Harley was an accident - a happy accident, it turned out, but an accident nonetheless. Back in the early ‘90s in Batman: The Animated Series, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm introduced a female goon as part of Joker’s entourage who had no name. And then the fans began asking questions like “Is she the Joker’s girlfriend?” so Dini came up with a cutesy name - she was Harley Quinn, like a harlequin - and yes, she was the Joker’s girlfriend. But then people wanted to know more and so Dini came up with the best origin story he could - her original name was improbably Harleen Quinzel and she was a psychiatrist who fell for the Joker’s charms while working at Arkham Asylum. Given how it all just kinda happened, it’s a fine origin so long as you don’t think too hard about it or go into too much detail.
And then Stjepan Sejic did just that. Because, when you look into that off-the-cuff origin even a lil closely? Yeah, it looks as flimsy as it always was. Silly even.
So Harleen is a painfully long - 200+ pages - retelling of Harley Quinn’s silly origin that adds almost nothing to what’s already known while managing to say the same stuff again in a far more laborious fashion.
Here, Dr Harleen Quinzel comes up with some pseudo-scientific guf about how criminals lose their ability to feel empathy - the blurb says something about how crazy crimz adopt madness as a survival mechanism - but really it’s all pointless, dreary bullhonky to get Harley into Arkham. In Arkham, she falls for the Joker and there it is - she’s Harley Quinn!
So how does Harley fall for the Joker’s charms? Sejic shows Harley having trouble sleeping and drinking too much and bizarrely coming to see the criminals as victims of Batman. Also, apparently the Joker’s child-like rants about unfairness in society fascinate her - a highly educated woman. And THAT’S what makes her throw her life away to be Nancy to his Sid? Oh please. It’s so unconvincing. Even if we allow that somehow she tries to over-empathise with the Joker to make up for his lack of empathy, per her cockamamie theory, it doesn’t make sense. Really the only thing that makes sense to me is that she’s a (contrived single) hot chick and he’s a hot guy and their attraction is purely physical. Because everything else Sejic presents doesn’t make a lick of sense. But even then that explanation’s only good for a few tumbles - Harley would then come to and get on with her life, rather than throw it all away for a lifetime of performance artist crime!
But Sejic can draw - I mean, really, he’s a remarkable talent. I’ve been a fan ever since his issues on Rat Queens over at Image, and, even though I didn’t read them because, ugh, Dan Abnett, I picked up his Aquaman books just to stare at his gorgeous art. Whether or not we’re seeing Joker through Harley’s eyes, Sejic’s Joker is the hottest Joker I’ve ever seen - chiselled abs, big - but not too big - shoulders and arms, a rock star swagger, tousled hair, devil-may-care smile. This is Abercrombie and Fitch Joker - that’s why the whole physical attraction thing is the only explanation that makes sense to me. Plus Sejic’s Harley is just Margot Robbie, which is fine with me too, and the fantasy dream sequences looked fantastic.
This book falls under DC’s Black Label imprint, meaning it’s intended for an adult audience (ooo, edgy!), so swears aren’t censored - unless the word fuck is used in a sexual context. When Harley’s accused of fucking her college professor the word “fuck” is censored - later in the book when it’s used as a swear word or the context is violence, it’s not censored. Ah, Americans - fine with graphic violence and anger but sex? Gosh, no, time to get out the belt buckle hats! It’s just a weird detail I noticed.
It’s a shame Sejic isn’t anywhere near as good as a writer as he is an artist. Along with Harley’s dreary origin, Two Face’s origin is also included (as if this crap needed a heftier page count) and a lot of waffle over why Batman doesn’t kill - it’s the same old, same old on both counts. There’s something about a vigilante group of ex-GCPD calling themselves the Executioners. And all of it is told at a plodding place as Sejic overwrites every single page, filling them with his dull, uninspired script. Very simply: this book was hella boring - I mean, really fucking boring. This was a chore to slog through. I read his first Death Sigil book over at Image and it was awful - I didn’t even bother continuing beyond the first few pages of Sunstone as it seemed like more of the same crap. It’s a shame that he hasn’t gotten any better since those days.
Harleen’s not even a good origin - Sejic shows us Harley incongruously falling in love with the Joker but everything else is wrapped up in a page at the end. How did she end up as coconuts as he is? Why does she have the pale skin? Why does she have a mallet? Why does she call Mistah Jay “Puddin’”? It’s literally explained in a single panel at the end - “The laughing gas probably didn’t help”. That’s it?! That’s pathetic. It just underlines how Harley’s origins didn’t need to be expanded on beyond Dini’s original take - because they’re so flimsy and silly! Almost like they were written for a kid’s cartoon...
But that’s what I would recommend over this tedious read - Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s Mad Love, which remains the best Harley and Joker book. This one takes itself way too seriously and completely fails to entertain or enlighten - Harleen is an unimpressive and cheesy romance that doesn’t add anything to the character.
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