(electronic music)
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Harley Quinn has become one of the most popular
female comic book characters around today,
which is interesting because she didn't originally debut
in a comic.
Not only that, but her creation is linked,
surprisingly, to The Princess Bride.
What?
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Harley Quinn's origin was revealed for the first time
in the excellent comic Mad Love
which was later adapted into an episode
of the New Batman Adventures.
As a teenager, Harleen Quinzel was a talented gymnast
who received a scholarship to Gotham State University
where she studied psychology.
Though, in some continuities,
she forgoes studying for a different route.
Being attracted to the supervillain Mystique,
Harley becomes an intern at Arkham Asylum.
The first time she sees Joker,
she is immediately smitten.
When she's finally given permission
to have that session with him,
Harley starts to see Joker less as a psychopath
and more of just a tortured soul who just wants love.
She dons on a jester costume,
adopts the name Harley Quinn
as it sounds like the old comedic character Harlequin
and breaks Joker out of Arkham.
There's also another origin
where Joker threw her into the same chemical bath
that he fell into which bleached Harley's skin
and overall made her more like her Mister J.
And this appears to be what we'll see
in the Suicide Squad movie.
Together, Harley and Joker would go on crime sprees
and set up traps to kill the Batman,
but Harley Quinn has had her own adventures
independent of Joker.
There's the aforementioned Suicide Squad,
of which she's a member.
Her romps with Poison Ivy and of course,
her solo series where she just does her own thing.
As I said at the top of this video,
Harley Quinn's first appearance was not in the comic
but rather in the cartoon Batman The Animated Series
in a season one episode called Joker's Favor.
In this episode, Commissioner Gordon was going
to have a birthday party.
Joker wanted to capitalize on this occasion
by hiding inside of a birthday cake
and jumping out to kill Gordon.
But two of the big names behind the series,
writer Paul Dini and producer slash co creator Bruce Tim
thought it would be weird
if Joker were the one to jump out of the cake.
The episode featured Joker
with a couple of thugs at his side,
so Dini figured it would be interesting
to add another henchman who would be a wise cracking woman.
Plus, now she could be the one to jump out of the cake
with a gun and kill Gordon on his big day.
So Paul Dini was tasked with creating
a female clown character.
Coincidentally, Dini had a good friend named Arleen Sorkin
who had recently done a short stint
on the famous soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Sorkin played a character named Calliope,
a scatter brained comic relief character
with a thick New York accent.
Sorkin was constantly suggesting new ideas
to the show's producers.
One idea, reportedly, came to her
after seeing the acclaimed film The Princess Bride.
Sorkin pitched an idea for an episode of Days of Our Lives.
A story that would involve
a medieval fairy tale dream sequence.
In it, Calliope would be featured as a court jester.
I believe we have a clip of it.
- [Voiceover] They all hurried out
to rescue the damsel in distress.
- I especially find it interesting
that Calliope was roller skating in this episode,
since a big part of Harley Quinn's current series
is that she's on a roller derby team.
But I digress.
With this, Dini had his inspiration
for the female clown henchman.
He drew up a rough sketch of the new character
and brought it to Bruce Tim who remarked that it was
quote frankly, not very good.
With a little research and some of that Bruce Tim magic,
he drew up that classic red and black
diamond design for Harley and the rest is history.
Now they just needed someone to voice the character.
And who better than the woman who inspired Harley
in the first place?
Dini asked Sorkin to come in and give it a go.
It was simply used an over the top version of her own voice
as that was the easiest thing to do.
And it totally worked.
Bruce Tim recalled quote when the first episode
she appeared in came back from overseas
and we saw her animated with the combo
of the visual and Arleen Sorkin's performance,
you know, it was kind of magical.
Paul started immediately planning her return
saying you know what,
I'm gonna bring that Harley Quinn character back.
Sorkin has since provided for Harley Quinn
for over two decades
in various DC cartoons and video games.
All because of a throwaway character
created just to pop out of a cake.
However, if you remember the Joker's Favor episode
of Batman the Animated Series,
you recall that Harley Quinn did not jump out
of Commissioner Gordon's cake,
but rather the Joker himself did.
So what's the deal?
Didn't they just create Harley Quinn
specifically for that moment?
Why did they change their minds?
In the end, Dini and Tim decided that sure,
it might be weird if the Joker
was the one to jump out of the cake,
but that's precisely what makes it funny
and it's definitely the thing
that the Joker would want to do.
But since they already had written Harley into the episode,
they didn't feel like cutting her out completely.
They moved her to be more of a background character
who would return for a bigger role in the series
with much episodes that would flesh out her character.
Eventually, Harley Quinn would be brought
into the world of comics.
The very first comic book appearance of Harley
was in Batman Adventures number 12 from 1993,
however, this series was set in the cartoon's continuity.
Harley would have to make several more appearances
in alternate universes and else world stories
like 1998's Batman Thrill Killer
and its follow up, Thrill Killer 62
before finally being introduced
into the official DC canon
in 1999's no man's land tie in Batman Harley Quinn
which was also written by Paul Dini.
Kinda fitting.
Unfortunately, Harley wasn't super popular
in the comics at that time.
Her stories were for the most part pretty forgettable.
It would be once again a world outside of the comics
where she would regain her popularity
via the 2009 Arkham Asylum video game.
The story was, yet again, written by Dini
with Sorkin reprising the character once more.
- How do you like my new uniform?
- The massive success of the game
also resulted in success of Harley Quinn
which led to her being featured
in the new 52 Suicide Squad comic
which in turn led to Harley getting another solo series
which has been one of DC's best selling titles.
And now we have Harley Quinn as a main character
in the Suicide Squad movie.
She's more popular than she's ever been
and the story of her creation is just as great.
But what do you guys think about all of this?
Are you happy to see Harley at the height of her fame?
Is there a particular version of her
from the cartoons, comics, or video games
that you like the most?
Let's talk about it all in the comments below.
And if you want to learn more about the history
of female comic book characters like Harley Quinn here,
I suggest picking up the Supergirls,
fashion, feminism, fantasy,
and the history of comic book heroines
written by Mike Madrid.
Seriously, it is a fantastic book.
You can also listen to it in audio book form
thanks to Audible.
You guys know Audible.
They make great things for your ear holes
and they're offering you lovely nerds
a free 30 day trial membership.
Just go to audible.com/nerdsync
and browse the over 250,000 audio programs.
Download a title free and start listening.
It doesn't have to be the Supergirls book.
It can be literally anything in their massive library
of audio goodness.
Once again, that is audible.com/nerdsync
and get started today.
And if you like learning about the real origins
of your favorite comic book characters,
click right here to watch a series of videos
about the real origins of Wolverine,
Storm and Night Crawler from the X Men.
Or you can click right here to learn
the real world origin of how Kryptonite was created.
Super interesting story behind that one.
Links, as always, will be in the description.
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My name is Scott, reminding you to read between the panels
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See ya.