Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel) is a fictional character appearing in media published by DC Entertainment. Created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm to serve as a new supervillainess and a romantic interest for the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series on September 11, 1992, she was later adapted into DC Comics’ Batman comic book canon, beginning with The Batman Adventures #12 (September 1993).

Harley Quinn is a frequent accomplice and lover of the Joker, who was her patient when she worked as an intern psychiatrist at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum. Her alias is a play on the name “Harlequin”, a character that originated in commedia dell’arte. She has also teamed up with fellow villains Poison Ivy and Catwoman, the trio being known as the Gotham City Sirens; Ivy is often depicted as a close friend and romantic interest of Harley. Since the relaunch of the DC comics line with The New 52, Harley Quinn has been depicted as an antihero and a recurring core member of the Suicide Squad who has left her abusive relationshipwith the Joker behind.

Originally voiced by Arleen Sorkin in the DC animated universe, she has since appeared in various other DC projects voiced by actresses such as Tara Strong, Hynden Walch, Laura Bailey, Jenny Slate, Melissa Rauch, Laura Post, and Kaley Cuoco; the latter provided the character’s voice in the 2019 animated series, Harley Quinn. Mia Sara portrayed the character in the 2002 television series Birds of Prey. Harley Quinn made her live-action cinematic debut in the DC Extended Universe film Suicide Squad (2016), where she was portrayed by Margot Robbie. Robbie reprised her role in Birds of Prey (2020) and The Suicide Squad (2021).

History

Creation

Harley Quinn was created by writer Paul Dini and artist Bruce Timm for the Batman: The Animated Series episode entitled “Joker’s Favor” in 1992.Initially written as an animated equivalent of a walk-on role, Harley was intended to appear in just one episode. As Dini was putting together the story for the episode, he thought of giving the character Joker a female henchperson, inspired by the molls of the 1960s live-action Batman series. Dini based Harley on a roller-skating jester from a dream sequence in the soap opera Days of Our Lives, which was played by his college friend Arleen Sorkin. Dini then incorporated aspects of Sorkin’s personality into the character and got Sorkin to voice her. In recording Harley’s voice, Sorkin spoke in her normal Brooklyn accent while putting in a “little Yiddish sound”, since Dini made the character Jewish.Harley was also inspired by a mutual female friend’s “stormy but nonviolent relationship.”

The name Harley Quinn is a play on the word harlequin, a stock character from the sixteenth-century Italian physical comedy theater commedia dell’arte. Dini named the character “Harley Quinn” to be in line with other Batman character’s names being puns, and also because he thought “Harley was a fun name for a girl.”

In designing the character, Timm did a “simplified supervillain version” of traditional harlequin gear; from the commedia dell’arte original, he took the jester hat, ruffled collar, and diamond pattern, and put them on a red and black bodysuit, in which the diamonds were strategically placed on for easier animation. Timm took Harley’s red and black motif from the Golden Age comic book character Daredevil. Dini had previously made a rough design for the character, which Timm improved on.

Expanded role

After seeing Harley in the rough cut of “Joker’s Favor”, the producers of Batman: The Animated Series, which include Dini and Timm, were impressed with the result, with Dini wanting to bring the character back for more episodes. Timm and another producer, Alan Burnett, were initially reluctant of this, and thought that giving Joker a girlfriend “played more towards his comedic side” and would “humanize him too much”, which contrasted their vision for Joker as a character who is “as serious a threat as possible to Batman”. Nevertheless, months after “Joker’s Favor”, Harley made a second appearance on the show in the episode “The Laughing Fish” and became the Joker’s love interest. Harley gained popularity with fans of The Animated Series, with the character being featured more on the show and eventually starring in her own episodes, such as 1993’s “Harley and Ivy”, which introduced a friendship between Harley and fellow supervillain Poison Ivy, and 1994’s “Harlequinade” and “Harley’s Holiday”, which explored Harley’s life without the Joker. Harley then became a recurring character in the DC Animated Universe, appearing in The Animated Series sequel The New Batman Adventures, and in non-Batman animation such as Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and Justice League. On February 7, 1994, she made her first appearance in a video game in The Adventures of Batman and Robin, an action platformer based on Batman: The Animated Series.

Transition to comic books

Because of her popularity, Harley Quinn was adapted into DC’s comic books. On September 1993, a year following Harley’s first appearance in Batman: The Animated Series, the character made her comic book debut in the twelfth issue of The Batman Adventures, a series set in the universe of the The Animated Series, and became a regular character. In 1997, she appeared in the story Batman: Thrillkiller, released under Elseworlds, a DC Comics imprint that published out-of-continuity alternate reality stories. In 1999, she became a canonical character with the release of Batman: Harley Quinn #1.

Origin story

On February 1994, the one-shot The Batman Adventures: Mad Love recounting Harley’s origin was released. Written by Dini and drawn by Timm, the story marks their first comic book collaboration. Mad Love introduces Harley as a former pop psychologist named Harleen Quinzel who fell in love with the Joker during her internship at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum, and details her transformation into the Joker’s villainous accomplice Harley Quinn, as well as Joker’s abusive treatment of Harley. The story received wide praise and won the Eisnerand Harvey awards for Best Single Issue in the same year and was later adapted into an episode of the same name in The New Batman Adventures in 1999.

Introduction to main DC continuity

Harley Quinn was adapted into the main DC universe with the 1999 one-shot graphic novel Batman: Harley Quinn, written by Dini and illustrated by Yvel Guichet. The story put Harley’s origin in the middle of the No Man’s Land storyline, and introduced a darker version of Harley and Joker’s relationship to reflect Joker’s character in the comics, and also Harley’s immunity to toxins and improved strength from her friendship with Poison Ivy.

Dennis O’Neil, who was editor of the Batman titles at the time, was not consulted on Harley’s addition to Batman canon, which he told Back Issue! he would not have approved of.

Characterization

Harleen Quinzel

Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel is depicted as having been a psychiatrist at Gotham City’s Arkham Asylum. Gotham City Sirens #7 (Feb. 2010) shows Harley visiting her family for the holiday season, in which they are portrayed as being very dysfunctional. It is stated the reason Harley pursued psychiatry was to understand her own broken family.

The character’s origin story relates that Harleen Quinzel was once a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum and was assigned to treat the Joker. She eventually falls in love with the Joker and becomes his lover and accomplice after warping her mind through a series of lies. She follows suit in the Joker’s clown-themed, criminal antics and adopts the name Harley Quinn, a play on “Harlequin” from the character in commedia dell’arte. Speaking with a pronounced Northeastern accent, Harley refers to the Joker as Mistah J and Puddin’, terms of endearment that have since been used in nearly every adaptation in which the two characters appear.

Appearance

Harley Quinn was first introduced in the Batman: The Animated Series appearing in the style of a jester. She wore a black domino mask, white facial makeup, and a one-piece black-and-red motley outfit with a cowl. Unlike the Joker, Harley’s skin is not permanently white in the animated series, as this is reiterated in scenes showing Harley out of costume with a normal skin complexion. Dr. Harleen Quinzel, M.D, is portrayed as having blond hair and blue eyes. She typically wears glasses, a skirt, high-heeled shoes, and a white lab coat.

In her early comic book appearances until 2011, the character wore her original black-and-red costume from the animated series. In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC’s continuity. In this new timeline, Harley Quinn had a revamped look that lasted until 2016. The New 52 showed Harley Quinn with an alternating black-and-red-toned outfit with a sleeveless top, elbow pads, tight shorts, knee pads, and boots. Her hair color was altered to half-red and half-black, like the cap of her previous incarnation. Consistent with a new origin, her skin was bleached as the result of being kicked into a vat of acid by the Joker.

Following 2016’s DC Rebirth, Harley Quinn debuted a new look in the third volume of her eponymous series, as well as the fifth volume of Suicide Squad. Her hair color is now blonde with blue dip dye on the left side and pink (red) dip dye on the right, and she sports two new outfits. One outfit consists of tight, blue and red shorts, a ripped tee-shirt, satin jacket, fingerless gloves, fishnet stockings, studded belt, and lace-up boots, much like Margot Robbie’s depiction of the character in the 2016 Suicide Squad film. The character’s other outfit is a two-tone, black-and-red suit consisting of a full-sleeve top, tight shorts, opaque stockings, garter belt attachments, and boots. She has also been known to wear both red-and-black colored nail polishes on both her fingernails and toenails in an alternating fashion.

Harley Quinn is adorned with various tattoos, including four diamonds on her upper right thigh. Within the DC Extended Universe, both Harley and the Joker have several tattoos, with Harley having them on her cheek, forearm, legs, and abdomen.

In the Margot Robbie look or Suicide Squad look, her hair matches the blue and red of her eyeshadow to have sort of a “match-and-mismatch” look, but in later adaptions, the blue eyeshadow is on the opposite eye of where the red dye on her pigtail is, possibly to be a little more “mismatched” (by the creators’ idea of it).

Publication history

A Harley Quinn ongoing series was published monthly by DC Comics for 38 issues from 2001 to 2003. Creators who contributed to the title included Karl Kesel, Terry Dodson, A.J. Lieberman, and Mike Huddleston. The series dealt with her going solo, eventually starting a gang and then fleeing Gotham for the city of Metropolis with her friend Poison Ivy. Quinn dies, only to be resurrected and then return to Gotham. The series ends with Harley turning herself in to Arkham Asylum, having finally understood she needs help. We also learn in issue #8 of the comic that Harley had a relationship in college with fellow psychology student Guy Kopski, whose suicide foreshadowed her obsession with the Joker. Harley later appears in the Jeph Loeb series Hush. She is next seen in a Villains United Infinite Crisis special, where she is one of the many villains who escape from Arkham (although she is knocked unconscious the moment she escapes).

In the “One Year Later” storyline, Harley Quinn is an inmate at Arkham, glimpsed briefly in Detective Comics #823 (November 2006).

Harley next appeared in Batman #663 (April 2007), in which she helps the Joker with a plan to kill all his former henchmen, unaware the “punch line” to the scheme is her death. Upon realizing this, she shoots him in the shoulder.

Harley resurfaces in Detective Comics #831 (June 2007), written by Paul Dini. Harley has spent the last year applying for parole, only to see her request systematically rejected by Bruce Wayne, the layman member of Arkham’s medical commission. She is kidnapped by Peyton Riley, the new female Ventriloquist, who offers her a job; Harley turns the job down out of respect for the memory of Arnold Wesker, the original Ventriloquist, who attempted to cheer her up during her first week in Arkham while the Joker was still on the loose. She then helps Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon foil the impostor’s plans. Although Riley escapes, Bruce Wayne is impressed with Harley’s effort at redemption and agrees with granting her parole.

Birds of Prey #105 (June 2007) reveals Harley Quinn as the 6th member of the Secret Six. In issue #108, upon hearing that Oracle has sent the Russian authorities footage of teammate Deadshot murdering the Six’s employer as payback for double-crossing them, Harley asks, “Is it a bad time to say ‘I quit’?” thus leaving the team.

In Countdown #43 (July 2007), Harley appears to have reformed and is shown to be residing in an Amazon-run women’s shelter. Having abandoned her jester costume and clown make-up, she now only wears an Amazonian stola or chiton. She befriends the former Catwoman replacement Holly Robinson and then succeeds in persuading her to join her at the shelter, where she is working as an assistant. They are both brought to Themiscyra by “Athena” (really Granny Goodness) and begin Amazon training. Holly and Harley then meet the real Athena and encounter Mary Marvel. The group reveals Granny’s deception, and Holly, Harley, and Mary follow her as she retreats to Apokolips. Mary finds the Olympian gods, whom Granny had been holding prisoner, and the group frees them. Harley is granted powers by Thalia as a reward. Upon returning to Earth, the powers vanish, and Harley and Holly return to Gotham City.

Gotham City Sirens

Harley Quinn joins forces with Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley) and Catwoman (Selina Kyle) in the series Gotham City Sirens. Having moved in with Pamela Isley at the Riddler’s apartment, she meets up with Catwoman, who offers for the three of them to live and work together. A new villain who tries to take down Selina Kyle named the Boneblaster breaks into the apartment and the three of them have to move after they defeat him. Later, after a chance encounter with Hush, the Joker attempts to kill her, apparently out of jealousy. Quinn is rescued by Ivy and Catwoman, and it is later revealed her attacker was not the real Joker, but one of his old henchmen impersonating him.

In Gotham City Sirens #7, Harley Quinn visits her family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, during the holiday season. Harley’s father is a swindler who is still in jail, and her brother, Barry, is a loser with dead-end dreams of rock stardom. Her mother, Sharon, wants her to stop the “villain and hero stuff.” The dysfunctional, “horrible” experience while visiting family causes her to return home to the Sirens’ shared Gotham City hideout where Harley, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy spend the rest of Christmas together.

Following several adventures with Catwoman and Ivy, Harley betrays them and breaks into Arkham Asylum, intending to kill the Joker for his years of abuse towards her. However, Harley ultimately chooses instead to release the Joker from his cell, and together the two orchestrate a violent takeover of the facility that results in most of the guards and staff members either being killed or taken hostage by the inmates.

Harley and the Joker are eventually defeated by Batman and Catwoman, and Harley is last seen being wheeled away while bound in a straitjacket and muzzle. Shortly afterward, Poison Ivy breaks into Harley’s cell and attempts to kill her for her betrayal, but instead offers to free her if she helps her kill Catwoman, who had left both of her fellow Sirens behind in Arkham. Harley agrees, and the two set out to trap Catwoman. During the ensuing fight, Catwoman says she saw good in them and only wanted to help. As Batman is about to arrest them, Catwoman helps the two of them escape.

In August 2016, the debut of the six-issue miniseries Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death reuniting Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. Harley appears in the debut issue as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Ph.D., with continued appearances throughout the series.

The New 52/Harley Quinn Rebirth

Following DC’s 2011 relaunch of its titles, Harley Quinn’s costume and appearance were fully revamped. The New 52 shows Harley Quinn with a sleeveless top, tight shorts, and boots. Her hair color has also been altered to half-red and half-black, and her bleached white skin is the result of being kicked into a vat of acid by the Joker.

After a falling out with the Joker, she goes into a murderous frenzy, directed towards people responsible for the Joker’s imprisonment. Captured by the Black Canary, she is forcibly inducted into the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller. However, when she discovers the Joker is rumored to be dead, it takes a further toll to her already-addled mind, and betraying the Suicide Squad, she puts their safety and secrecy at risk by turning herself into the Gotham Police Department to gain access to the skinned face of the Joker. Her plan pays off, and she manages to recover the face; though, in a further psychotic episode, Harley captures and ties up Deadshot, and places the skinned face of the Joker over Deadshot’s face, to carry on a “conversation” with her dead lover. Deadshot lures Harley in close, shooting and severely injuring her during the conversation. After the Joker returns to Gotham in the “Death of the Family” storyline, he forces her to disguise herself in his old Red Hood costume and trick Batman into coming to the chemical plant where they first met. Batman falls into a tank and demands Harley to tell him where the Joker is. However, she only replies, in tears, he is no longer the Joker she fell in love with.

On July 16, 2013, DC announced that a new Harley Quinn ongoing comic book series would begin publication in November 2013, co-written by Amanda Conner and her husband Jimmy Palmiotti, cover illustrated by Conner, and story illustrated by Chad Hardin. The series has notably become distanced from the “Batman Family” of DC publications in both tone and premise, with Harley no longer having any significant connection to either Batman or the Joker following the “Death of the Family” storyline. In the series, Harley Quinn has become a landlady at Coney Island, is a part-time member of a roller derby team, and has returned to her work in psychology under her real alias, indicating that Harley’s real identity is not public knowledge in the new status quo. She also befriends an elderly ex-U.S. agent named Sy Borgman.

Under Conner and Palmiotti’s writing, Harley was reinvented as an antihero who, after being released from the Suicide Squad and having her public files erased, values human life more or less and actively tries to improve life in her neighborhood, with mixed results. While the comic book version of the character is still romantically linked with the Joker, a more recent development has Harley also romantically involved with Poison Ivy. Harley Quinn series writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner confirmed the two characters are in a non-monogamous romantic relationship. Between issues #11–13, Harley formed a brief partnership with an amnesiac Power Girl and battled the Clock King and the Sportsmaster before Power Girl’s memory was restored, and she left Harley at the top of the Eiffel Tower as punishment for her deceit. Harley attempts to coerce a romantic connection with her tenant Mason but was unable to make the date due to the multitude of responsibilities in her life, balancing her two jobs with her commitment to her roller derby team and her career as a crime-fighter. With support from Ivy, Harley makes amends with Mason and turns to the Internet to recruit other strong, young women in a crime-fighting team she is forming. This team, dubbed the Gang of Harleys (due to all members fashioning themselves after Harley and taking on similar codenames), comprising young women of various ethnic backgrounds and one gay man called Harvey Quinn, then fights Captain Horatio Strong, a sea captain who becomes superhumanly strong after eating an addictive alien sea-plant, in homage to Popeye. Harley agrees to help a woman whose daughter has been kidnapped by a gang in Hollywood.

Harley Quinn has featured a few standalone specials which are not directly connected to the main series and feature multiple artists. In the scratch and sniff-themed Annual issue, Harley briefly returned to Gotham to save her girlfriend Poison Ivy, as the Arkham Asylum employees monitoring her had brainwashed her to create a hallucinogenic pathogen. In Valentine’s Day Special, Harley returned to Gotham to win a prize date with Bruce Wayne (who, unbeknownst to her, is Batman) and finds herself fighting animal rights activists-turned-supervillain blackmailers. She shares a brief intimate moment with Bruce Wayne. At Coney Island, Batman informs Harley that while he still distrusts her, he admires her attempt at heroism and promises not to interfere. Harley kisses Batman and tells him to get “lessons” on kissing from Bruce Wayne, to which Batman privately grins.

In Futures End, a series set five years in the future, Harley mails herself to the Bahamas in an attempt to save money on airfare. The plane carrying her crashes over the ocean while flying through a storm, and Harley is washed up onto the shores of an island inhabited by an uncontacted tribe. The tribe quickly declares her a goddess and is determined to have her meet their god-king who turns out to be the Joker.

After a fight and reconciliation, Harley learns the Joker has been living on the island as a god and making the inhabitants dress up as various superheroes and track him down while playing tricks on them. It is announced she and the Joker are to be married. She is initially excited about the pending marriage until she discovers the two will be sacrificed to the island’s volcano as their wedding ceremony ends.

A spin-off series entitled Harley Quinn and Power Girl was launched in June 2015. The series is set to run six issues and takes place while Harley has the amnesiac Power Girlconvinced the two are a crime-fighting duo. The story follows the two when they are sent to a part of deep space known as La Galaxia Del Sombrero during the unseen events mentioned in Harley Quinn #12 and then chronicles their journey to return to Earth.

Harley has broken up with the Joker and has a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy.

Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti’s four-year run on Harley Quinn, after almost a hundred issues, came to an end with Harley Quinn #34 “That’s all folks!” The series has continued, however, and features a new team of creators.

The ongoing series has no apparent connection to Suicide Squad other than her new hairstyle, dyed for her by one of the tenants in her Brooklyn apartment and a few guest shots from characters like Killer Croc and Deadshot. Harley has once again met up with Power Girl and even her new sidekick Terra. She has faced down multiple villains from the Penguin to the corrupt mayor of New York and is in the process of running for mayor herself when the previous mayor tried to solve the homeless problem by feeding them to cannibals. She also runs a “vigilante for hire” group; she calls her Gang of Harleys and has numerous other allies and stalkers, including Red Tool (a parody of Deadpool), Harley Sinn (a former nemesis) and various other allies she has made along the way. The mayor countered by kidnapping her friend Mason and killing him. Harley got revenge, and then she and Ivy went to visit with her family. On her return, a Man-Bat was seen around town, and Tony went missing. Not feeling very good after the death of Mason, Harley ordered her gang to stay out of it and was summarily ignored. They went to Arkham to ask Langstrom if he was behind it but found him gibbering in his cell. He did, however, mention there was “another.” Meanwhile, Harley went hunting for the Man-Bat and took it down, only to find out it was Tony. Kidnapped moments later, they awoke in Langstrom’s lab to find that his wife Francine was the newest Man-Bat, and she then jabbed Harley with the Man-Bat potion.

After that mess, a few of her old criminal buddies, including the Penguin, the Mad Hatter, the Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, False Face, Mr. Freeze, and numerous other Batman villains took advantage of Harley’s grief over her dead friend Mason to split her from her team. This was a temporary measure, and soon, Harley freed them from mind control and apologized for some things she said while on truth serum. Working together with all of her friends and allies like Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Power Girl, Harley took the gang down. A few weeks later, the Riddler showed up late for the fight while Harley and her gang were eating at the reformed Condiment King’s new hot dog stand, and they easily beat him up too. This was followed up by a one-shot issue in which we see a decimated future where Red Tool has tracked down Old Lady Harley at future cyborg Tony’s request. We learn she married pretty much everyone she knew at one time or another and the world was mostly destroyed when her Gang of Harleys became several Gangs and tore each other to pieces after Coach was killed/absorbed by Brainiac. Harley finds her old original gang, beats them up, and retakes control. This leaves Coach/Brainiac in charge, and he heads out with Red Tool to go home. Back in the current time, she recently went on a one-woman rampage on Apokolips before coming back to Earth with a new friend she rescued from Granny Goodness named Tina to deal with a realtor and a cult run by a skeleton-headed goof calling himself “Lord Death Man” whom she heard about on a literal pirate broadcast. It turns out he set it up himself because he is in love with her and thought it was fun walking into her traps, being unkillable. Harley used the money he paid her to save her building and surrounding businesses from a land developer, whom she then catapulted away. When last seen, Harley was reading one of her own comics and a woman calling herself Jonni DC, Continuity Cop was threatening to stop her, and the preview predicted Harley would destroy the DC Universe. After her mother was temporarily retconned and a series of pointless adventures through multiple continuities, everything was restored to normal, except for an alternate past superhero with no concept of a “gray area” being pulled into Harley’s world.

Controversy

In September 2013, DC Comics announced a contest for fans and artists, “Break into comics with Harley Quinn!”, in which contestants were to draw Harley in four different suicide scenarios. This contest drew controversy not only because it was announced close to National Suicide Prevention Week, but because some artists did not like the sexualized portrayal of Harley in the fourth scenario, in which Harley attempts suicide while naked in her bathtub. After seeing the reactions to the contest, DC apologized, saying they should have made it clear it was a dream sequence that was not supposed to be taken seriously. In the final version, the bathtub scene was cut and replaced with Harley sitting on a rocket while flying in space.

Harley’s Little Black Book

Harley teamed up with major DC characters in Harley’s Little Black Book, including Zatanna, Wonder Woman, Superman, Lobo, a version of herself, and other superheroines in a world in which they tried to kill Hitler.

DC Universe

DC Comics began the next relaunch of its entire line of titles called DC Rebirth in June 2016. In December 2017, DC opted to rebrand its titles under the “DC Universe” name, using the continuity established from DC Rebirth. Within the DC Universe, Harley Quinn is featured in a third bi-monthly volume of her eponymous series, starting with Harley Quinnvol. 3 #1 (October 2016).

Suicide Squad

Harley Quinn has a recurring role in the comic book title Suicide Squad, which debuted its fifth volume with Suicide Squad vol. 5 #1 (October 2016). Following the events of DC Rebirth, Harley Quinn sports two new outfits following in DC Universe. She wears tight blue-and-red shorts, a ripped white tee shirt, a satin jacket, fingerless gloves, net stockings, and boots. Her other outfit is a two-tone, black-and-red suit consisting of a full-sleeve top, tight shorts, opaque stockings, garter belt attachments, and boots. Harley Quinn is adorned with tattoos, and her hair color is blonde hair with blue dip dye on the left side and pink dip dye on the right to match the movie and her new hairstyle in 52.

Unlike her counterpart in the New 52 series (who may be a sequel to this series after Harley finishes her time on the Squad, even going so far as to erase her public criminal record although both versions got the dip-dyed hairstyle at the same time), she is still fairly dark and resists any attempts at labeling her a hero, no matter how many lives she saves or how many times she steps up to take command of the situation. She tends to swap her carefree joking attitude for the occasional sulk. So far, the events of the Squad do little to affect the DC Universe outside of their immediate mission. She is still officially done with the Joker in a romantic capacity and still Poison Ivy’s on-again, off-again girlfriend.

The ongoing fifth volume of Suicide Squad shows Harley Quinn as an unpredictable and dangerous inmate at Belle Reve Penitentiary, attacking the facility’s security forces when given the opportunity. Harley Quinn becomes the leader of the Suicide Squad in issue #20, following Rick Flag’s apparent death. The members of the team under Harley’s leadership include Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, the Enchantress, Katana, and Killer Croc.

Harley Quinn DC Black Label

Harley Quinn is a major character in DC’s first Black Label comic series, an adult-focused imprint, in Sean Murphy’s 8-part standalone story Batman: White Knight (more information provided in other versions section).

Harleen, a limited series created by Stjepan Sejic, was released on September 25, 2019. The series provides new insight into the character’s origin story and is the first solo comic series within the new imprint.

In addition to her own origin story, Harley Quinn featured in Kami Garcia, Mike Mayhew, and Mico Suayan’s Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity. The series re-imagines Harley Quinn as a forensic profiler who helps the police on their trail of the Joker and was released on October 2, 2019.

Reception

Harley Quinn has become one of DC Comics’ most popular characters. The 2016 relaunch of her comic shipped more copies than any other DC Rebirth title and was one of the best-selling comics of the year. DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee refers to Harley Quinn as the fourth pillar in their publishing line, behind Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Harley Quinn currently stars in four separate ongoing series — three eponymous titles and Suicide Squad. Only Batman and Superman have comparable numbers of monthly appearances, making Harley DC Comics’ most prominent and profitable female character. Kevin Kiniry, vice-president of DC Collectibles, says Harley Quinn is always a top-seller and she “can go toe-to-toe with Batman and the Joker as one of the most fan-requested and sought-after characters.” In 2016, Harley Quinn’s Halloween costume ranked as the most popular costume in both the United States and the United Kingdom and it remains a popular subject for cosplay. To celebrate the character, DC Comics declared the month of February to be Harley Quinn Month and published 22 Harley Quinn variant covers across their line of comic books. IGN’s 2009 list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Harley Quinn as #45. She was ranked 16th in Comics Buyer’s Guide‘s 2011 “100 Sexiest Women in Comics” list. Joker voice actor Mark Hamill attributes the success of Harley Quinn to Arleen Sorkin’s performance. On Twitter, he stated: “In the script she was just an unnamed Joker “hench-wench” w/ no discernible personality. When Arleen began reading her lines in that unforgettable voice so poignant & full of heart I nearly fell off my chair! She brought SO much more than was on the page & a legend was born.”

Harley Quinn has been interpreted as having a dependent personality disorder, as well as showing typically villainous antisocial behavior. Kate Roddy describes Harley Quinn as an “ambitious career woman who gives up her autonomy to become an abused sidekick” and discusses fan responses to the character. Margot Robbie stated “there could be elements of manic depression, definitely PTSD thing. Loves to analyze people and someone like the Huntress who has massive childhood trauma that’s just like, that’s so exciting to her… Oh I want to get in their brain and pick it apart!”

Chris Sims describes the approach of Batman: The Animated Series as showing “a version of the character who is having adventures right now” and regards that choice as being a key part of Harley Quinn’s production. Chris Sims describes her as the Joker’s Robin.

Collected editions

Harley Quinn (2000–2004)

Vol. #	Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
1	Preludes and Knock Knock Jokes	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #1–7	192	December 2007	978-1401216573
2	Night and Day	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #8–13 and Harley Quinn: Our Worlds at War	190	June 2013	978-1401240417
3	Welcome to Metropolis	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #14–25	288	March 2014	978-1401245955
4	Vengeance Unlimited	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #26–38	314	September 2014	978-1401250683
The Deluxe Edition
1	Harley Quinn By Karl Kesel And Terry Dodson: The Deluxe Edition Book One	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #1–8	224	September 2017	978-1401276423
2	Harley Quinn By Karl Kesel And Terry Dodson: The Deluxe Edition Book Two	Harley Quinn vol. 1 #9–19	288	November 2018	978-1401285098

The New 52 Harley Quinn (2014–2017)

Vol. #	Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
1	Hot In The City	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #0–8	224	October 2014	978-1401254155
2	Power Outage	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #9–13, Harley Quinn Futures End #1, Harley Quinn Invades Comic-Con International San Diego and material from Secret Origin #4	208	April 2015	978-1401257637
3	Kiss Kiss Bang Stab	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #14–16, Annual #1, Harley Quinn Holiday Special #1 and Harley Quinn Valentine’s Special #1	168	December 2015	978-1401262525
	Harley Quinn and Power Girl	Harley Quinn and Power Girl #1–6	152	March 2016	978-1401259747
4	A Call to Arms	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #17–21 and Harley Quinn Road Trip Special #1	176	June 2016	978-1401269296
5	The Joker’s Last Laugh	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #22–25 and Harley Quinn: Be Careful What You Wish For	144	September 2016	978-1401271992
6	Black, White and Red All Over	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #26–30	144	January 2017	978-1401272593
	Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys	Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys #1–6	152	February 2017	978-1401267858
	Harley’s Little Black Book	Harley’s Little Black Book #1–6	256	August 2017	978-1401269760

DC Rebirth Harley Quinn (2017–2018)

Vol. #	Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
1	Die Laughing	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #1–7	168	March 2017	978-1401268312
2	Joker Loves Harley	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #8–13	144	June 2017	978-1401270957
3	Red Meat	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #14–21	168	September 2017	978-1401273699
4	Surprise, Surprise	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #22–27 and Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special	168	January 2018	978-1401275266
5	Vote Harley	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #28–34	168	May 2018	978-1401278823
6	Angry Bird	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #35–42	192	August 2018	978-1401281526
The Deluxe Edition
1	Harley Quinn: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 1	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #1–13	304	September 2017	978-1401273682
2	Harley Quinn: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #14–27 and Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special	384	July 2018	978-1401280659
3	Harley Quinn: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 3	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #28–42	392	January 2019	978-1401285531

DC Universe Harley Quinn (2018–present)

Vol. #	Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
1	Harley vs. Apokolips	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #43–49	168	December 2018	978-1401285074
	Harley Loves Joker	Harley Loves Joker #1–2 and back stories from Harley Quinn vol. 3 #17–25	128	December 2018	978-1401283490
2	Harley Destroys the Universe	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #50–54 and #56	160	April 2019	978-1401288099
	Old Lady Harley	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #42 and Old Lady Harley #1–5	152	July 2019	978-1401292164
3	The Trials of Harley Quinn	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #55 and #57–63	208	October 2019	978-1401291914
4	The Final Trial	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #64–69 and Harley Quinn: Villain of the Year #1	208	March 2020	978-1401294557

Harley Quinn Omnibus

Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
Harley Quinn Omnibus By Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti 1	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #0–16, Annual #1, Harley Quinn: Futures End #1, Harley Quinn Invades Comic-Con International San Diego, Harley Quinn Holiday Special #1, Harley Quinn Valentine’s Special #1, Harley Quinn and Power Girl #1–6 and material from Secret Origin #4	768	September 2017	978-1401276430
Harley Quinn Omnibus By Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti 2	Harley Quinn vol. 2 #17–30, Harley Quinn Road Trip Special #1, Harley Quinn: Be Careful What You Wish For Special Edition, Harley Quinn and Her Gang of Harleys #1–6 and Harley’s Little Black Book #1–6	864	October 2018	978-1401284565
Harley Quinn Omnibus By Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti 3	Harley Quinn vol. 3 #1–34 and Harley Quinn 25th Anniversary Special	800	October 2019	978-1401294465

Harley Quinn one-shots and limited series

Title	Material Collected	Pages	Publication Date	ISBN
Harleen	Harleen #1–3	200	February 2020	978-1779501110
Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass	Original Graphic Novels Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass	208	September 2019	978-1401283292
Harley Quinn Black + White + Red	Harley Quinn Black + White + Red #1-17 and two new original stories	224	2021	978-1779509956

Other versions

• Harley Quinn’s first major appearance outside the Batman animated world was in the Elseworlds miniseries Thrillkiller. This version of Harley is a schoolgirl named Hayley Fitzpatrick who dresses up to help a female version of the Joker called Bianca Steeplechase. After Batgirl kills Bianca, Harley is shown killing her own family, intent on revenge in the final frames of the story.
• In the Elseworlds 80-Page Giant, one of the stories is about Lex Luthor as a music producer. One of his groups is, as the press puts it, “alternative lifestyle folkies Ivy and Harley”.
• On the new Earth-3, Harleen Quinzel is the Jokester’s business manager and is killed by the Owlman.
• Harley appears in Batman/The Spirit. In this crossover, Harley is one of the many villains who helps try to take down the Batman and the Spirit. She initially appears disguised as a flight attendant.
• In the 2008 graphic novel Joker, Harley Quinn appears as the Joker’s helper and aide-de-camp. She at one point acts as a stripper (though this may be a ruse) and is never shown speaking.
• In the Ame-Comi Girls universe, Harley is partnered with the Catwoman and Poison Ivy as part of a trio of villains.
• The Flashpoint version of Harley Quinn is named Yo-Yo. She was a henchwoman of the Joker, and the Batman chased her down to find the Joker’s location, as she had kidnapped Judge Dent’s children. He chased her to the ledge of the building around Crime Alley. Batman drops her off the roof, but she is luckily saved by Cyborg.
• In Batman ’66, a version of Harley Quinn designed more around the 1960s television show (she is slightly taller and her hair is short; she also wears prominent slanted glasses, a long red dress and red blouse, large pearl necklace, and fairly prominent earrings) appears as Dr. Holly Quinn, Ph.D., a psychologist at Arkham Asylum, referred to as Arkham Institute for the Criminally Insane. She convinces the Joker to cooperate with Batman and Robin in exchange for approving his comedy night proposal. Dr. Quinn is manipulated by the Catwoman and the Joker to perfect the Joker Wave — a hysteria-inducing transmitting dish used on Gotham. Quinn is devastated by her role in the plot and to atone for her mistake, Dr. Quinn reverses the device by submitting herself to its effects — freeing the people of Gotham but sacrificing her sanity in the process. She escapes and becomes a supervillain named Harlequin, wearing a roller derby-inspired version of the classic Harley costume. She retains her considerable intelligence and psychological training, making her a difficult foe for the Dynamic Duo, but is eventually captured when Batman and Robin disguise themselves as criminals (Batman in his regular alternate guise of Matches Malone) who beat up other bad guys who were auditioning to be Holly’s henchmen.
• Harley Quinn appears in the prequel comic to the game Injustice: Gods Among Us. She helps the Joker kidnaps Lois Lane and surgically plant a trigger in her heart that will set off a nuclear bomb in Metropolis should her heart stop; when Superman accidentally kills her (thinking she is Doomsday) he becomes devastated, with the grieving Superman killing the Joker as a result. Harley struggles to come to terms with the Joker’s death but develops an attachment to the Green Arrow when he kidnaps her to protect her from Superman’s wrath but is also grief-stricken when he is killed by Superman. She later confronts the Black Canary but hesitates upon realizing she is pregnant upon vomiting mid-battle and reveals to the Black Canary she has a four-year-old daughter named Lucy who lives with her sister. Harley and the Canary befriend each other as a result and Harley starts helping Batman’s Insurgency, though most members distrust her due to her lover’s actions. In Injustice 2, she helps to fight Grodd’s Society and Brainiac alongside the Black Canary, the Green Arrow, and the other Justice League and Regime members. It is revealed in the ending she later joins the Justice League as a fully accepted member, though she occasionally has to deal with her violent impulses. It is also revealed her daughter thinks her mother is her Aunt Harley, though Harley hopes to one day tell her the truth.
• In the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, Harley is mutated into a humanoid hyena by the Shredder. She is knocked out by Batman during the battle at Arkham Asylum, and Splinter uses her hammer to take down the rest of the inmates. After the Shredder is defeated, the mutagen in her system decays naturally, causing her and the rest of the mutated inmates to revert to normal.
• In Batman: White Knight, it is revealed that Harley Quinn was two different women all along. The first Harley Quinn, Harleen Quinzel, quit when the Joker captured and tortured Robin (Jason Todd), and she was replaced by another girl, Marian Drews, without the Joker even realizing it. Once the Joker was cured of his insanity, he proposes marriage to Harley, only for her to beat him and mock him for acting “normal”. The original Harley Quinn then appears, kicks the “fake Harley” unconscious, and reveals to Jack Napier (Joker’s true identity in this continuity) there were two Harleys all along. While Harleen loved the Joker “despite his flaws”, Marian loved the Joker by “his flaws”. She accepts his marriage proposal and joins him in his quest to rid Gotham City of Batman. Drews then takes the mantle of the Joker for herself “until the real Joker returns”.
• In DC Comics Bombshells, Harley fell in with the Joker (in this version, a gangster) after leaving Charm School, but left him when he began his journey into the occult. By the time of the events of the story, Harley is drawn to England by a voice she believes is the Joker, but turns out to be the Joker’s Daughter. She rejects the Joker’s Daughter’s attempt to have the Joker resurrected in the body of Poison Ivy, instead of beginning a relationship with Ivy herself.
• In Batman: Damned Harley snaps after the Joker’s mysterious death following a battle with Batman and performs surgery on herself and dressing herself to make her resemble the Joker. Harley leads the Joker’s remaining henchman on a revenge mission, blowing up several buildings and taking over the GCPD building and defacing the Batsignal so that it resembles the Joker’s smile. Batman arrives and defeats the henchman before Harley paralyzes him with a toxin, beats him with her baseball bat, and attempts to sexually abuse him. Batman is then possessed by the Enchantress and strangles Harley against the Batsignal.

In other media

Television

Live-action

• In 2002, a short-lived television series, Birds of Prey, included Harley Quinn as a psychologist and the main antagonist, portrayed by actress Mia Sara. In this show, Harleen Quinzel uses her day job as a psychologist to achieve her hidden purpose: to take control of the city of New Gotham. She does not wear a costume, although she does wear an outfit that is reminiscent of her cartoon costume in the series finale “Devil’s Eyes”.
• Harley Quinn made a cameo appearance in the Arrow season two episode “Suicide Squad”, voiced again by Tara Strong, while physically portrayed by Cassidy Alexa (credited as “Deranged Squad Female”). The series star Stephen Amell revealed in an interview she was originally set to appear in the season two finale episode “Unthinkable”, but was cut due to time. The show’s producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed there were plans for the character to appear, but series actress Willa Holland stated they had been axed due to the Suicide Squad film.
• A character loosely based on Harley Quinn named Ecco appears in the fourth and fifth seasons of Gotham, portrayed by Francesca Root-Dodson. Like Quinn, Ecco wears a black and red outfit, clown makeup, and roller-skates, refers to other characters as “Puddin”, and is completely devoted and infatuated with Jeremiah Valeska, the show’s incarnation of the Joker.
• In Riverdale, Harley Quinn’s costume is worn by the character Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) in the episode titled “Chapter Sixty-One: Halloween” as a reference to the comic book miniseries Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica.

Animation

• Harley Quinn first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, voiced by Arleen Sorkin who subsequently reprised her role in other DC animated universe shows including Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, and Justice League.
• Harley Quinn appears in The Batman, voiced by Hynden Walch. This version is a former television pop-psychiatrist who also ends up being seduced by the Joker, though their relationship is never shown to be abusive.
• Harley Quinn appears in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, voiced by Meghan Strange.
• Harley Quinn makes several cameos in Teen Titans Go!.
• Harley Quinn appears in Justice League Action, voiced by Tara Strong.
• Harley Quinn appears in the 2019 animated series DC Super Hero Girls, voiced again by Tara Strong. In this version, Harleen and Barbara Gordon are depicted as being best friends, througth they are unaware of each other’s identites as Harley Quinn and Batgirl, respectively, who constantly clash with each other. While initially living at Gotham, she moves to Metropolis in “#Frenemies Part 1”, and becomes friends and partners with Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Giganta, Star Sapphire, and Livewire, while also becoming enemy of the DC Superhero Girls.
• In 2017, it was reported Warner Bros. Animation had ordered 26 half-hour episodes of an adult-oriented Harley Quinn animated series for their new streaming service, DC Universe. In 2018, it was announced that Kaley Cuoco would provide Harley Quinn’s voice, and a short teaser trailer was released. The series officially began streaming in 2019. It focuses on Harley as she “attempts to make it on her own as the criminal Queenpin of Gotham City”, and step out of the Joker’s shadow with the help of Poison Ivy and her crew of supervillains.

Film

Live-action

• Harley Quinn was initially set to appear in Batman Unchained, the fifth film planned for the original Batman film series. She was to be featured as the Joker’s (Jack Nicholson) daughter, who allies herself with the Scarecrow to get revenge on Batman for her father’s death. However, due to the critical and commercial failure of Batman & Robin, this film was cancelled.
• The Batman: Arkham version of Harley makes a cameo appearance in the 2018 film Ready Player One.

DC Extended Universe

Margot Robbie portrays Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe.

• The character debuted 2016 film Suicide Squad. Paul Dini, the creator of Harley Quinn, said Robbie “nailed” her role.
• Harley Quinn appears in the 2020 spin-off film Birds of Prey, which Robbie also produced.
• Harley Quinn will return in the upcoming film The Suicide Squad (2021), the sequel to Suicide Squad.
• Harley Quinn is set to feature in Gotham City Sirens alongside Catwoman and Poison Ivy, though the film is on hold.

Animation

• Harley Quinn appears in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, based on Batman Beyond series and set in DCAU, voiced by Arleen Sorkin. Flashbacks reveal that she had assisted Joker in kidnapping Tim Drake and torturing him into insanity and transforming him into their son “J.J”. She later fought Batgirl who angrily chastised her for even helping Joker commit a heinous act but fell deep into an abyss, leading to the latter presuming her dead, though she survived as depicted in the present, where she appears at the end of the movie, revealed to be the grandmother of the Jokerz members, Dee Dee Twins who address her as “Nana Harley” and having reformed from her life of crime.
• Harley Quinn has a cameo appearance in Justice League: The New Frontier. She is seen during the famous speech by John F. Kennedy.
• An alternate universe version of Harley Quinn appears in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. In the film, she is a monkey of “The Jester” (the film version of the Joker).
• Harley Quinn appears in Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite, an adaptation of the video game of the same name, with Laura Bailey reprising her role.
• The Flashpoint version of Harley Quinn named Yo-Yo appears in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, voiced by Hynden Walch.
• Harley Quinn is featured in Batman: Assault on Arkham, voiced by Hynden Walch.
• Harley Quinn appears in Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Gotham City Breakout, with Tara Strong reprising her role.
• Harley Quinn appears in The Lego Batman Movie, voiced by Jenny Slate.
• Harley Quinn appears as the main protagonist in Batman and Harley Quinn, voiced by Melissa Rauch.
• Dr. Harleen Quinzel appears in Batman vs. Two-Face, voiced by Sirena Irwin. She is the assistant to Hugo Strange, who reciprocates the Joker’s flirting. In a Blu-ray exclusive bonus scene, Quinzel, dressed as Harley Quinn, busts the Joker out of prison.
• Harley Quinn appears in DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon, voiced by Kang Ji-young.
• The Brave and the Bold version of Harley Quinn appears in Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold, with Tara Strong voicing her.
• Harley Quinn appears in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, with Tara Strong reprising her role. Again, she is a member of the Suicide Squad and is primarily designed after her appearance in The New 52.
• A feudal Japan version of Harley Quinn appears in the anime film Batman Ninja, voiced by Rie Kugimiya and Tara Strong in Japanese and English respectively.
• Harley Quinn appears in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. She has a cameo appearance in an altered future where the villains have taken over.
• Harley Quinn appears in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, voiced by Margot Rubin.
• Harley Quinn appears in Justice League vs. the Fatal Five, voiced by an uncredited Tara Strong.
• Harley Quinn appears in Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Tara Strong reprising her role. Harley is first introduced as an inmate at Arkham, who mocks Shredder from inside her cell. After the Joker frees her, she is mutated into a crazy and anthropomorphic hyena and assists her lover in fighting the Bat-family and the Turtles. She is knocked out by a crazed and mutated Batman, and abandoned by the Joker as he attempts to escape. She was presumably demutated by the Gotham police.
• Harley Quinn appears in Batman: Hush and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, with Hynden Walch reprising her role. In Apokolips War, she is shown to have become the new leader of the Suicide Squad following Amanda Waller’s death by cancer and seeks to avenge the death of Joker, who was apparently killed by Batman, who at the time was under Darkseid’s control.

Web series

• Harley Quinn had a co-starring role in the Gotham Girls webtoon voiced by Arleen Sorkin, in which she joins forces with Poison Ivy and Catwoman.
• Harley Quinn appears in the Batman Black and White motion comics, voiced by Janyse Jaud.
• Harley Quinn (credited as Harlequin) appears in the first episode of the web series Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles, in which she kidnaps and mutilates an unknown number of people and makes toys and dolls out of the bodies. She fights Batman after he frees her latest victim and ends up surrendering, only to be drained of her blood and possibly killed after Batman reveals his fangs to her. She is voiced by Tara Strong reprising her role from the Arkham franchise.
• Harley Quinn appears in the web series DC Super Hero Girls, in which she is a student at Super Hero High and the roommate of Wonder Woman. Unusually for the character, she is portrayed as a hero instead of a villain and has a mostly positive relationship with her superhero counterparts. She is once again voiced by Tara Strong.

Video games

DC Animated Universe games

• Harley cameos in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, and as a boss in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega Genesis.
• She appears in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD and Batman: Chaos in Gotham, voiced by Arleen Sorkin.
• Harley Quinn appears in Batman Vengeance, voiced by Arleen Sorkin. At the beginning of the game, she disguises herself as Mary Flynn who got her son Toby kidnapped by the Joker. The whole thing came out as a plan to kill Batman, but the plan failed and the Joker apparently died falling off the Gotham bridge. In the final phase of the game, it was revealed the Joker is alive and faked his death to make a bigger plan to destroy Gotham City, with Harley supporting him all along.
• Harley appears on the sequel Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu where she is locked in her Arkham Asylum cell, being paralyzed by Sin Tzu’s mind control.

DC Universe Online

Harley appears in the DC Universe Online video game, with Arleen Sorkin returning as her voice. Harley is the basic Legends PVP character granted to Villains without having to spend Marks of Legend. To date, this was the last time Arleen Sorkin voiced the character; as of 2016, Harley Quinn is now voiced by Jen Brown, starting with a DLC episode based on the Gotham City Sirens.

Lego series

• Harley Quinn appears in Lego Batman: The Videogame, with her sound effects provided by Grey DeLisle. She appears as an enemy of Batman, a 1st deputy of the Joker, and the second boss of Chapter 3 “The Joker’s Return”. Harley Quinn in Lego Batman is a playable character, can be unlocked through the villain levels and carries a pistol and her giant mallet. She is one of three bosses that later appear as minibosses, the other two being Two-Face and Catwoman.
• Harley Quinn appears in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, voiced by Laura Bailey. She first appears as the first miniboss in “Theatrical Pursuits”. In “Arkham AsylumAntics”, she rides with the Riddler and Two-Face on the latter’s truck. She also appears as a boss at the Gotham Funland entrance.
• Harley Quinn appears in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, voiced by Tara Strong. She has two side-quests in the Hall of Doom, after which she is unlocked as a playable character.
• Harley Quinn is a playable character in Lego Dimensions, with Tara Strong reprising the role.
• Harley Quinn serves as one of the main characters in Lego DC Super-Villains, voiced again by Tara Strong. Her design is based on The New 52.

Batman: Arkham series

Harley Quinn appears in the Batman: Arkham franchise. While Arleen Sorkin reprised her role from the DC Animated Universe in the first installment, she was replaced by Tara Strong for the rest of the series.

• In Batman: Arkham Asylum, she takes control of the eponymous asylum to facilitate the Joker’s escape, and makes subsequent appearances throughout the game; kidnapping Warden Quincy Sharp and Commissioner Gordon, releasing Poison Ivy from her cell, and attempting to kill Batman on the Joker’s orders. After Batman defeats Harley, he locks her up in a vacant cell, where she remains for the rest of the storyline. In this game, Harley wears an original nurse-themed costume.
• In Batman: Arkham City, she continues to work with the Joker within the eponymous city-prison, making several appearances throughout the main story. Following the Joker’s death due to his Titan-inflicted disease, Harley watches in shock as Batman carries his lifeless body outside Arkham City. In this game, Harley wears a biker-girl themed costume, using a low-key version of her usual makeup, with heavy eye shadow in lieu of her domino mask.
  • Harley also appears as the primary antagonist of the Harley Quinn’s Revenge expansion pack, set after the events of the main story, wherein she seeks revenge on Batman for the Joker’s death and manages to capture him, until Robin arrives to rescue him and together they defeat her. By this point, Harley has taken full control of the Joker’s gang, and has a adopted a new look: mostly black clothes, with hair dyed black, a mourning veil, and a “J” necklace.
• Harley Quinn appears in the mobile game Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, set before the events of Arkham City, where she takes a reporter a hostage to ransom her for the Joker’s release from prison. After luring Batman into a trap, she tries to execute the bound and gagged reporter but is stopped by one of Batman’s batarangs.
• Dr. Harleen Quinzel appears in Batman: Arkham Origins, which takes place before her transformation into Harley Quinn. She interviews the Joker at Blackgate Prison and falls in love with him after he confesses his fascination with someone whom he considers special to him (Batman). She later appears amongst the prison’s other staff members held hostage by the Joker when he takes over the facility, but she is rescued by Batman. Quinzel is last seen escorting the Joker to his cell after he is defeated by Batman.
• Harley returns in Batman: Arkham Knight. Still in charge of the remains of the Joker’s gang and vengeful against Batman, she is recruited by the Scarecrow to assist him in his plot to kill the Dark Knight. Harley discovers Batman and Robin’s hideout at the abandoned Panessa Studios, where the two are keeping the victims of the Joker’s blood transfusion who were not affected by the cure under observation. She leads her gang to invade the hideout and release the Joker patients, but is foiled after one of them betrays her and kills the others before committing suicide. Harley is then locked up by Batman in one of the Joker victims’ cells left vacant, where she remains for the rest of the storyline. In this game, she wears a modified version of her Arkham City costume.
  • Apart from the main game, she is a playable character via downloadable content. She was included in her self-titled expansion pack, which also features four challenge maps and a story-driven mission for the character, set shortly before the events of Arkham Knight, wherein she breaks into the Blüdhaven Police Headquarters to free Poison Ivy on Scarecrow’s orders. Harley has several unique gagdets at her disposal, including her baseball bat, explosive jack-in-the-box, and laughing gas, as well as a variant of Detective Mode, called Psychosis Mode, which allows the player to see enemies and objects of interest through walls; when the player keeps Psychosis Mode active for an extended period of time, the character’s Harleen and Harley personas can be heard fighting for control of her body. Harley also appears as a boss in the Batgirl: A Matter of Family DLC mission, set before the events of Arkham Asylum, in which she dons her classic jester costume from the comics.
• Harley appears as a playable character in the mobile game Batman: Arkham Underworld. She is unlocked after the player completes a mission for her, and wields a special pistol, grenades, and a baseball bat. She can also summon her pet hyenas.
• Harley will appear as a playable character in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. In the game, she is part of the Suicide Squad who got the mission to take down Brainiacand Superman who is mentally controlled by him.

Injustice series

• Harley Quinn appears as a playable fighter in Injustice: Gods Among Us, voiced by Tara Strong. In the alternate universe depicted in the game, Quinn establishes the Joker Clan to honor the Clown Prince of Crime after he is murdered by Superman. She is part of Batman’s Insurgency and is tempted in the story to revert to her older ways when an alternate Joker arrives in her dimension until Lex Luthor manages to convince her the Joker is manipulating her for his ends. In her arcade ending, she fatally slits the Joker’s throat after a wedding gone wrong.
• Harley Quinn appears as a playable fighter in Injustice 2, with Tara Strong reprising her role. She is a main character in the single-player campaign, wherein she serves as one of Batman’s most trustworthy allies, and assists him and the other heroes in combating Brainiac and the Society, which includes Poison Ivy. Harley is also shown to have completely overcome her feelings for the Joker after realizing he had been controlling and abusing her for years. In her arcade ending, she is offered a position within the Justice League and admits that she still has violent impulses from time to time, but manages to keep them under control by being heroic and spending time with her daughter Lucy (who believes her to be her aunt, though Harley hopes to tell her the truth someday).

Batman: The Enemy Within

Harley Quinn appears in Batman: The Enemy Within (the sequel to Batman: The Telltale Series), voiced by Laura Post. This version of Dr. Harleen Quinzel was driven insane following her father’s long bout with mental illness and eventual suicide. Attempting to avoid her father’s fate, she joins a criminal organisation called the Pact to steal a virus able to cure her hereditary condition. This depiction initially reverses the dynamic between Harley and the Joker. Quinn manipulates and abuses her former patient at Arkham Asylum, named “John Doe”, who is infatuated with her. As the series progresses, John’s confidence will increase, and depending on the player’s choices, he will either aid Bruce Wayne in capturing Quinn or transform into the traditional version of the Joker. In the latter outcome, Harley will become the Joker’s girlfriend and the two use the virus to threaten Gotham City.

Other appearances

• Harley Quinn appears in Infinite Crisis as a playable character, voiced by Tara Strong.
• Harley Quinn is among the villains summoned by Brainiac to retrieve Starites in Scribblenauts Unmasked.
• Harley Quinn appears as a playable character in the mobile game, Suicide Squad: Special Ops, based on the film.
• She appears as a playable character in DC Legends and DC Unchained.
• In Mortal Kombat 11, Harley Quinn appears as a DLC costume skin for Cassie Cage.
• Harley Quinn is a useable skin in Fortnite.

Novels

Harley Quinn has her own novel adaptation from comics as part of the DC Comic Novels series. Mad Love was released in November 2018 and written by Pat Cardigan and original co-creator Paul Dini and published by Titan Books.

The Refrigerator Monologues

The Refrigerator Monologues is a 2017 novel. Harley Quinn is recast as Pauline Ketch, one of the six women who share their stories in the Hell Hath Club. She is openly contemptuous of the other women, claiming that her “Mr. Punch” (Joker) will rescue her one day. She hates Grimdark (Batman) for what she sees as causing gentrification in Gigonol (Gotham) and the fact that his no-kill rule often leads to lifetime crippling and manslaughter. Pauline started as the neglected daughter of a wealthy man who burned her house and other rich houses to the ground. After being caught by Grimdark, she is incarcerated in Sarkaman Asylum, claiming she only got of prison due to her father’s wealth. There, she becomes fascinated by the comatose Mr. Punch, who has bright yellow hair, red eyes, and is covered in burn scars. Pauline cozies up to a nurse so she can dress in an official and “help out” delivering meds, allowing her to grow closer to Mr. Punch. Pauline pretends to Mr. Punch’s psychologist, and he gives her the nickname “Pretty Paulie.” She starts to give Mr. Punch fewer meds than before (it turns out they never affected him in the first place), before finally revealing she knows Grimdark’s name, having encountered him at society balls in his civilian identity before he captured her.

Satisfied she has Punch’s attention, Pauline reveals her identity and they escape Sarkaman together. Pauline forces Mr. Punch to keep her around as his partner-in-crime by withholding Grimdark’s name, relishing his abuse, and the havoc they wreak. Mr. Punch is unable to have sex with her, possibly because he lusts for Grimdark, requiring them to use an elaborately carved sex toy. When Pauline finally reveals Grimdark’s name, she and Mr. Punch have an enthusiastic night of genuine sex before he drowns him in the bathtub. As she tells her story, Pauline briefly returns to reality and realizes Mr. Punch was only using her, only to escape back into her delusions immediately afterward. However, later on in the story, she is shown to be having a quiet relationship with Bayou (Mera) suggesting that hope is not lost for her.