The following guest column was submitted to us by Zyana Hault of warriorjackets.com. We thank you for your contribution!
Harley Quinn is easily the most beloved female character in all of the comic books, even though she is mostly depicted as a villain, she still remains the most cosplayed female character of all time. Just like Harley Quinn, the story behind her coming to existence is unique; unlike many superheroes and super villain she was not originally written in the comic books, in fact, Harley Quinn made her first ever appearance on Batman: the animated series in 1992, created by Paul Dini. Her character became so popular among the fans that later creators of comic decided to include her in comic books. Harley Quinn made her comic book debut in The Batman Adventures issue 12 in 1993.
Just like all the characters in comic book universe, Harleys origins story is altered time to time, but the original story still remains the most loved one. She started out as Harleen Quinzel, an intelligent young lady who put herself through college because her parents refused to support her and managed to get an internship in Arkham Asylum, where she meets her “pudding”, the Joker and falls in love with him. She helps Joker to escape from Arkham and decides to become his sidekick; some say that it was not the Joker who changed her, but only brought out who she really was, either way, I never forgive the Joke for how he treated her.
Though many people associate Joker and Harley Quinn together, in all honesty, she can pretty much hold her own, when she found out that the Joker lied to her to gain her endearment, she beats the hell out of him. Here are the three facts about Harley Quinn that you probably didn’t know and the reasons why I absolutely love her.
Harley Quinn was a Folk Singer
This is something you might have missed. If you only stuck with the canon, but in the Elseworld series 80-page giant, there is a particular issue called the “Rockumentary”, where Lex Luther is a famous pop music producer and manages to find a musically talented duo of Harley Quinn and her best friend Poison Ivy, who are known for their folk singing. Although this issue lacks in thrilling action, it makes up for it in weird, otherworldly representation of your favourite DC characters.
Harley Quinn Has a Daughter
In the comic book series, Injustice: Gods among us, there is a fight scene between Harley Quinn and Black Canary; mid fight Black Canary starts throwing up because of her pregnancy, Harley stops the fight right away and reveals to Black Canary that she knows exactly how she feels because she has a daughter herself, Lucy. Of course, the baby-daddy is none another than the Joker, but he would hardly care about anything but to increase the crime rate in Gotham, and didn’t even notice that Harley was gone for almost a year. Harley gave her daughter to her sister because she knows her sister is a better person than herself to raise her daughter.
Harley Quinn Tried To Make a Mini Joker
We are all aware of Harleys overwhelming passion for Mr J, so, of course, she decided to make a mini-Joker, but not in a way you are thinking, in an animated series Batman: The Arkham Knight, Harley becomes obsessed with this titan formula because its victims are showing appearance and mannerism of the Joker. Here you can see the real creepy side of Harley as she planned to capture and take few inches off Tim Drake who fought as the robin and pumped him as much with titan formula as she can with the intention of changing him into mini-Joker, thankfully that does not work out for her.
Do You Love Harley Quinn?
I mean how can you not love her, she has a brilliant mind, she is beautiful, she is wild, she is funny and passionate. She is just so there, and she will not be ignored. Harley does not have any superpowers, but she can handle her weapons like it’s no body’s business, she is a master of disguise, and I like to think of her as more of an anti-hero than a villain, she is a perfect adversary to Batman aside her counterpart the Joker. Harley Quinn is an extraordinary example when you combine tragedy and comedy there are just so many layers to her character. If Joker is Clown Prince of Crime than Harley Quinn is no less than a princess, and if you want to know more about her I suggest you start with an issue of ‘Mad Love’.
About the Author:
Zyana Hault is a blogger by profession. She loves to write blogs on superhero movies, news, geeks and nerds. She’s a lead blogger at warriorjackets where she blogs about comic cons and superhero costume guides.