Batman: TAS, episode #56: Harley and Ivy

I have many rather mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, it has one of my favorite modern characters of the Batman mythos in Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin.) Despite her origin in this very series as a goofy mascot of The Joker (Mark Hamill, as always), she was so popular that she later went on to appear regularly in the comics and in even later DC productions based on those comics (and this series.) As noted earlier, the version of her that appears in Amazon's Caped Crusader is the best one ever done and carries the inherent appeal of the character into a very realistic rendition. But there's something that simply made the character interesting from the beginning, especially when she's played with the maniacal edge that comes with hanging around the Clown Prince of Crime for too long. OTOH, Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing) has always been one of the "gimmick" villains of the Rogues' Gallery, with nothing that makes her genuinely compelling. In a comics world where the other hero with a regular gallery, the Flash, had opponents like Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Weather Wizard, Ivy filling the "plants" slot of the various natural phenomena villains wasn't especially interesting.

Similarly, the main theme of the episode is female empowerment in this, our misogynist society, which is an obviously laudable goal. It's just that the way it's delivered is so ham-handed that it was likely to have been mocked not only by the young boys watching but by the young girls, as well, for being about as obvious a delivery as could be imagined. Ivy strolling into the Peregrinators Club to be greeted with "Is that a woman?! Here?!" can leave you shaking your head at the archaic tendencies of someone that would react like that... or the person who wrote it, which was Paul Dini, stalwart of the show and not generally prone to not-even-pedestrian lines or plots like this. Oh, and not even effective given that Harley is still devoted to her abusive boyfriend at the end of the show. So, in terms of general mission and the quality of the story, this one is fairly close to the low end of the scale. We also don't delve into the deeper social aspects of the situation, in that the Queens of Crime who are riding high over Gotham are also both depicted as sexpots (i.e. things for men to ogle at and often not respect) in this episode and every other appearance. This is aside from the more Batman-centric aspect to it, in which the girls and young women watching the show are meant to think of standing up for themselves and their rights embodied by two hardened criminals (aka the interesting characters) and not, of course, our hero (or even Batgirl!) So, yeah, a lot of more complicated criticisms of this one can easily be peeled away as you look deeper into it.

One really positive development, however, was that this episode was the initiation for the Harley-Ivy relationship that has since persisted in the aforementioned other media and has become something of a fan-favorite situation. And there were some good moments here. The anti-Batman fridge magnet at Ivy's place was a nice touch, as were the multiple classic film references ("I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!"; Ivy's license player reading "Rosebud", etc.) Not sure what relevance those had to the overall picture, but that's fine. I appreciated Ivy being direct with her own criticism, as well ("Change the record, Harl! You wanna be some wacko's victim the rest of your life?") Similarly, Harley taking care of the obnoxious frat boys in as direct a manner as can be used (boors meet bazooka) was also fun. However, in the end, we come to the conclusion that, despite its trappings, this wasn't really a "Harley 'n Ivy" episode as much as it was a Joker one, since he's the main threat at the end, destroys Ivy's house, almost kills The Batman in the process, only to be rescued by the latter as almost an afterthought while Renee Montoya (Ingrid Oliu) delivers the "I am no man!" moment in arresting our two sideshows. Given that he's the central threat, it's also mildly disappointing to see his mania be subsumed by the typical relationship dynamics of a guy not appreciating (and not listening to) the companion who is always by his side (and I don't mean the hyenas.) On that whole "social responsibility" thing, as well, it was kind of startling how dangerous and violent the high speed chase was that opened the episode and led to Harley getting tossed out by her beau. Not very responsible on the part of the protector of Gotham.

But speaking of Batgirl, she makes her first appearance in the series in next time's episode, Shadow of the Bat, part I.