Return to Gotham: It Was Always “Harley and Ivy”
At 30, Batman the Animated Series' most important original character is finally out and proud.
Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation
Editor’s Note: This year, the iconic Batman: The Animated Series turns 30 years old. “Return to Gotham” is a monthly column looking back at the cartoon that remains a touchstone of the superhero genre and one of the most iconic portrayals of The Dark Knight.
Batman: The Animated Series is famous for its Batman and its Joker, for its total reimagining of villains like Mr. Freeze, and for kicking off the longest continuity of DC characters outside of the comics themselves. And yet, one of its most important contributions might only have happened because head writer Paul Dini happened to have seen an episode of Days of Our Lives in which his friend Arleen Sorkin starred as a jester. Suddenly, he had inspiration for one of the Joker’s goons.
It’s hard to know what characters are going to stick with people—if cartoon or comic writers knew that kind of thing for sure, the world would have quite a bit fewer Scrappy Doos in it. I’m not saying I know exactly what it is that made Harley Quinn an instant hit, but whatever it is sure isn’t generational. One of my daughters watched “Harley and Ivy” on repeat for about a week before dressing as Harley for Halloween. The legions of cosplayers out there dressing as her are certainly not all geriatric millennials like me. Surely there must be something about her character that has struck a chord with fans. Some itch the accented, acrobatic, less-ditzy-than-she-pretends licensed criminal psychologist and former squeeze of the Joker is happy to scratch. Or maybe some fans see something of themselves in her that they barely ever see in other superhero-themed fare.
Whatever that could possibly be, it was there all along. Harley’s 30 now—that’s three years older than the character of Batman (b. 1939) was when Adam West portrayed him for the very first time in 1966. She couldn’t ask for a glitzier Big 3-0, with Season 3 of Harley Quinn releasing on HBO Max today. What’s so exciting about the show (besides the fact it features some of the most interesting Batman storytelling in years in a tight 10 episodes) is that it feels like somebody is finally using the character to her full potential, bringing to fruition subtext and character traits that were there from the get-go.
Harley Quinn’s third season begins where the last left off, after Harley (Kaley Cuoco, who shares executive producer duties on the show) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell, armed with bone-dry line deliveries deadlier than her plant magic) declared their love for each other and rode off into the sunset. We rejoin them on what they have dubbed their “Eat Bang Kill Tour.” The very first gag is a bait-and-switch meant as a middle finger to those hoping for maximum exploitation. The Fortress of Solitude is trashed and Queen Elizabeth II is dumped out the side of an airplane in the first three minutes. The season goes on to portray the ups and downs of Harley and Ivy’s relationship amid the same kind of barriers we all occasionally face in trying to be with our significant others: Work, big career and life moves that call into question their compatibility as partners, hordes of man-eating plant zombies.
It feels like a new spin on the character. But the thing is, every inspired character turn in the show follows naturally from what we already knew about her. Harley Quinn—a show with a late-season episode that hinges entirely on the crucial detail that Harley is a clinical psychologist—is just picking up what the creators of Batman: The Animated Series put down back in 1992.
Yes, even her preference for redheaded eco-sorceresses.
After a disastrous run-in with his archenemy, the Joker is less than thrilled with Harley. Their spat sees her decide to go independent, but her heist gets tangled up with another one already in progress, courtesy of Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing). The two become fast friends when the fuzz show up, and soon discover in one another something they’ve never had before: A gal pal to go do crime with.