Warning: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1.
Batman: Caped Crusader puts a new spin on several of the Dark Knight’s most iconic foes, including Harley Quinn. But, is the Joker really no longer part of Harley Quinn’s origin story in Batman: Caped Crusader?
Related: Is Batman: Caped Crusader Set in the DCAU?
Harley Quinn’s Batman: Caped Crusader Origin, Explained
When Harley Quinn debuted in Batman: The Animated Series, one of her defining traits was her devotion to the Joker. Later episodes would flesh out this aspect of her characterization further, revealing that Harley was once Dr. Harleen Quinzel: a psychologist seduced by the Clown Prince of Crime to become his lover/sidekick. And when Harley made the jump to DC’s Batman comics, her cartoon backstory remained intact. Indeed, it’s the same across virtually all Bat-media. Sure, multiple incarnations of Harley have split up with their abusive boyfriend, but pretty much all of them kicked off their criminal careers thanks to “Mister J.”
Related: Why Is Penguin a Woman in Batman: Caped Crusader?
That’s not true of Batman: Caped Crusader‘s Harley Quinn, however. This Harley is still Harleen Quinzel, and she’s still a doctor-turned-supervillain. Yet there’s zero indication in any of Caped Crusader Season 1’s 10 episodes that Harley broke bad because of the Joker. Heck, the Joker’s barely in Season 1! Instead, Harley’s driven over the edge by the greed and callous attitudes of her wealthy patients. Her slipping into a harlequin costume and physically and psychologically torturing them is essentially a deranged form of treatment!
Harley Quinn’s Co-Creator Addresses Her New Origin
Removing Joker from Harley Quinn’s origin story was a big call, however, Batman: Caped Crusader developer and showrunner Bruce Timm recently argued that doing so allowed for a fresh take on the character. Timm, who co-created Harley with writer Paul Dini, explained the change in a May 2024 Entertainment Weekly interview.
“I co-created [Harley], so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend,” Timm said. “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she’s Dr. Quinzel, she’s a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she’s Harley Quinn, she’s scary.”
Related: How to Watch Batman: Caped Crusader
Timm later unpacked Harley’s Joker-free motivation an interview with Vanity Fair, describing her transformation as a logical extension of her day job. “We figured, as a psychiatrist, her clientele are some of the richest, most powerful men in Gotham City, and they dump all of their crap on her,” Timm said. “It’s driving her crazy. She hears all this stuff, but because of psychiatrist-client privilege, she can’t do anything about it. She can’t tell anybody. We figured some of these guys have probably confessed some really horrible things to her, and she’s just like, ‘Well, I can’t just turn this guy loose out on the streets, but I can’t turn him into the cops either.'”
Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1 is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Published: Aug 6, 2024 07:27 am