Some Useful Definitions:
DC Universe – One of the “Big Two” fictional universes that, along with Marvel, dominates the realm of comic books and their adaptations. DC’s Earth (the main planetary platform upon which most of the action takes place, with occasional trips to other planets or galaxies) is meant to mimic our Earth. It directly emulates our world in some ways, though there are significant changes in other respects (i.e., the existence of superheroes/villains and a sociopolitical climate informed by their presence). Some famous superheroes and villains in the DC Universe include Batman, the Joker, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, the Justice League, the Riddler, the Penguin, and Lex Luthor.
Batman – Also known as the Dark Knight; a well-known superhero in the DC Universe and the alter ego of billionaire CEO Bruce Wayne. As with many such characters, the crux of his backstory, personality, and costume remain consistent across most adaptations (with slight variations between them). He inherits his parents’ company/wealth after witnessing their murder as a child. This act of violence sparks a series of events that ultimately lead to Wayne’s transformation into the bat-inspired vigilante that patrols Gotham City (a DC Universe analogue to New York City). He often works in tandem with sidekicks (most notably Robin) and the Gotham City Police Department (especially Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon). He uses his extensive corporate resources to fashion high-tech gadgets and tools for himself (e.g., his vehicle the Batmobile) in order to facilitate his crime-fighting.
The Joker – Also known as the Clown Prince of Crime; Batman’s arch-nemesis. His backstory is much more contested than Batman’s, though he is generally regarded as a failed standup comedian who turns to crime in order to support himself and his pregnant wife. Just before his first caper, he learns that his wife and unborn child have died in a freak accident. He is grief-stricken, but continues with the crime after being threatened by his compatriots with retribution should he fail to complete the heist. During the crime (which takes place at an old chemical plant) Batman interrupts him and the comedian, terrified, jumps into a vat of acid. He emerges crazed, with bleached skin and green hair. He believes in chaos above all else, and depending on the adaptation, his antics range from silly pranks and simple robberies or money-making schemes to murder and torture.
Poison Ivy – Also known as Dr. Pamela Isley; one of Batman’s most storied enemies. An eco-terrorist and brilliant botanist throughout her adaptations, she nevertheless has differing origin stories. However, there is a common thread throughout each backstory: Isley’s boyfriend betrays and assaults her with an injection of a rare plant toxin. These injections backfire and instead grant Ivy immunity to all poisons and pathogens. Ivy uses her expertise and immunity to craft toxins that can disable, kill, or hypnotize; one of her favorite weapons is her pheromone-laced lipstick, which she uses to control the mind of any man she kisses. Usually pictured as a shapely redhead in a leaf-covered corset, she often relies on her legendary beauty to ensnare or incapacitate men – and it is for men that she largely reserves her wrath.
Harley Quinn – [A working definition.] Also known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel and the Clown Princess of Crime; usually considered the Joker’s girlfriend and Poison Ivy’s best friend and occasional paramour. She has recently experienced a meteoric rise in exposure and popularity due to her prominent inclusion in Warner Brothers’ Suicide Squad film. She has established herself as a fan favorite, cultivating such a devoted following since her inception in 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series (hereafter Batman: TAS) that the show’s creators incorporated her initial single-episode appearance into an integral series-long residency. She has since emerged as a perennial presence across almost all strata of the DC universe, garnering such audience and critical enthusiasm as to earn her own eponymous comic series and to feature in many more. It should be noted that though she is not the only character currently featured in graphic novels who made her first appearance outside of that realm, she is the most popular example of this typically rare transformation.[1]
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Quinn now appears in virtually all types of media. From television shows to films to comic books to video games to fan art, Quinn is a ubiquitous presence across 25 years of history of the DC Universe. However, as mentioned above, she originated in Batman: TAS, and thus it is this iteration from which all subsequent versions of Quinn take their inspiration. As such, in in this piece, I focus on Batman: TAS, dissecting five of the fundamental personality types that inform her characterization in the television show (and thus influence her portrayals across succeeding adaptations). These facets of her personality can be traced through her evolution across page and screen, and many still consider the children’s show to feature the definitive “version” of Quinn.
There is a dearth of scholarship on this still-young character and her remarkable pop-cultural transmutation. The literature on comic books and their adaptations is already anemic in comparison to other areas of scholarship, and most academic work exploring Quinn’s multifaceted macrocosm is dedicated to psychological, philosophical, and sociological discourses on Batman, the Joker, and the larger universe they cohabit. The non-fan-created works on Quinn generally comprise brief mentions in scholarly journals,[2] with two exceptions: Tosha Taylor’s “Kiss with a Fist: The Gendered Power Struggle of the Joker and Harley Quinn”[3] and Kate Roddy’s “Masochist or Machiavel? Reading Harley Quinn in Canon and Fanon.” However, though compelling and worthwhile additions to the literature, these essays do not focus exclusively on Quinn’s original television show. As such, I attempt to contribute to this gap in the literature by examining Quinn in Batman: TAS as an unlikely proponent of a peculiar phenomenon: the acknowledgment of non-normativity[4] in many of its varied psychosocial configurations.
Indeed, Quinn embodies non-normativities in such disparate ways across so many narratives that her character is altogether impossible to pin down. She is malleable – the stuff of fantasy, seemingly unaccountable to any kind of larger source or authority. This flexibility is perhaps by virtue of her not having debuted in a comic book, but instead in a children’s television show; or perhaps because she was originally conceived as a featured sidekick to the Joker for a single episode before her runaway popularity necessitated her expansion. In this way, rather than fulfill her transient destiny as a one-time henchwoman, Quinn became an essential part of the series – and indeed, the entire Batman mythos. Absent the character codification that storied graphic novel lore affords enduring characters, Quinn’s creators took advantage of a unique opportunity: They crafted a new character sans the pressure to create an individual intended to be compatible with her animated companions in any long-term scale.
In regards to her canonical non-normativities Quinn has, in essence, been used in manners both empowering and exploitative. She simultaneously encompasses various identities to which historically disenfranchised consumers can relate while falling victim to certain tropes that misrepresent the very communities for which she could serve as an icon of visibility. As a result of her multiple manifestations, she embodies everything and nothing simultaneously, instead serving as a tool through which writers and illustrators can project their particular (a)political, philosophical, and/or aesthetic bent. As such, her character becomes an ambiguously political agent. The elusiveness of her past lends her present a temporal, narrative, and ideological flexibility. In this way, her present and all that it encompasses – her personality, her relationship status, her degree of autonomy, her relative villainous or (anti)heroic tendencies, etc. – is almost entirely open to the writers’ and illustrators’ interpretations and ideas. Quinn becomes a narrative tool, with aspects of her psyche and her story deployed and rescinded at will as dependent upon the inclination of the present arbiters of both her figurative and literal image (i.e., writers, illustrators, and the like).[5] The ideological or political predilections of the creators (or the dearth/unawareness thereof) thus likely play a large role in crafting each Quinn iteration’s psychobiography, choices, etc.
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[1] Though no definitive sources exist that record these measures, the top six articles found following Google searches similar to “comic book characters that originated outside of comics” rank Quinn as the top example of this unique phenomenon as a result of her popularity and/or current ubiquity (see “Comic Book Characters That Debuted Outside Comics;” Conley; Godfrey; Paul; Paur; and Siegal, Lucas, and Marston). For further reading on the principles of canonicity in the domain of graphic novels, see Cook.
[2] See Cook and Crippa & Hallack.
[3] It should be noted that even this article appears in the context of a larger book otherwise devoted to the Joker (see Taylor, “Kiss with a Fist…”)
[4] “Non-normativity” refers to that which exists in opposition to the “normative,” which supports or perpetuates dominant norms, narratives, identities, or dynamics (i.e., in the way that “heteronormativity” is the privileging of heterosexual – and thus, heterosocial – institutions, relations, modes of behavior, and ways of being so as to maintain an understanding of the false equivalency of “normative” with “normal”).
[5] Indeed, her costume could be counted as a facet of her character that reflects her choices and preferences, for it has evolved so often and so drastically across her larger transmutative process. It varies widely in its relative measure of “provocativeness” (i.e. amount of skin bared), which also influences its degree of practicality as activewear. (This “sexy versus practical” debate afflicts almost all discussions of female costumes in graphic novels.)