The following article contains spoilers and discusses twisted crimes of a serial killer! Read at your own risk!
The recent release of Harley Quinn: Future State #1 brought to light another version of Harley that straddles the line of good and evil. Since her conception in 1992, Harley Quinn has vaulted from newbie psychiatrist to criminal jokester, sinister sidekick to jilted lover, and brainwashed psychiatrist to reformed anti-hero.
When she was first designed in 1992 by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, it was for a one-time role in the T.V. Series Batman: The Animated series. However, feedback of her character revealed she was an immediate hit and the series continued to include her as Joker’s love-struck pawn.
She began as a sidekick for the villainous Joker, but in 1994 Dini and Timm catapulted her story with the introduction of her backstory in The Batman Adventures: Mad Love. Harleen Quinzel, the psychiatrist that fell in love with her patient, became a permanent figure in the comic book world. One consistent ideal that follows throughout most versions of her is her unrequited love for the Joker and his consistent game of use and throw away. Granted, the movie Suicide Squad with Jared Leto suggested Joker did indeed love her, and the newer White Knight (2019-) comic series also shows that his love for her was only shadowed by his insanity.
The various interpretations of her are endless, but one thing is for certain, there is a menacing connection between her and Joker that her fandom is desperate to hold on to. Even the versions of her that are no longer with Joker are still constantly reminding the reader of their odd love story. Her relationships with other DC characters such as Deadshot, Poison Ivy and Batman are almost always made after she has ended her twisted love story with Joker. Even in Future State, when Harley is captured and forced to help the reformed Dr. Crane capture Pyg and Firefly, it is made known to the reader her current situation falls after the demise of their one-sided love affair.
Then there is Kami Garcia’s Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity series in which Harley is not in a relationship with Joker, nor has she ever been. In fact, her only relation to Joker when the series begins is that he killed her girlfriend Edie—a tall redhead whose character’s image mimics that of Poison Ivy—several years prior. In this unique version, Dr. Quinn is on the trail of a serial killer who dismembered his victims and then pieced them back together to reflect the art of world-renowned artists such as Da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man.
The plot follows Quinn on her search for the killer as she reflects on the serial killer like the FBI psychologist portrayed in the Netflix original series Mindhunter. Other serial killers such as Gacy and Bundy are mentioned and compared to the narcissistic, but highly intelligent serial which stalks the pages of Criminal Sanity. When the character of Joker finally does emerge, the chances of a love-filled relationship between Joker and Harley are off the table. Chapter six ended with a suspect arrested, but Dr. Quinn is within his grasp and potentially the next victim he will contort into a Salvador Dali masterpiece.
Currently, there are seven chapters (Six complete chapters and one Serial Profile) in this warped DC Black Label comic version of Harley, which I for one hope to see on HBO or Netflix in years to come. The next chapter releases on January 26, 2020, and a new piece of psychotic flesh-made-art will decorate its pages as Garcia delves into the mind of a very sane criminal mastermind.
