03:55Sorry! Harley Quinn, pleased to meet ya!

03:59The three become friends, and Sirens remains a beloved chapter in DC Comics history, recently

04:05getting re-released for the DC Comics Compact Edition series.

04:08In Sirens, we get another iteration of Harley after the end of her relationship with the

04:12Joker, which was also the crux of her 2000 solo series.

04:15Well, I've always had an attraction for extreme personalities. They're more exciting,

04:20more challenging.

04:21But with Catwoman, and notably Ivy, to lean on, Harley again showed that she was a bigger

04:25character than the Joker, with her own stories to tell outside of him.

04:29Into the 2010s, things continued to change for Harley. First, she was incorporated as

04:34a major character in the 2009 video game Batman Arkham Asylum, one of the most critically

04:39acclaimed and influential games ever made.

04:41Where's Gordon?

04:43Wouldn't you like to know?

04:44I'm over here!

04:45Shut up!

04:48She was again voiced by Sorkin, alongside Mark Hamill's iconic Joker, and Paul Dini

04:53collaborated with Rocksteady on the writing.

04:55This meant that the games largely followed the continuity of the animated series, but

04:59with their older targeted audience, were much darker.

05:02Ivy?

05:03Gee, you look like crap!

05:05Maybe I can seek you some shampoo!

05:07The plants, can't you hear them?

05:09They're crying out to me in agony!

05:11Harley appears in Arkham City and Arkham Knight, too, though by that point Sorkin had retired,

05:16leaving Tara Strong to take the reins as the character.

05:19Okay, Donut Dunkers!

05:21You gonna bring Ivy to me, or am I gonna have to get her myself?

05:26Back in the world of comic books, though, something else was brewing for Dr. Quinzel…

05:30Suicide Squad.

05:31That's it?

05:32What, we some kind of…

05:34Suicide Squad?

05:35The 2011 New 52 reboot was controversial, to say the least, with DC relaunching its

05:40entire continuity and starting its ongoing runs all over again with new number ones.

05:45A lot of those runs' titles were deeply unpopular, so unpopular that in 2016, DC would

05:51go on to blow up its continuity yet again with the Rebirth Initiative.

06:01But it did give us a relaunched Suicide Squad, or Task Force X, this time with Harley Quinn

06:06as a key character.

06:08While a lot of people didn't like the New 52's Suicide Squad, they did like Harley's

06:12second solo series, which began in January 2014.

06:16It was undoubtedly one of the New 52's most popular series, running all the way until

06:21Rebirth.

06:22Harley, of course, headlined one of the Rebirth series, which was actually the best-selling

06:26Rebirth comic, and got another reboot for herself in 2021, which remains ongoing.

06:31Throughout these comics, her relationship with Poison Ivy was expanded even more, and

06:35they first kissed in the main DC continuity in number 25 of the Rebirth series, though

06:40DC tried to censor this at the time.

06:42But everything changed for Harley in 2016, when she finally became a pop culture icon

06:48and one of DC's most recognizable characters outside of the Justice League.

06:52Something tells me a whole lot of people are about to die.

06:55Margot Robbie was cast to play her in the first Suicide Squad movie, and though the

06:59movie was a disaster and is widely regarded as one of the worst superhero movies of all

07:03time, people still loved Robbie as Quinn.

07:13Robbie has gone on to reprise the role in 2020's Birds of Prey and 2021's The Suicide

07:18Squad, both of which were stellar superhero flicks, even though not a lot of people went

07:23to see Birds of Prey.

07:26Save me?

07:27It was a really good plan, too.

07:30Well, I can go back inside and you can still do it.

07:32She also discussed how she read a lot of Harley's comic books and is a true fan of the character.

07:37She even served as a producer for Birds of Prey.

07:41A kiss on the hand may be quite continental.

07:46Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

07:50It's also been rumored for years that Robbie wants to make a Gotham City Sirens movie,

07:54though the project is yet to get off the ground, if it really exists.

07:58Between these acclaimed comic books and popular movies, there's one last piece of the modern

08:03Harley Quinn puzzle, the Harley Quinn animated series.

08:14Aimed at adults, the series premiered on HBO Max, now just Max, in 2019 and has become

08:20riotously popular.

08:22Featuring Kaley Cuoco and Lake Bell as the voices of Harley and Poison Ivy respectively,

08:27the show took the Harley-Ivy relationship and made it official for an even wider audience,

08:31though they'd still featured prominently in comic books for years at this point, in

08:35the continuities of Bombshells and Injustice, for instance.

08:45The show follows Harley post-breakup with the Joker once again, as she moves in with

08:49Ivy, and Ivy starts a doomed relationship with Z-list villain Kite Man, who was also

08:53so popular that he got his own show.

08:59The season two finale had Ivy leave Kite Man at the altar so that she and Harley could

09:03be together, and in recent episodes, the Gotham City Sirens have teamed up yet again.

09:08Harley had another fresh, animated interpretation

09:11in Batman Caped Crusader as well, as the psychiatrist to Gotham's elite, with a Harley Quinn-themed

09:16alias to punish those she can't treat.

09:38You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.

09:41If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

09:482024 will change the character once more, however, with the release of Joker Foliade.

09:59The sequel to 2019's stand-alone Joker movie, Foliade, sees Lady Gaga take on the mantle

10:04of Harley Quinn, who goes by Lee for short instead of Harley, and is also Arkham's

10:09music therapist rather than a psychiatrist.

10:15With Robbie's Harley arguably standing as an extremely comics-accurate interpretation,

10:19it's nice to see fresh and different takes on the character reaching live action.

10:23It's also a testament to just how influential Harley is, being constantly reinvented in

10:28interesting ways, just like all the greatest comic book characters are.

10:35Harley's gone from the Joker's mistreated girlfriend to a formidable villain and hero

10:39in her own right, and it's no wonder why she remains one of DC's most beloved characters

10:43of all time.

10:44And that was the evolution of Harley Quinn.

10:47Let us know in the comments which Harley Quinn portrayal is your favourite.

11:04See you in the next videos!

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