First Episode of Batman the Animated Series With Harley

First Episode of Batman the Animated Series With Harley

Suicide Squad was supposed to show the earth why then many Batman fans honey Harley Quinn, the then-chosen sidekick who's so diabolically magnetic that she well-nigh always manages to overshadow the Joker, who first inspired her to turn to a sordid life of offense.

Instead, both the grapheme andMargot Robbie's energetic performance threaten to be swallowed upwardly past scathing reviews of the film'south nonsensical editing, charges of fierce misogyny, and the seemingly endless argue over what makes a expert superhero movie. It's enough to make even the most die-hard fans dorsum away slowly (and toward a well-stocked bar, if they're lucky).

Information technology's an awful shame that Suicide Squad is so muddled. Merely from where I'one thousand sitting, allowing the movie's many flaws to undercut what should have been a breakout moment for the character is but virtually inexcusable.

Harley Quinn is the best — and I can show it, with but one episode of a drawing.

Harley Quinn's origin story belongs to Batman: The Animated Series

Harley (née Harleen) gives Batman some shit in Arkham Asylum.

Batman: The Animated Serial

Harley Quinn fabricated her first appearance in a Batman universe in 1992, on the mid-'90s TV prove Batman: The Animated Series . In an episode titled "Joker'south Favor," viewers were introduced to Harley equally the Joker'southward enthusiastic sidekick. Later in an episode called "Mad Love," we learned nearly her backstory as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, an aggressive new psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum; by episode's end, she was drawn in by the Joker's diabolical charisma and transformed into his girlfriend-slash-sidekick, a.g.a. Harley Quinn.

The character's flirty chemistry with just about everyone — not to mention Arleen Sorkin'south endearingly squeaky phonation work — chop-chop fabricated Harley a fan favorite. And in the 20 years since she first burst onto the Batman scene, the graphic symbol has handily outlived the series that created her (Batman: The Animated Series ended in 1995) via subsequent comics featuring Harley and the Joker'south twisted adventures, enthusiastic fan cosplay, and nowSuicide Squad.

Just for as much every bit Harley's story is intertwined with the Joker's, her best episode of Batman: The Animated Series by a long shot is one that wrenches away her from his side to embark on a separate take a chance with an entirely unlike iconic Batman villain: the smirking, slinking Poison Ivy.

"Harley and Ivy" lets Harley be her bonkers all-time (with bonus Toxicant Ivy!)

Forty-7 episodes into Batman: The Animated Serial, after being featured in several episodes together, Harley and the Joker suspension upwardly — or at to the lowest degree he kicks her out after a diamond heist gone wrong, blaming her for an entire team's fuck-upwardly, every bit is his wont.

But Harley doesn't permit the Joker'due south rejection get her down, at to the lowest degree non at first. Instead, she marches right dorsum to the scene of the crime to steal the rock herself … and runs straight into Poison Ivy, trying to do the verbal aforementioned thing.

The two cease up escaping from the police together, stolen property safely in tow, and speedily grow shut. Harley's freewheeling mischief perfectly offsets Ivy'south laser-focused brand of villainy, and their ensuing reign of terror over The Animated Series' Gotham is a cute thing to behold.

The pairing won't last; by the end of "Harley and Ivy," Harley returns to the Joker'south side. But even in their brief time together, the women's human relationship runs deep.

Ivy teaches Harley to stick upwardly for herself, which she sure as hell wasn't going to acquire while attached to Joker's hip similar some aye-(wo)human barnacle. As the duo tears around Gotham wreaking havoc, they even take the time to teach a group of drooling frat boy catcallers a lesson they won't presently forget:

And if you lot're feeling permit down by theSuicide Team movie'due south failure to deliver on the whiplash-inducing, empowered, and extremely fun iteration of Harley Quinn information technology promised in its trailers, you can't do much better than that.

And, yes, there are definitely overt references to Harley and Ivy being more only friends. The women lounge effectually Ivy'south apartment wearing oxford shirts and no pants, with Ivy snapping jealously at her new lady whenever she mentions her neon-haired ex.

Harley and Poison Ivy make for an explicitly feminist pairing: In "Harley and Ivy," they proudly boast that they tin can outdo any male villain who might only see them every bit sidekick material (*cough* Joker *cough*), and at one point they even tie upwardly Batman with vacuum and fe cords to protest — equally Ivy puts it — "the symbols of female person domestic slavery!"

These two mean business, and woe betide the man who gets in their way.

Suicide Team didn't need to recreate "Harley and Ivy" (nor could it accept, since Ivy'south not a function of its particular ring of villains). But if it really wanted to accept as much fun with Harley Quinn as its trailers promised it would, the picture could've done a lot worse than allow Robbie's Harley and a languid Ivy tear shit upwardly on a big screen in the supervillain equivalent of a wink and a smirk.

You lot can watch the total episode of "Harley and Ivy" and bask in their wicked glory hither .

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Corrected to reverberate that Harley'south backstory came in "Mad Beloved," not "Joker's Favor."

First Episode of Batman the Animated Series With Harley

Source: https://www.vox.com/2016/8/7/12382880/suicide-squad-harley-quinn-origin-story