Now we’re going to analyze the infamous N52 (Harley’s new origin).

Harley had a new origin exposed in suicide squad comic, there are many other origins (I think I counted 5) but the real canon for N52 in the mainstream is suicide squad, this one is crossover with the comic “batman”. So this one is what you can compare to Mad Love (from TV universe) or Batman - Harley Quinn (special in 1999 by paul dini that’s canon for comics before 2011).

Sometimes is like people just ignore the version of Harley’s origin in comics though both were writen by Paul Dini and go back to Mad Love so maybe I should compare both mostly (suicide squad and Mad Love).

Really a good intro, a quote too known maybe but very appropiate.



Ok, so the first thing you notice is that this Dr.Harleen Quinzel is completely different just like that :D I have to say what is more interesting is that the writers were very careful with this story.



-She’s not so young, Harley was almost a university student but in this version she’s older. How older? We don’t know exactly but It looks like classic!Harley was 23-25 and this one 27-30. Curiosity: She’s wearing something intended to be more serious, realistic.

-She’s qualified to treat Joker: in fact some people was annoyed because this Harley was described as a genius. xD (It was metioned after in other chapter) So now she didn’t sleep with her teachers (general public doesn’t enjoy the idea, BTW it was eliminated in the animation) but even when she was a genius It seems she was the poor, hidden kind of genius that suffers injustice. She “worked hard to get where [she] was”

-She’s not so sweet, our Harley despite everything was polite and nice always you could even say delicate, sometimes fine. N52-harley surprisely is tough and someone from …a bad neighbordhood. Her vocabulary is quite different, ruder and she has a temper. They made her accent an important part of the story, they based on that to develop the character, that’s her normal way of speaking where in Mad love she changed her voice and speaking when she became Harley Quinn, we had moments when she spoke with her real voice.

-She didn’t have an interest in being famous: Often Mad Love is considered a story of the horrible problems you can get for ambition. Harley wasn’t the most moral person, in the beginning she wanted to take advantage of Joker’s story writing a book for fame and money. But here this is different new harley didn’t think that, It was someone else (her boss ) that was taking advantage from her study about Joker. So this one wasn’t an unmoral person :O

-She had ethic: In Mad love she fell in love with Joker but went ahead, she continued being his doctor without say a word to anybody else. SuicideSquad!Harley confessed it to her boss.

When you pay attention to details you notice that they put effort trying to build an origin where she didn’t do anything wrong or at least she showed a moral sense.

-Joker didn’t deceive her: In this version Joker didn’t earn her sympathy with lies about an abusive father or tried to seem a victim. Here you can observe the influence of the movie “Dark Knight” cause this Joker used logic facts and despised society because of its corruption O.o If this personality was owned by another Joker before please let me know but I don’t think so.

He gave her a gift and It wasn’t a rose. It was a finger!! O.O, He killed a man who driving drunken killed her father, in their tenth sesion he brought his finger and ring.

Here society failed her again and again. This “gift” was very deeper than flowers and this time he didn’t need her to escape from Arkham, Joker escaped, killed this guy and came back without be noticed. *face palm*

Her relation with her father is clearly a change, unknown in Mad Love (TAS universe) but told in the continuity of Gotham sirens (batman comic universe). There her father was a criminal and a shameless bastard :/

Harleen loved Joker but It wasn’t because he had an extreme personality and she felt attracted to that but she thought “he’s more than that”. We could say she was in love with the good part of Joker. I believe this Dr. Quinzel wasn’t obsesive.



Remembering Harley said:

People think that all we did was bad things all the time but we had down time too and I’d see the real Mr. J not the clown that he wants the world to see but the man I fell crazy in love with…





When the true intentions of her boss were revealed Harleen lost control (not very convincing) and released Joker but after she felt repentant because of the people were hurt. This Dr. Quizel doesn’t have the tolerance for his murderous nature or excused it.



JXHQ fans could think “Mad Love” is more romantic since Harley loved everything about Joker but It was more like she believed he was the good guy and after she lost her mind (we don’t know how that happened ò_ó ). The limits between Dr. Harleen and Harley Quinn aren’t clear in “Mad Love”

Well, It’s very different and I really prefer a sweet and amusing Harley but even when “Mad Love” had a better writing (Dini developed better the story and he had 60 pages to do so, suicide squad had no more than 20) This one wasn’t so bad, then they dropped the ball!



It’s a little creepy but not specially. He calls it “fix” somebody. =_= There are some versions such as “case of study” (batman black and white) that are REALLY creepy.

JxHQ fans hate ths new beginning mainly because of this, she didn’t decide to become Harley Quinn. I’ll say you why: if she had decided to jump into the tank It could be just like a man who take drugs in order to commit a murder but because It was Joker who did it she’s innocent and that’s the thing this beginning was trying to preserve, that “not-evil” status.

It’s true she didn’t wanted to be Harley Quinn but Joker didn’t wanted to be Joker some people for example could argue Joker isn’t evil neither but crazy because of his origin how it was told in “the killing joke” (he was normal and nice before) and they are trying that route here with Harley. It’s not so new, usually Harley can be crazy but can’t be evil. (few exceptions but in last years they have done everything)

Some people prefer a more tragic character (Mad Love) or a best description of how Joker slowly twisted her mind into Harley Quinn (not me) but until today It has never been done…thinking about that maybe it’s cause It isn’t possible It could be like ask them explain how iron man created a new element in his basement xDDDD Mad love didn’t do that or any other material after.

Do you know Joker has used the tanks to melt bodies several times? He has in some comics and the tv show (the man who killed batman) he survived cause the tank was drained.

Well, that was Harley’s origin in n52

