This book tried to be “The theory of Everything” rewriting and connecting many plots from several comic books, Mad Love, Gotham City Sirens and some newer stories by Dini. Many events you could remember have been changed one way or another.
The combination of those plots created contradictions in the book but at the same time exist some contradictions between what Pat Cadigan was doing and what Paul Dini was writing.
The first chapters about her childhood are hard to read, they are like a cartoon for kids, really for kids. Harleen didn’t have a trauma, by the way, it was a very slight thing. Her parents have troubles and they fight often, her father was a criminal and spent some years in prison before and then he was sent to prison unfairly again until she was 17, similar to Gotham City Sirens but this time he was a nice guy. Because of her father Harley’s opinion of the police is always bad, her view that Joker was a victim is justified this way though it’s too much extreme and we need to pretend the incident described as a cartoon was traumatic so that she can’t think logically
The novel created a story behind every detail like Harley’s mallet, reasons for many things that weren’t important at all.
Some changes:
Joker is attracted to Harley: In the comic we didn’t know if Joker was attracted to her or not, some people think the Joker is asexual or even gay (though it isn’t canon) but in this novel when we have a Joker POV he thought she was sexy and beautiful. After they escaped from Arkham he says her constant hugs and general loving behavior make him to seem weak and they won’t make out unless that behind closed, locked doors.
Harley wasn’t involved with her teacher: It was eliminated and this time she was brilliant but young. Originally she wasn’t a competent doctor, in the novel she was probably insane already in a way can be confused with low intelligence by the reader. Kesel came up with the idea in the 2000′s but her insanity was more obvious.
Coney Island: There’s an attempt of connecting the original Harley and the new version in her solo book (2013-2016, 2016-).
In fact in this book like in Harley Loves Joker Dini is creating a light and a little cartoonish version of the events, a new biography for Harley. He establishes the structures for her solo and how she has to be written in future cartoons or light comics when she isn’t a threat. He did the same for serious scenarios when he wrote Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, this time is very deliberate though
There Joker and Harley don’t have problems of abuse or something but they’re villains doing terrible things. Those games are an alternate universe based on BTAS (the animated series) and people call them a more “adult” BTAS.
That said, while in Harley Loves Joker the story in Mad Love didn’t occurred, (the very first few pages showed a different outcome for the iconic scene with Harley wearing the red dress) the novel tried to add Mad Love but rewriting small details that change the tone of the story.
The abuse:
It’s very weird but Dini took the time to modify the scene where he threw her through the window and Joker didn’t do it but the window broke when she rested against it besides it had a certain relation to what they know about Joker that
“According to his file he had absolutely no regard for anybody’s safety including his own, he risked his life jumping out windows or off rooftops to what should have been a sure death and survived by crazy-dumb luck, finding something to land on…”
It’s like they are telling two stories here. First of all Joker is not a wife beater in the novel, he never hurt her physically.
Joker wants to be scary so the band thinks he mistreats her but it was acting.
Moreover he isn’t against equality between women and men neither xD he’s against equality with anybody. This Joker is selfish, a jerk and part of his insanity is his need for attention (classic comics)
He’s rude and an ungrateful husband but Harley isn’t an abuse survivor in this story, then the next section of the book treats her like that when she’s back in Arkham. Do you see? Back and forth dark, light, dark, light…Depending on what section of the book you’re reading the story has a different tone.
We have the usual ending “It felt like a kiss” and right away we have a section of “serious” dramatic recovery and the added ending that was similar to Harley Loves Joker where Joker is a whipped husband. Joker wants her back affirming he loves her, begging, but Harley is angry at him, she stole his car and somebody recorded it. The book finished with this joke O_O ready for Harley Quinn the animated series or Harley Loves Joker, or even the beginning of the current Harley Quinn comic as written by Sam Humphries
…But they felt the need of adding another ending, we’ll talk about it later.
Contradiction: the writers forgot she was insane before Joker and that he didn’t do anything to make her lose her mind really but batman said it was his fault lol
Harley is straight: It wasn’t a change really but cause in the last years there have been stories where Harley is bisexual they included a transsexual character in a small role to please some readers who wanted “representation” while Harley is straight and she’s just interested in Joker
Harriet, Ivy and BabyDoll: March Harriet is another character created by Dini years ago BTW. Dini rewrote Harley and Ivy somehow in this novel, they didn’t meet in Arkham originally (though somebody else wrote they met there in GSirens). This time however Harley, Harriet, Babydoll and Ivy met in Arkham; after Harley broke Joker out of the asylum the girls escaped too and considered Harley was a friend so they asked her if she wanted to go with them. Harley and Ivy was turned into a new Gotham Sirens team though Harley preferred to go with Joker
Joker’s intentions: Why did he do it? in the novel cause he thought it was a great trick, his objective was to convince her that he could be saved cause he enjoy a good trick, no more no less. Contradiction, when he heard she had beaten Killer Croc (I know, I know xD) he thought she was the woman he had been waiting for, somebody wouldn’t bore him to death and was worthy of the effort it would take to destroy her
He was in his Evil man mode :D The book wants to be dark sometimes but almost immediately the tone changes cause there are two writers
Harley’s intentions: As you know in Mad Love Harley wanted to find out his secrets in order to write a book, in the novel she wanted to help him and the book would be about how the police and the system aren’t fair to him
Joker’s insanity: Based on classic comics and BTAS Joker wanted to kill Batman cause in his crazy mind he thinks if he does it Gotham will be his, he has an obsession here, Gotham, probably a little influenced by White Knight but it’s about the city instead of Batman. Harley’s obsession doesn’t have so much emphasis speaking of it.
Harley has two personalities: Some of her incarnations have had two personalities, The doctor and Harley Quinn (Kesel in the 2000′s and Arkham Knight). Here Harley can do things the doctor doesn’t remember, it wasn’t so a bad twist. On the other hand Dini has never used two personalities before, from Harley Loves Joker, Joker likes to combine her name “Harley Quinzel” meaning for Joker there weren’t 2 but just one person. Likely cause people believed Joker loved Harley but he couldn’t love Harleen. Here he calls her “Doctor Harley Quinn” so I found it very strange and kind of contradictory
Harley and the accent: In the original Mad Love we got a surprise cause it results that Harley’s accent is fake, it isn’t her natural way of speaking. Those of us who watched the animated series assumed she was from Brooklyn because of her accent but the show never stated it explicitly. In Mad Love it was used as a characteristic of Harley Quinn and her insanity, at the moment Harley read the note Joker left her accent came back. Years later Dini wrote a new background in Gotham City Sirens giving her a family in Brooklyn making her accent natural but here she speaks like that cause she wants and learned it from a waitress when she was 7 …though she’s from Brooklyn as well o_O
Harley Loves Joker: Harley‘s stinky enemy from HLJ exists here and she worked for a while with Harley in the Labs like in that comic
for the third ending Harley is in Coney Island killing bad mafia men, a bloody joke Deadpool style, she’s still a criminal more like Catwoman and she has a new name (Lieberman’s idea, HQ 2002)
Warning:
This did have many silly things like the swimming Therapy was suggested by “Harley” that was a good joke but it got too long and then everybody in the asylum taking it seriously…
They had interesting ideas like “the acting” but they weren’t developed, the writer(s) should have used some time there. The “woman power” feels pretty silly too, “Harlequinade” was feminist more subtly. The book wants to be about how a woman gets out of a bad relationship and only fans could understand there are some layers of meaning. It’s not the best organized book. Good for Harley collectors though
Well, that’s all for now, I had more to say xD but this post is long enough
This book tried to be “The theory of Everything” rewriting and connecting many plots from several comic books, Mad Love, Gotham City Sirens and some newer stories by Dini. Many events you could remember have been changed one way or another.
The combination of those plots created contradictions in the book but at the same time exist some contradictions between what Pat Cadigan was doing and what Paul Dini was writing.
The first chapters about her childhood are hard to read, they are like a cartoon for kids, really for kids. Harleen didn’t have a trauma, by the way, it was a very slight thing. Her parents have troubles and they fight often, her father was a criminal and spent some years in prison before and then he was sent to prison unfairly again until she was 17, similar to Gotham City Sirens but this time he was a nice guy. Because of her father Harley’s opinion of the police is always bad, her view that Joker was a victim is justified this way though it’s too much extreme and we need to pretend the incident described as a cartoon was traumatic so that she can’t think logically
The novel created a story behind every detail like Harley’s mallet, reasons for many things that weren’t important at all.
Some changes:
Harley wasn’t involved with her teacher: It was eliminated and this time she was brilliant but young. Originally she wasn’t a competent doctor, in the novel she was probably insane already in a way can be confused with low intelligence by the reader. Kesel came up with the idea in the 2000′s but her insanity was more obvious.
Joker is attracted to Harley: In the comic we didn’t know if Joker was attracted to her or not, some people think the Joker is asexual or even gay (though it isn’t canon) but in this novel when we have a Joker POV he thought she was sexy and beautiful. After they escaped from Arkham he says her constant hugs and general loving behavior make him to seem weak and they won’t make out unless that behind closed, locked doors.
Coney Island: There’s an attempt of connecting the original Harley and the new version in her solo book (2013-2016, 2016-).
In fact in this book like in Harley Loves Joker Dini is creating a light and a little cartoonish version of the events, a new biography for Harley. He establishes the structures for her solo and how she has to be written in future cartoons or light comics when she isn’t a threat. He did the same for serious scenarios when he wrote Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, this time is very deliberate though
There Joker and Harley don’t have problems of abuse or something but they’re villains doing terrible things. Those games are an alternate universe based on BTAS (the animated series) and people call them a more “adult” BTAS.
That said, while in Harley Loves Joker the story in Mad Love didn’t occurred, (the very first few pages showed a different outcome for the iconic scene with Harley wearing the red dress) the novel tried to add Mad Love but rewriting small details that change the tone of the story.
Harley and the accent: In the original Mad Love we got a surprise cause it results that Harley’s accent is fake, it isn’t her natural way of speaking. Those of us who watched the animated series assumed she was from Brooklyn because of her accent but the show never stated it explicitly. In Mad Love it was used as a characteristic of Harley Quinn and her insanity, at the moment Harley read the note Joker left her accent came back. Years later Dini wrote a new background in Gotham City Sirens giving her a family in Brooklyn making her accent natural but here she speaks like that cause she wants and learned it from a waitress when she was 7 ...though she’s from Brooklyn as well o_O
Harriet, Ivy and BabyDoll: March Harriet is another character created by Dini years ago BTW. Dini rewrote Harley and Ivy somehow in this novel, they didn’t meet in Arkham originally (though somebody else wrote they met there in GSirens). This time however Harley, Harriet, Babydoll and Ivy met in Arkham; after Harley broke Joker out of the asylum the girls escaped too and considered Harley was a friend so they asked her if she wanted to go with them. Harley and Ivy was turned into a new Gotham Sirens team though Harley preferred to go with Joker
Harley’s intentions: As you know in Mad Love Harley wanted to find out his secrets in order to write a book, in the novel she wanted to help him and the book would be about how the police and the system aren’t fair to him
Joker’s intentions: Why did he do it? in the novel cause he thought it was a great trick, his objective was to convince her that he could be saved cause he enjoy a good trick, no more no less. First contradiction, when he heard she had beaten Killer Croc (I know, I know xD) he thought she was the woman he had been waiting for, somebody wouldn’t bore him to death and was worthy of the effort it would take to destroy her
He was in his Evil man mode :D The book wants to be dark sometimes but almost immediately the tone changes cause there are two writers
Harley has two personalities: Some of her incarnations have had two personalities, The doctor and Harley Quinn (Kesel in the 2000′s and Arkham Knight). Here Harley can do things the doctor doesn’t remember, it wasn’t so a bad twist. On the other hand Dini has never used two personalities before, from Harley Loves Joker, Joker likes to combine her name “Harley Quinzel” meaning for Joker there weren’t 2 but just one person. Likely cause people believed Joker loved Harley but he couldn’t love Harleen. Here he calls her “Doctor Harley Quinn” so I found it very strange and kind of contradictory
The abuse:
It’s very weird but Dini took the time to modify the scene where he threw her through the window and Joker didn’t do it but the window broke when she rested against it besides it had a certain relation to what they know about Joker that
“According to his file he had absolutely no regard for anybody’s safety including his own, he risked his life jumping out windows or off rooftops to what should have been a sure death and survived by crazy-dumb luck, finding something to land on...”
It’s like they are telling two stories here. First of all Joker is not a wife beater in the novel, he never hurt her physically.
Joker wants to be scary so the band thinks he mistreats her but it was acting.
Moreover he isn’t against equality between women and men neither xD he’s against equality with anybody. This Joker is selfish, a jerk and part of his insanity is his need for attention (classic comics)
He’s rude and an ungrateful husband but Harley isn’t an abuse survivor in this story, then the next section of the book treats her like that when she’s back in Arkham. Do you see? Back and forth dark, light, dark, light...Depending on what section of the book you’re reading the story has a different tone.
We have the usual ending “It felt like a kiss” and right away we have a section of “serious” dramatic recovery and the added ending that was similar to Harley Loves Joker where Joker is a whipped husband. Joker wants her back affirming he loves her, begging, but Harley is angry at him, she stole his car and somebody recorded it. The book finished with this joke O_O ready for Harley Quinn the animated series or Harley Loves Joker, or even the beginning of the current Harley Quinn comic as written by Sam Humphries
...But they felt the need of adding another ending, we’ll talk about it later.
Contradiction: the writers forgot she was insane before Joker and that he didn’t do anything to make her lose her mind really but batman said it was his fault lol
Joker’s insanity: Based on classic comics and BTAS Joker wanted to kill Batman cause in his crazy mind he thinks if he does it Gotham will be his, he has an obsession here, Gotham, probably a little influenced by White Knight but it’s about the city instead of Batman. Harley’s obsession doesn’t have so much emphasis speaking of it.
Harley is straight: It wasn’t a change really but cause in the last years there have been stories where Harley is bisexual they included a transsexual character in a small role to please some readers who wanted "representation” while Harley is straight and she’s just interested in Joker
Harley Loves Joker: Harley‘s stinky enemy from HLJ exists here and she worked for a while with Harley in the Labs like in that comic
for the third ending Harley is in Coney Island killing bad mafia men, a bloody joke Deadpool style, she’s still a criminal more like Catwoman and she has a new name (Lieberman’s idea, HQ 2002)
Warning:
This did have many silly things like the swimming Therapy was suggested by “Harley” that was a good joke but it got too long and then everybody in the asylum taking it seriously...
They had interesting ideas like “the acting” but they weren’t developed, the writer(s) should have used some time there. The “woman power” feels pretty silly too, “Harlequinade” was feminist more subtly. The book wants to be about how a woman gets out of a bad relationship and only fans could understand there are some layers of meaning. It’s not the best organized book. Good for Harley collectors though
Well, that’s all for now, I had more to say xD but this post is long enough
Some people believe IT was inspired by a killer called John Gacy who raped
and killed 33 men in the 60's but Stephen King affirmed he liked to read
Batman and he was his favorite superhero so it was more probable that
the character was inspired by The Joker
I don’t like the makeup and the film won’t be so good as The Dark Knight but it can be a good film. But seriously it’s very hard to impossible to get a better Joker than Ledger
Joker calls Harley “my dear”, until now there was just one Joker used to call her like that: Arkham City/Asylum Joker by Paul Dini.
Joker in The Dark Prince Charming was based on the Arkham video games and he’s mostly Arkham City Joker but younger like in Arkham Origins. The whole comic has that Arkham City vibe and a little of Joker in TDK
Their relationship could be similar but Joker himself is very different though it’s possible they tried to take some traits from the games for SS. Arkham City/Asylum Joker is particular cause there was a bigger gap of age between them, Dini wrote a Joker was wiser, had an educated manner of speaking to some extent and was a little elegant. No tattoos, golden guns or expressions like “the itch in my crotch” xD
Joker in the animated series where Harley was created seemed older than Harley and he sometimes called himself “daddy” when talking to Harley, this characteristic was paired with Harley’s original childish behavior (some people believe that was the important part of her insanity in the series) so that’s the reason likely. With time the trait in the show was reduced cause they became more like a married couple and with a new redesign for the characters there wasn’t apparent gap of age.SS took the “Daddy” idea from the animated series.
TASJoker wasn’t so elegant so “pumpkin pie” and “doll face” were more his style of nicknames for Harley.
While punks and gangs were a theme in Arkham City in a post-apocalyctic way (look similar to those minions in Prince Charming) and Harley had two tattoos Joker himself wasn’t a like that. SSJoker was a punk and his style of crime was a more common thing, more Tony Montana.
Traditionally Joker had class like some Italian gangster but his way of speak was a funny street level thing.
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