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Is Harley Quinn An Underappreciated Character in Batman?

Batman meets Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City.

Don’t worry, B-Man. Mr. J’s gonna give me the best BIRTHDAY PARTY EVEERRRR because he LOVES ME SOOOOOOOO MUCH!

Normally, I don’t blog about American comic book characters, but this caught my eye. I just finished Batman: Arkham City (total instant classic and deserves all the praise it’s been getting) and while browsing my e-mail newsletters, I found this interesting entry via Kotaku about the character of Harley Quinn. John Cusick, author of Girl Parts, talks about the writers for the game should’ve have gone more in-depth on Quinn’s character.

Cusick brings out some good points about Quinn stating that “she isn’t empowered. This makes her a terrible role model (in addition to, you know, all the wanton killing), but a wonderful character. As the battle for Gotham rages around her, Harley seems like a confused little kid amidst feuding adults. To me, this makes her, on the surface, oddly sympathetic: this poor, fractured woman who followed a man into maddness, and got little in return.”

For those that don’t know about her origin, Harley Quinn was once a doctor who tried to counsel the Joker. Instead, she became obsessed with him, becomes bad, and believes that he loves her. In the game, some of the Joker’s men even comment on how Quinn is nuts and that they wouldn’t follow her at all. Cusick comments that Quinn purposely lets herself regress to a child-like state.

You can read the entry here.

What are everyone’s thoughts on Harley Quinn (if you’re familiar with her) in general?

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Tagged: Harley Quinn Batman: Arkham City Rocksteady Studios video games comic book psychology Girl Parts John Cusick