Warning! Spoilers ahead for Batman #99
Harley Quinn is done with the Joker being alive. Period. If the Joker War has shown her anything, it’s that it’s time for the Clown Prince of Crime’s story to end. It seems as though the former girlfriend of the Joker feels a certain degree of responsibility for Joker’s latest attack on Gotham, feeling as though she should have ended him a long time ago. While Batman might disagree, Harley’s not really giving him much of a choice in the matter in the pages of Batman #99.
Thus far in the Joker War, Harley has no doubt been on the side of the Bats, saving Batman from certain death not once, but twice during the war, most notably after the Dark Knight had been injected by Punchline’s new blend of Joker toxin, rocking him to his very core. Quinn went even further, protecting Batman when Punchline tried to finish the job while he was incapacitated, flushing out the toxin with a tea from Poison Ivy’s garden, made courtesy of Quinn herself to boot. If not for Harley Quinn, Batman would have been dead already.
Now, Batman #99 from James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles reveals why Harley’s been so intent on saving Batman. It’s largely because she thought that Batman was finally on board with making sure that Joker’s story ended permanently. When she sees evidence to the contrary, and that Batman might simply just bring Joker in if he defeats him, she’s not having it. She tells Batman that Joker will always one-up himself if he’s allowed to live. What would be the next step after the chaos he’s wrought in the Joker War? Therefore, she makes Batman a deal.
Batman declines, unable to allow that sort of action to be taken. He can’t take a life, nor let someone be killed. However, Harley isn’t letting him say no, unless he puts her down hard and beats her so bad she can’t get back up to kill Joker. She tells Batman that the story has to change and must end. In response, Batman turns to face Joker without fighting her, the implication being made that Harley’s words have an effect on him. As a result, Harley will be the permanent backup if Batman fails and dies by Joker’s hand. It could also mean that Batman himself may actually create an exception and kill the Joker himself, considering all of the horrors and deaths he’s caused.
Harley makes an extremely good point. Taking a look a the entire scope of Joker War, Batman’s arch-foe has stolen all of Bruce Wayne’s money and assets, retrofitted all of his tech and turned them into deadly weapons to cause terror and set the city of fire, tormented his allies, dug up all his dead victims and turned them into jokerized zombies (including Alfred), and pushed both Batman and Bruce Wayne to his very limits. If Joker lives, what horrors would he come up with to top all of that? What would be bigger? How could Batman allow that? However the Joker War ends with the upcoming Batman #100, it will be extremely interesting to see what Harley Quinn does, let alone Batman himself.
