The Evolution of Harley Quinn
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VOICE OVER: Noah Baum
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. We'll have a look at her first appearance, becoming an official DC character, "Suicide Squad" and more!
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at how the DC Comics character Harley Quinn has developed over the decades. Let us know in the comments which portrayal of Harley Quinn is your favorite!
It’s not often that somebody can come along and change fifty years’ worth of continuity for one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, and have those changes be so well-received that they’re widely adopted. But that’s what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm managed to do in 1992, when “Batman: The Animated Series” began on Fox Kids. For kids born in the eighties, this and its later sequel, “The New Batman Adventures”, became the definitive version of Batman. “The Animated Series” remains the backbone of DC’s ongoing Animated Universe, which still puts out high-quality animated movies and shows to this day.
But there was one standout character from “The Animated Series”, and it wasn’t Batman or any of his most well-known rogues: it was Harley Quinn, an original creation for the show. Quinn began life as simply the Joker’s harlequin-themed girlfriend, first appearing as a minor character in the early episode “Joker’s Favor”. But she quickly started to develop, thanks in no small part to the talents of Arleen Sorkin, her voice actress. The entire character was actually written FOR Sorkin, who was a close friend of Paul Dini; he was impressed seeing her play a jester in “Days of Our Lives”, and Harley Quinn was born. Harley was a hit, both with audiences and with network executives, and she helped the show tackle some of its most serious issues – notably, the extremely toxic relationship between Harley and the Joker. We see him consistently mistreat her, sometimes hurting her or leaving her for dead in his pursuit of Batman. In 1994, Dini and Timm wrote the “Mad Love” comic book, showing her origin story as Joker’s obsessive psychiatrist, which was eventually toned down and made into another episode of the cartoon – since the comic wasn’t suitable for the show’s audience of children. But the show also gave us Harley’s OTHER most enduring relationship: her best friend and, later, love interest, Poison Ivy – but we’ll get to that later.
By 1999, Harley was brought into the comic books fully – after appearing in a few one-shots and “Elseworlds” stories here and there – and officially became a DC character. But she wasn’t an instant hit with comic book readers, with her first ongoing series selling poorly and getting canned in 2003. Things changed when Paul Dini got his hands on the character yet again, though, with the “Gotham City Sirens” in 2009. “Sirens” ran for over two years - ending its run in 2011 to make way for the “New 52” - and followed the antics of the iconic criminal trio of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. The three become friends and “Sirens” remains a beloved chapter in DC Comics’ history, recently getting re-released for the DC Comics Compact Edition series. In “Sirens”, we get another iteration of Harley after the end of her relationship with the Joker, which was also the crux of her 2000 solo series. But with Catwoman and, notably, Ivy to lean on, Harley again showed that she was a bigger character than the Joker, with her own stories to tell outside of him.
Into the 2010s, things continued to change for Harley. First, she was incorporated as a major character in the 2009 video game “Batman: Arkham Asylum”, one of the most critically acclaimed and influential games ever made. She was, again, voiced by Sorkin, alongside Mark Hamill’s iconic Joker, and Paul Dini collaborated with Rocksteady on the writing. This meant that the games largely followed the continuity of “The Animated Series”, but with their older targeted audience, were much darker. Harley appears in “Arkham City” and “Arkham Knight”, too, though by that point Sorkin had retired, leaving Tara Strong to take the reins as the character.
Back in the world of comic books, though, and something else was brewing for Dr Quinzel: “Suicide Squad”. The 2011 “New 52” reboot was controversial, to say the least, with DC relaunching its entire continuity and starting its ongoing runs all over again with new #1s. A lot of those runs titles were deeply unpopular, so unpopular that in 2016, DC would go on to blow up its continuity yet again with the “Rebirth” initiative. But it DID give us a relaunched “Suicide Squad” – or Task Force X – this time with Harley Quinn as a key character. While a lot of people didn’t like the “New 52” “Suicide Squad”, they DID like Harley’s second solo series, which began in January 2014. It was undoubtedly one of the “New 52’s” most popular series, running all the way until “Rebirth”. Harley, of course, headlined one of the “Rebirth” series - which was actually the best-selling “Rebirth” comic - and got another reboot for herself in 2021, which remains ongoing. Throughout these comics, her relationship with Poison Ivy was expanded even more, and they first kissed in the main DC continuity in #25 of the “Rebirth” series - though DC tried to censor this at the time.
But everything changed for Harley in 2016, when she finally became a pop culture icon and one of DC’s most recognizable characters outside of the Justice League. Margot Robbie was cast to play her in the first “Suicide Squad” movie, and though the movie was a disaster and is widely regarded as one of the worst superhero movies of all time, people still loved Robbie as Quinn. Robbie has gone on to reprise the role in 2020’s “Birds of Prey” and 2021’s “The Suicide Squad”, both of which were stellar superhero flicks – even though not a lot of people went to see “Birds of Prey”. She also discussed how she read a LOT of Harley’s comic books and is a true fan of the character – she even served as a producer for “Birds of Prey”. It’s also been rumored for years that Robbie wants to make a “Gotham City Sirens” movie, though the project is yet to get off the ground – if it really exists.
Between these acclaimed comic books and popular movies, there’s one last piece of the modern Harley Quinn puzzle: the “Harley Quinn” animated series. Aimed at adults, the series premiered on HBO Max – now just Max – in 2019 and has become riotously popular. Featuring Kaley Cuoco and Lake Bell as the voices of Harley and Poison Ivy respectively, the show took the Harlivy relationship and made it official for an even wider audience – though they’d still featured prominently in comic books for years at this point, in the continuities of “Bombshells” and “Injustice”, for instance. The show follows Harley post-break-up with the Joker once again, as she moves in with Ivy and Ivy starts a doomed relationship with Z-list villain Kite Man – who was also so popular that he got his own show. The season 2 finale had Ivy leave Kite Man at the altar so that she and Harley could be together, and in recent episodes, the Gotham City Sirens have teamed up yet again. Harley had ANOTHER fresh, animated interpretation in “Batman: Caped Crusader”, as well, as the psychiatrist to Gotham’s elite with a harlequin-themed alias to punish those she can’t treat.
2024 will change the character once more, however, with the release of “Joker: Folie à Deux”. The sequel to 2019’s standalone “Joker” movie, “Folie à Deux” sees Lady Gaga take on the mantle of Harley Quinn, who goes by “Lee” for short instead of “Harley”, and is also Arkham’s music therapist rather than a psychiatrist. With Robbie’s Harley arguably standing as an extremely comic-accurate interpretation, it’s nice to see fresh and different takes on the character reaching live action. It’s also a testament to just how influential Harley is, being constantly reinvented in interesting ways just like all the greatest comic book characters are.
Harley’s gone from the Joker’s mistreated girlfriend to a formidable villain and hero in her own right, and it’s no wonder why she remains one of DC’s most beloved characters of all-time. And that was the evolution of Harley Quinn.
It’s not often that somebody can come along and change fifty years’ worth of continuity for one of the most popular fictional characters of all time, and have those changes be so well-received that they’re widely adopted. But that’s what Paul Dini and Bruce Timm managed to do in 1992, when “Batman: The Animated Series” began on Fox Kids. For kids born in the eighties, this and its later sequel, “The New Batman Adventures”, became the definitive version of Batman. “The Animated Series” remains the backbone of DC’s ongoing Animated Universe, which still puts out high-quality animated movies and shows to this day.
But there was one standout character from “The Animated Series”, and it wasn’t Batman or any of his most well-known rogues: it was Harley Quinn, an original creation for the show. Quinn began life as simply the Joker’s harlequin-themed girlfriend, first appearing as a minor character in the early episode “Joker’s Favor”. But she quickly started to develop, thanks in no small part to the talents of Arleen Sorkin, her voice actress. The entire character was actually written FOR Sorkin, who was a close friend of Paul Dini; he was impressed seeing her play a jester in “Days of Our Lives”, and Harley Quinn was born. Harley was a hit, both with audiences and with network executives, and she helped the show tackle some of its most serious issues – notably, the extremely toxic relationship between Harley and the Joker. We see him consistently mistreat her, sometimes hurting her or leaving her for dead in his pursuit of Batman. In 1994, Dini and Timm wrote the “Mad Love” comic book, showing her origin story as Joker’s obsessive psychiatrist, which was eventually toned down and made into another episode of the cartoon – since the comic wasn’t suitable for the show’s audience of children. But the show also gave us Harley’s OTHER most enduring relationship: her best friend and, later, love interest, Poison Ivy – but we’ll get to that later.
By 1999, Harley was brought into the comic books fully – after appearing in a few one-shots and “Elseworlds” stories here and there – and officially became a DC character. But she wasn’t an instant hit with comic book readers, with her first ongoing series selling poorly and getting canned in 2003. Things changed when Paul Dini got his hands on the character yet again, though, with the “Gotham City Sirens” in 2009. “Sirens” ran for over two years - ending its run in 2011 to make way for the “New 52” - and followed the antics of the iconic criminal trio of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. The three become friends and “Sirens” remains a beloved chapter in DC Comics’ history, recently getting re-released for the DC Comics Compact Edition series. In “Sirens”, we get another iteration of Harley after the end of her relationship with the Joker, which was also the crux of her 2000 solo series. But with Catwoman and, notably, Ivy to lean on, Harley again showed that she was a bigger character than the Joker, with her own stories to tell outside of him.
Into the 2010s, things continued to change for Harley. First, she was incorporated as a major character in the 2009 video game “Batman: Arkham Asylum”, one of the most critically acclaimed and influential games ever made. She was, again, voiced by Sorkin, alongside Mark Hamill’s iconic Joker, and Paul Dini collaborated with Rocksteady on the writing. This meant that the games largely followed the continuity of “The Animated Series”, but with their older targeted audience, were much darker. Harley appears in “Arkham City” and “Arkham Knight”, too, though by that point Sorkin had retired, leaving Tara Strong to take the reins as the character.
Back in the world of comic books, though, and something else was brewing for Dr Quinzel: “Suicide Squad”. The 2011 “New 52” reboot was controversial, to say the least, with DC relaunching its entire continuity and starting its ongoing runs all over again with new #1s. A lot of those runs titles were deeply unpopular, so unpopular that in 2016, DC would go on to blow up its continuity yet again with the “Rebirth” initiative. But it DID give us a relaunched “Suicide Squad” – or Task Force X – this time with Harley Quinn as a key character. While a lot of people didn’t like the “New 52” “Suicide Squad”, they DID like Harley’s second solo series, which began in January 2014. It was undoubtedly one of the “New 52’s” most popular series, running all the way until “Rebirth”. Harley, of course, headlined one of the “Rebirth” series - which was actually the best-selling “Rebirth” comic - and got another reboot for herself in 2021, which remains ongoing. Throughout these comics, her relationship with Poison Ivy was expanded even more, and they first kissed in the main DC continuity in #25 of the “Rebirth” series - though DC tried to censor this at the time.
But everything changed for Harley in 2016, when she finally became a pop culture icon and one of DC’s most recognizable characters outside of the Justice League. Margot Robbie was cast to play her in the first “Suicide Squad” movie, and though the movie was a disaster and is widely regarded as one of the worst superhero movies of all time, people still loved Robbie as Quinn. Robbie has gone on to reprise the role in 2020’s “Birds of Prey” and 2021’s “The Suicide Squad”, both of which were stellar superhero flicks – even though not a lot of people went to see “Birds of Prey”. She also discussed how she read a LOT of Harley’s comic books and is a true fan of the character – she even served as a producer for “Birds of Prey”. It’s also been rumored for years that Robbie wants to make a “Gotham City Sirens” movie, though the project is yet to get off the ground – if it really exists.
Between these acclaimed comic books and popular movies, there’s one last piece of the modern Harley Quinn puzzle: the “Harley Quinn” animated series. Aimed at adults, the series premiered on HBO Max – now just Max – in 2019 and has become riotously popular. Featuring Kaley Cuoco and Lake Bell as the voices of Harley and Poison Ivy respectively, the show took the Harlivy relationship and made it official for an even wider audience – though they’d still featured prominently in comic books for years at this point, in the continuities of “Bombshells” and “Injustice”, for instance. The show follows Harley post-break-up with the Joker once again, as she moves in with Ivy and Ivy starts a doomed relationship with Z-list villain Kite Man – who was also so popular that he got his own show. The season 2 finale had Ivy leave Kite Man at the altar so that she and Harley could be together, and in recent episodes, the Gotham City Sirens have teamed up yet again. Harley had ANOTHER fresh, animated interpretation in “Batman: Caped Crusader”, as well, as the psychiatrist to Gotham’s elite with a harlequin-themed alias to punish those she can’t treat.
2024 will change the character once more, however, with the release of “Joker: Folie à Deux”. The sequel to 2019’s standalone “Joker” movie, “Folie à Deux” sees Lady Gaga take on the mantle of Harley Quinn, who goes by “Lee” for short instead of “Harley”, and is also Arkham’s music therapist rather than a psychiatrist. With Robbie’s Harley arguably standing as an extremely comic-accurate interpretation, it’s nice to see fresh and different takes on the character reaching live action. It’s also a testament to just how influential Harley is, being constantly reinvented in interesting ways just like all the greatest comic book characters are.
Harley’s gone from the Joker’s mistreated girlfriend to a formidable villain and hero in her own right, and it’s no wonder why she remains one of DC’s most beloved characters of all-time. And that was the evolution of Harley Quinn.
