Harleen Frances Qüinzel, better known as Harley Qüinn, is a supervillain associated
to the Batman universe of DC Comics.
She first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, on September 11th 1992.
Her creators were the script writer Paul Dini and the draftsman and designer Bruce Timm.
Her origin, however, is explained in the comic Mad Love, by the same scriptwriter.
Little we know about Harley’s childhood - only that she comes from a completely dysfunctional
catholic-jewish family, so since she was very little she was always interested in psychology.
When she went to school, her gymnastic skills were outstanding, and they helped her get
a scholarship to study Psychiatry at the University of Gotham.
She got excellent grades, tho the way she got them were not really appropriate.
She soon showed interest in the most extreme patients.
This was why she started working at the Arkham, and the Clown Prince of Crime himself was
assigned as her patient.
During their first session together, she introduced herself as doctor Harleen Quinzel, but the
Joker said he’d call her Harley, making reference to the medieval jester Hárleqüin.
The Joker tried to choke her, but he notice a look of love in her eyes, instead of the
hate he felt from his other doctors, so he started to manipulate her mind, trying to
have an ally inside the asylum.
With time, Harley madly fell in love with the Clown.
Quinn constantly helped him escape from the asylum.
One time, Batman sent the Joker back completely covered in blood after a beat up when he captured
him.
This broke Harley’s mind and swore she’d kill Batman for what he’d done.
The doctor stole a harlequin suit, with black and red diamonds, from a costume shop and
escaped from Arkham with the Joker.
And this was how her criminal career started, becoming, for good, Harley Quinn, accomplice
of and eternally in love with the supervillain.
Their relationship is difficult to describe: they both usually treat each other with violence,
tho Harley gets the worse part - she’s mistreated both physically and psychologically.
The Joker doesn’t appreciate her love, he is just curious and fascinated about being
part of a couple, tho at the same time he hates having those feelings.
On the other hand, Harley lives for her dear Mr J, coping with his outbursts and confronting
them with violence.
Even tho she is extremely intelligent, she suffers from several mental disorders, like
sadomasochism, obsession and Florence Nightingale Effect.
However, she is totally capable of pretending she is a normal person, using this ability
to disguise herself and go unnoticed, which helps with her evil plans.
As for her personal arsenal, Harley normally uses a huge wooden mallet - it’s her most
characteristic weapon.
She also carries a handgun with normal and explosive bullets that imitates a boxing-glove
gun.
With DC Comics relaunch in 2011, the character is drafted by the Suicide Squad, a group of
villains led by Amanda Waller, tho when she hears about the supposed death of the Joker,
she betrays them and leaves the team.
Harley also participates in the video games tetralogy “Batman: Arkham”, with a quite
radical change of outfit.
Her last appearance was in the cinematographic adaptation of the Suicide Squad, released
in 2016.
Margot Robbie plays the role (she became famous thanks to the Wolf of Wall Street).
Tho she is physically more similar to the video games than to the comic, psychologically
she is quite faithful to the original character, and her interpretation has some details that
fans loved - with this, the character became even more famous, winning over lots of people
who didnt know about her yet.
They say there is a new release in the beginning of 2020, the movie “Bird of Prey”, also
starred by Margot Robbie.
We have no doubt: either in comics or in movies, our dear Harley will keep fascinating us with
her unpredictable madness, as if it was our first time seeing her!