Harley Quinn, now played by pop icon Lady Gaga, returned to the big screen in Joker: Folie à Deux. She succeeded Margot Robbie, who played the character in three different DCEU movies. But we learned that this take on Harleen Quinzel was somewhat different from the ones fans have known for over 30 years. Here’s how director Todd Phillips’ version of Harley Quinn differs from the traditional version we’ve come to know since she debuted in Batman: The Animated Series.
The Batman: The Animated Series Origin of Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn was created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in 1992, as a sidekick/girlfriend for the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. Thanks to a wonderful performance from actress Arleen Sorkin, who inspired the character in the first place, she became a fan favorite. By the end of the ’90s, DC incorporated her into the DC Comics universe proper. A year after her debut, Timm and Dini teamed up for the comic book Mad Love. This was the first origin story presented for Harley. It would later serve as the template for a 1999 episode of The New Batman Adventures of the same name.
In her origin story, her real name was Harleen Francis Quinzel and she was the Joker’s therapist at Arkham Asylum. The name was a nod to her voice actress, Arleen Francis Sorkin. Harleen had gone to Gotham University under a gymnastics scholarship but also studied psychology. She hoped to write a book about a famous killer and make a name for herself that way. When she became a psychiatric intern at Arkham Asylum, she saw the Joker as her meal ticket. But the Joker manipulated her and told her lies. He made himself seem sympathetic and a victim of circumstance. She fell in love with him and he twisted her mind in the process. Ultimately, she helped him escape Arkham and became his willing accomplice, girlfriend, and literal partner-in-crime. Joker christened her with the name Harley Quinn, since her real name, Harleen Quinzel, reminded him of a harlequin.
DC Comics Adds to Harley Quinn’s Backstory
The writers at DC Comics kept this cartoon backstory largely intact. Later, they added an explanation for her enhanced strength and agility. Those powers were the result of a serum created for her by her sometime girlfriend Poison Ivy. It also made her immune to most toxins and poisons. Eventually, Harley broke free of the Joker’s abuse for good, and became something of an antihero. In DC’s New 52 reboot, DC added in the detail of the Joker pushing Harley into the same vat of chemicals that bleached his skin and drove him mad. The 2016 Suicide Squad movie, featuring Margot Robbie, incorporated this detail into her live-action origin story.
Gaga’s Harley Quinn Takes Inspiration From the Comics, But Is Its Own Take on the Character
For Joker: Folie à Deux, Gaga’s version of Harley Quinn did differ significantly. We first believe she’s just another inmate at Arkham. She introduces herself in a music class to Arthur as “Lee,” which we later find out is short for Harleen Quinzel. Lee tells him of her infatuation with him ever since she saw him murder someone on live TV. She spins a story about a dead father and a horrible upbringing, growing up in the same neighborhood as he did. Arthur becomes instantly obsessed with her, and she eventually attempts to break him out of Arkham. But citing his influence on her as being a bad one, she is released from the hospital.
However, Arthur finds out many of the things Lee told him were lies. She didn’t grow up in his neighborhood at all, she grew up in a wealthy part of Gotham. And her parents are still very much alive. She also was a grad student with a specialty in psychology. This reflects her comic book origin as a licensed psychiatrist. She voluntarily checked herself into Arkham in order to meet her idol, Joker. She had little to no interest in Arthur Fleck, only the Joker persona he created. In a sense, this is similar to comics Harley, who became a doctor at Arkham in order to treat the Joker.
Lee attends Arthur’s court appearances, dressed up in similar clown makeup (although she is never referred to specifically as “Harley Quinn” by anyone). Director Todd Phillips said, “She became the way how [Charles] Manson had girls that idolised him. The way that sometimes these [imprisoned murderers] have people that look up to them. There are things about Harley in the movie that drew inspiration from the comic books, but we took it and molded it to the way we wanted it to be.”
Harley and Joker’s relationship is an inversion of what it is in the comics and cartoons. In the comics, Joker used his manipulative tactics to get inside Harleen’s head, and twist her into his devoted, love-sick minion. Here, it’s the other way around. Lee manipulates Arthur, getting into his mind. She holds the upper hand in the relationship, and like Joker does to Harley in the comics, disposes of him when he no longer fits her idea of who he is. This Harley is definitely mentally unwell like in the comics, but she wasn’t “driven crazy by love,” and has far more agency from the get-go.
Most recently, Phillips noted of this new “more grounded” rendition of Harley Quinn, “The high voice, that accent, the gum-chewing and all that sort of sassy stuff that’s in the comics, we stripped that away. We wanted her to fit into this world of Gotham that we created from the first movie.” Although Lady Gaga’s Lee Quinzel was a very different version of the Harley Quinn fans know and love, there were definitely comics inspirations to her character throughout.
Originally published on April 10, 2024.
