Warning: Spoilers for Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #3 ahead!
Harley Quinn has come a long way since her debut as the Joker’s girlfriend and henchwoman. Her growth is driven home by a powerful dream sequence that pits modern-Harley’s sensibilities against her very first encounter with the Joker — and this time, the Clown Prince of Crime is no match for her.
Chris Condon, Jacob Phillips, and Steve Wands’ masterful story “Stacked Deck” from Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #3 revisits the fateful moment in which Dr. Harleen Quinzel requests a meeting with the Joker, hoping to write a tell-all book to profit off his name. This time, however, Harleen ends up running late; when she arrives, she discovers that her supervisor, Dr. Joan Leland, has run the meeting in her stead and has been horribly injured by the Joker as a result.
Traumatized, Harleen flees to Central City, practicing her skills on the Flash’s Rogues. When she comes back to Gotham to gain closure with the Joker, he tries to sell her on a sob story; older and wiser, Harleen doesn’t buy it and dismisses The Joker as just another narcissistic psychopath. She leaves triumphant as the Joker fumes in defeat — only for her to wake up in her classic mask beside “Mr. J,” revealing that it was all a dream sequence.
Harley Quinn’s Origins Finally Get a Contemporary Revamp
“Stacked Deck” pays heavy homage to Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Rick Taylor, and Tim Harkins’ one-shot The Batman Adventures: Mad Love #1, which tells the tale of how psychologist Harleen Quinzel became the Joker-obsessed Harley Quinn. Later adapted into the eponymous Batman: The Animated Series episode, Mad Love also marks the debut of Dr. Leland as Harley’s Arkham supervisor. “Stacked Deck” also quotes the one-shot word for word when the Joker tries to play upon young Harleen’s sympathy, telling her, “you know, my father used to beat me up pretty bad…there was only one time I ever saw dad really happy.” In the climax of Mad Love, Batman reveals to a crestfallen Harley that this story isn’t a mark of the Joker’s trust in her; rather, he has instead told dozens of permutations of that story to as many psychologists in order to manipulate them.
“Stacked Deck” completely flips the script. By the time Harley returns to work with the Joker as her modern-age self, he can no longer manipulate her. Rather than needing a clear-headed Batman to tell her the truth, Harley figures out the Joker’s games in an instant before going one step further in order to completely write him off. By placing modern-day Harley in a version of her original origin, readers see her completely dismantle and humiliate the Joker with just a few well-placed words, showing that, as she’s depicted now, he’s no match for Harley Quinn.
Harley Quinn’s Growth Deserves to Be Celebrated
Having modern versions of heroes confront their origin stories is an excellent way to measure how the character has grown and changed over time. Harley has long outgrown being the Joker’s dupe, but placing her contemporary self back in her old origin story reveals just how sharp she truly is. Knowing how tragically that first meeting plays out, it’s incredibly cathartic to see Harley Quinn rewrite the story into an effortless triumph over her greatest tormentor, reaffirming that she’s always been greater than the circumstances that created her.
Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #3 is available now from DC Comics.
