PART THREE: GEORGE AND GRACIE FROM HELL*

The Batman Adventures Annual #1

A very simple four-page short, this cute little comic covers “a day in the life of Harley Quinn”, called ’24-Hours”. Once again, Harley is established as having responsibility and active participation in the relationship. Alfred refers to her as a “chronic offender who only has herself to blame’.

We see Harley, rehabilitated and leaving Arkham, walking to a place with rooms to rent only for Joker to honk at her from a passing car. Without a moment’s hesitation she jumps into the car and goes on a crime spree with him, ending up back in Arkham by the next morning.

Interesting to note that once again, when Joker has the option of being rid of Harley for good, he doesn’t take it, instead immediately seeking her out. So much for not acknowledging her. Also interesting to note just how easily and willingly Harley returns to her life of crime. Typically, Harley is caught because Joker tosses her at Batman in order to get away. A common feature - and one that I want to discuss in a little more depth in future, though I’m not sure this is the right spot to do it in.

 
Trial

Here’s where things started to get a little different. Harley is still depicted as Joker’s adoring slave, but the D/s has more power-exchange to it now. Upon revelation that Joker ‘finked’ on Harley in hopes of time off, Joker visibly cringes and Harley leaps on him, calling him all sorts of names. Is that something the Harley of Harley & Ivy or Mad Love would’ve done? Never in a million years. Things have really moved up to the next level here. Even more interesting is Joker clearly doesn’t want Harley’s rage directed at him. He even seems – dare I say it – anxious about it. The Mighty Joker!

And later in that same episode, when Harley is strung upside down in a strait-jacket and Joker is blazing away with a machine gun trying to get Batman, he narrowly misses Harley, who glares at him. Joker’s response is to look sheepish. This when, a moment ago in response to Scarface’s ‘look out, you’ll hit Croc!’, Joker merely said ‘What’s your point?’.
He might’ve shot Harley here - and how can Harley retaliate when she’s dead? Nonetheless Joker stops and looks apologetic.

Despite this, he is still clearly holding the reins in the relationship, letting himself be stroked and petted, lying across Harley’s lap (and looking very pleased about it too), blowing his adoring girl a kiss, and petting her on the head a little later to her obvious delight. Joker doesn’t seem so reluctant to be in the relationship anymore.

The marvellous zhinxy points out too that Harley is the one wearing the utility belt (heh). Let us all take a moment to reflect on the significance of the utility belt.
 And Joker's allowing Harls to wear it and be in charge of it. That's a pretty huge step right there. Think about it. They captured Batman, and, as we see, Joker's pretty much running the show. His belt would've been confiscated almost immediately. It's reasonable to assume Joker, Harley or Ivy removed the belt, which means Harley put it on or was given it by one of the two. That Joker has either given it to her or permits her to continue wearing it indicates a high level of trust and also positions her highly within the ranks of the various villains.

   

Harlequinade

We see Joker and Harley together only at the end of this relationship, although there’s several interesting insights into their relationship, from Harley’s perspective, along the way.

Joker is stunned to see Harley suddenly show up at the end, and then delighted, clearly impressed by her resourcefulness (not to mention helpfulness in thwarting the Dynamic Duo in thwarting him).

Remembering that Joker operates on an entirely different emotional level to the rest of humanity, I see his intention to leave Harley behind not as deliberate malicious intent, but just sheer disregard. Because his emotions work in such a different way, I do think that even though he loves her he could easily kill her and not regret it, even if he did ultimately miss her. I’m not condoning this or saying it’s healthy or right, but Joker is a psychopath so I’m not sure what anyone really expects from him.

Now that she’s there, instead of just putting a bullet through her brain, he is quite happy to take her along with him, cheerfully carrying her off to the plane. There is always the very easy solution, if Joker doesn’t want her there, and that’s to simply kill her, especially as he’s planning to wipe out the whole city anyway. Yes, he was going to leave her behind, I say again this was not deliberate intent, but part of the joke as a whole. She’s there now and if he really wanted her gone, it’s a simple matter. Instead he intends to take her along with him.

The disagreement comes when Harley wants to pick up their friends. Joker doesn’t care about the rest, so that’s hardly a concern for him, and he is slighted and furious when Harley belts him and runs off. But Harley’s ability to assert herself steps forward again and she almost single-handedly thwarts Joker herself and then prepares to blow his brains out.

When the gun turns out to be a trick one, we see her turn back into submissive, sheepish, Harley and Joker, who once again has the option of writing her off or belting her, seems actually impressed at her moxie and welcomes her into his arms for what is a truly loving embrace. He leans into her and shuts his eyes.

The relationship is a volatile one - from both sides. And here we clearly see Harley’s ability to assert herself when she really feels she needs to.




This brings us to the end of Part Three. As we can see, it's around this time that Harley started sticking up for herself a bit more and giving a bit of her own back, something she was to continue to increasingly do throughout the rest of the series. Joker himself seems to have adjusted to this strange state of affairs and has come to terms with the fact that's he's no longer flying solo - more or less.