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Harley Quinn Debuts Her Ultimate Power (That Not Even Kryptonians Have)

In Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder, Harley's power level is way above any other DC character - because she knows she's a DC character.


SUMMARY

  • Harley Quinn's popularity has led to her being used in various mediums and portrayed in different ways, which can sometimes make it feel like DC doesn't know what to do with her.

  • Despite not having a defined core, Harley's many permutations make her a fleshed-out character with depth and complexity, rather than just a gimmick.

  • Harley's meta superpower, the ability to break the fourth wall and be aware of her narrative, is a defining aspect of her character that sets her apart and gives her an incredible advantage.

Harley Quinn has proven to be one of DC Comics' MVPs, despite premiering as a henchman in a kids' cartoon. She's maybe even getting stretched a little thin with all of her appearances in comics, video games, live action movies, and more animated series. In the latest issue of Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder, she has an existential crisis about her role in the whole DC Universe, leading her to reveal a power that is all her own.

In "Harleys All the Way Down" by writer/artist Bruno Redondo, letterer Wes Abbot, and editor Andrea Shea, Harley has a fourth wall-breaking (and panel-jumping) monologue, wondering about her place in the multiverse. Even across different media, some things never change about characters: Batman is a traumatized rich guy, Flash is really fast, Aquaman talks to fish. Harley, however, is so popular that she's used everywhere, and changed to be whatever a creator needs her to do.


This irreverence towards the narrative is one of her basic character traits. As this story shows, it also comes with a superpower that no other leading DC character right now can wield - meta.

Harley's Malleability Is Her Character's Superpower

When a character can be anything, sometimes that means there's nothing at the core. As she rightfully suggests, it can feel like DC doesn't know what to do with Harley Quinn. The same thing that makes Black + White + Redder a fun series also shows this problem: within the pages of the anthology, Harley has been turned into a bombshell, a teen gymnast, a medieval spirit of vengeance, a mentor to tween sidekicks, and an old woman watching soaps. To both the reader - and in this story, Harley - there are no anchors that define what makes any given iteration only Harley Quinn, and not just a funny woman with a clown aesthetic.

However, her many permutations mean her canon gets explored a lot more than an origin story. She takes not having "one" thing to be bad, but it also means she's such a fleshed-out character that she's more than just a gimmick. She's a doctor, she's sexy, she's funny, she's got some mental health issues, she's loving, she's violent, and she's really into makeup. In the story, Harley thinks she's being re-written every time someone wants to use her, but another way of looking at it means she's so multi-faceted that she fits into the narrative, whether it's a kids' cartoon, a violent video game, an R-Rated live action movie, or an all-ages comic. Her knowledge of her narrative is what gives her power.

This Meta Superpower Should Be Harley Quinn's Defining "Thing"

Harley isn't the first character to break the fourth wall and acknowledge she's in someone else's story. She-Hulk and Howard the Duck over at Marvel frequently popped out of their panels and spoke to the audience; Grant Morrison and Chas Truog's run on Animal Man set the bar high for a superhero to interrogate their narrative. However, Harley's runaway popularity means that when she asks these questions, there are a lot of people across all media listening. Here, Harley uses her knowledge of the comic panel format to drive the explosive robot dodo (beyond the meta-narrative, the actual narrative is also quite funny) from downtown Gotham directly into the villain's lair as it explodes.

In her desire to have something that defines her, this power would be an incredible boon. Assurance that wherever she appears, Harley knows that she's a character and there are rules to whatever genre is happening around her would cement her defining role in DC Comics. The video game Undertale garnered praise for its boss fights with bosses who know they're in a video game; fighting a Harley Quinn in a Batman game who can save scum or clip out of bounds when the player is about to beat her would make for an ultimate boss fight. Margot Robbie's future in the films as Harley is up in the air, but Barbie showed she knows how to wink at the audience. Harley Quinn has had two decades as a sexy clown; her future should be totally in her hands.

Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder #6 is available now from DC Comics.