A Nice Harley Moment: Harley Goes On A Date

[espanolbot]

From Harley Quinn 38, where Harley has returned from the grave (long story, magic) with a new perspective on life, and has decided to create a secret identity (a psychiatrist) to retreat to when not out supervillaining it up for her night job.

Then, something odd happens, she actually manages to make a connection with one of her patients, of all people, a policeman with stress issues . So, on a whim, she decides to have dinner with him once he’s no longer officially her patient any more.

However, it’s also around this time that the Joker has taken a renewed interest in the new, more independant Harley (who decided to signal she wasn’t attracted to Mr Jay anymore via attempted murder by boobytrapped elevator), but can’t quite wrap his his head around the fact that she’s not actually into him anymore…






Turns out that the Joker decided to set a building on fire to get Harley’s attention. Harley tells the Joker to buzz off again, but he continues poke and prod her to try and find out why she’s going on a date with the cop. As far as he can work out that it must be for a heist of some sort, and if it isn’t it’s never going to work out anyways. Because, the Joker says, she’s a criminal and always will be, just like him…

She lunges at him for this comment, and he casually trips her making her fall off the rooftop they were arguing on, but she manages to grab a washingline on the way down. The Joker then takes the opportunity to threaten Harley into cutting him in on whatever scheme she’s up to.

Overall, I actually kind of liked both the quirky first half of Harley’s series and the latter, more series half, though the fact that it was heavily influenced by Ed Brubaker’s Catwoman run was very obvious.

Comments

[venatosapiens]

I love the fact that the Joker simply cannot conceive of Harley not being interested in him anymore. It's a rather interesting and subtle bit of character work as depicted here, and deepens the character considerably.

[icon_uk]

Again BTAS had fun by adding the Creeper into the mix, who was a rather manic character who was in his own way, besotted with Harley, who couldn't stand him, and the Joker's sudden, shocking (especially to him) jealousy that ANYONE could show interest in Harley (whether she reciprocated or not) other than him made for a terrific dynamic.

[an_idol_mind]

It's stuff like that which would make the Joker interesting to me again. Something that isn't contrived murders 24/7.

[mrstatham]

There are worse things to take influence from than Bru's Catwoman. In fact, DC should be taking notes from him, Rucka, and others, at this point.

But.. This is fun. I'm so used to seeing the Joker as a one-note psycho who just kills people that it's always rather refreshing to see a writer try something different with him. Injecting a little bit of BTAS and making him jealous and/or unable to understand Harley works nicely.

[filthysize]

I wouldn't say "a little bit." The suit and the hair make it rather obvious that this Joker is taking after the B:TAS version.

[terrykun]

I fully expected this to end with the police officers' head on a covered dish. Pleasantly surprised. :-)

[raspberryrain]

The Joker as a human being? Even his mouth is normal! That's...actually a nice change.