'Harley Quinn' shows that Gotham is ridiculous and it's about time that is acknowledged
We’ve had a lot of takes on Gotham City over the years - it’s a city that’s been the source of almost as much fascination as Batman himself. It tends to be portrayed as the darkest city in the DC Universe, home to the most twisted criminals imaginable. It’s also home, however, to the Polka Dot Man, the Condiment King, TWO Alice in Wonderland-themed villains, and Kite Man (hell yeah). Batman himself keeps a giant penny and a robotic T-Rex in his cave. To borrow a sentiment voiced regularly by the Joker, why is everyone taking Gotham so seriously?
‘Harley Quinn’ certainly doesn’t - and it’s about time.
Ridiculousness has been deeply embedded into the Batman mythos in a way that is hard to ignore, despite the attempts of every grim, gritty new Batman revamp to do just that. Granted, this was true of all comics, especially just after World War II, where comics were made brighter and more fun to appeal to a younger audience. Somehow, though, in a comics universe that included an all-powerful alien, speedsters, and space cops, Batman consistently had the most imaginatively outlandish villains of them all. Batman himself was not exempt from this, as he adopted equally outlandish ways of fighting back - like donning the zebra-striped version of his costume, to pick one example out of many.
The campy nature of the Batman stories would attach itself permanently to the character with the live-action series starring Adam West. The show was wildly popular and fantastically silly - it embedded itself in public consciousness in a way that still lasts to this day. Like it or not, Batman made his name on just that silliness. Many of the best Gotham-centric portrayals have worked so well because of the way they managed to balance that silliness with the city’s dark, gothic nature. The was done most famously in ‘Batman: The Animated Series.’ The series that introduced Harley Quinn herself.
Harley Quinn has shown up in a lot of different kinds of Batman stories, and one thing’s been made clear - a wacky character in a dark, gritty universe has no room to grow. Her wackiness comes off as simple insanity - entertaining insanity, perhaps, but she’s not given a lot of room for growth. In a world where whose silliness is acknowledged, however - even celebrated - the character finally has room for nuance. We get to see that Harley isn’t outright crazy so much as a person who calls out Gotham for what it is - an inherently absurd place, with absurd people.
It’s endlessly entertaining to see all of it finally being called out - and it’s not just Gotham being put in the show’s crosshairs. The show opens on a boatful of rich, white men literally toasting a large pile of money they got from exploiting the poor. Harley Quinn lives in a ridiculous world, and being able to point that out is the best way to show that she’s more than just a wacky face. She’s out there, smashing preconceived notions with a baseball bat and asking the important questions. Like whether or not Batman sleeps with bats.
The next episode of ‘Harley Quinn’ airs on December 6, on DC Universe.