Alright everyone. Brace yourself. Rant time.
Most of you follow me because I post about South Park a lot. Unfortunately this isnt a post about that fandom, but rather another fandom I'm in.
More particularly, DC comics biggest screw-up, in my eyes.
That being, of course, Harley Quinn.
Harley Quinn is my favorite comic book character. I discovered her when I was in middle school. My father introduced me to Batman Arkham Asylum. I heard her voice for the first time and fell in love. Her attitude was amazing. I loved her. I can never give Arleen Sorkin enough credit for just a stunning performance for so many years. It's a shame she's retired, but she deserves it. The character was inspired off of her, and she did a phenomenal delivery of the character for 20 years. And she deserves so much credit for that.
I fell in love with Harley Quinn quickly. I immediately went and watched all of Batman: The Animated Series, read all comic books including her, I roleplayed her for years and spent about five years fine tuning my voice to do a FLAWLESS impression of Arleen's take on Harley. I was, and am, devoted to the character.
But then I discovered New 52. Then, Suicide Squad came out. And there was DC Rebirth.
Every one of these pitched away more and more of this amazing character into a sexy Hollywood money machine.
I'm sure there are some of you who think the character from the movie and Rebirth is a funny, quirky, cute girl. But I'm here to tell you, as someone who witnessed the change happen, that is NOT Harley Quinn.
The media portrays Harley as crazy and sexy. She dresses skimpy and flirts. Batman: Assault on Arkham had the audacity to include a scene where she takes off her clothes to distract a guard.
The movie Batman and Harley Quinn was essentially a shitty rewrite of an episode of BTAS called Harlequinade. Harlequinade was phenomenally written and gave amazing moments for the character. She teams up with Batman and Robin to help stop The Joker. There's fun little moments that include them going to a friend's club for leads, and she gets on stage and sings a song to distract everyone.
That's the plot of Batman and Harley Quinn, except instead of Joker it's Ivy.
It's like Bruce Timm looked at his own goddamn property and decided there wasnt enough Harley shaking her ass and fucking Dick Grayson.
But what disgusts me most about the character is the fact they've portrayed her as this sexy, fun and quirky crazy girl.
Harley was fun, she was quirky, but her character was never designed to be sexy and she *wasn't crazy.*
A good example is in the flashback scene of the movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Joker and Harley tortured Robin until he became they're child. While fighting Harley, Batgirl asks "how could you help Joker do it, Harley?" Harley responds "okay, so he roughed the kid up a little. But I'll make it right."
PERFECTLY DESCRIBES THIS CHANGE
At least not in this fun way she's portrayed now!
She didn't understand the gravity of her decisions. She didn't understand the consequences and the fact that she literally ruined a child's life. She dismissed Joker's actions and said "I'll fix it."
She wasn't crazy, she just WASN'T ALL THERE.
In her Pre-52 comic book series, titled Harley Quinn, the end of the story involves her taking care of a little girl. I don't fully remember the details, but this girl essentially had a code in her irises. The code gained access to her late father's fortune. But in order to access the code, the little girl would go blind. A lot of evil men were after her to get the money, so Harley protected her.
The second to last issue ends on a cliffhanger. You see Harley trying to decide if she should make the girl blind and steal the money, or save her.
The final issue starts and the girl is nowhere to be seen. Harley begins hallucinating another version of herself, who leads her to the park. Where she sees the little girl. Blind.
She stands just out of reach of the girl and begins crying.
THAT marked the point where Harley went crazy
But it wasnt sexy and fun like the media shows her.
In that moment, Harley recognized what she did. She recognized there was no going back. With Robin she thought "yeah, but I can fix it." There was NO WAY to fix Harley's GREED ruining this little girl's life FOREVER.
THE SERIES ENDS WITH HARLEY CRYING AND WALKING STRAIGHT INTO ARKHAM ASYLUM, ACCEPTING DEFEAT.
THE MOMENT SHE TURNED CRAZY WASNT FUN. IT WAS HEARTBREAKING. WHY WOULD DC THROW AWAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!
Harley Quinn used to be such A FANTASTICLY WRITTEN CHARACTER.
She seemed fun at first glance, but the character developed SO MUCH DEPTH.
AND THEN DC THREW THAT IN THE FUCKING GARBAGE DISPOSAL.
The fact that I am genuinely ASHAMED TO ADVERTISE WHO MY FAVORITE COMIC CHARACTER IS, BECAUSE OF JUST HOW MUCH THE PUBLISHER FUCKED OVER HER CHARACTER
SHOULD SHOW SOME GODDAMN DEPTH TO HOW RIDICULOUS THIS IS
Edit: looking back at this I realized I didnt even mention that in New 52 she fucked Deadshot.
Idk how to fit it in, but it's worth noting.