Gotham Doesn’t Need Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn has, in the 25 years since she was introduced, has skyrocketed to mainstream fame, passing many of her much older peers. DC has even called her the “fourth pillar,” acknowledging her as one of their main earners. And she is, that’s indisputable. People expect Harley from DC’s major events. She’s a mainstay of their ongoings, and her variant covers and cameos draw a high price.
So, it tracks that ever since Jerome Valeska was introduced on Gotham as our obvious Joker, fans have been theorizing about how, and when, Harley would be introduced.
For a while, Barbara Keane, Jim Gordon’s ex-fiance and sometimes crime boss, was theorists favorite for the part. She acted as Jerome’s “lovely assistant,” and, like Harley, her sanity is often called into question.
Personally, I’ve never liked this idea. Making Barbara into Harley would remove major parts of Harley’s backstory, as well as discounting, and probably ruining, a perfectly good character. Barbara’s strong, smart, and as of the most recent episode, one of the most powerful people in the world.
Other theories suggest that Lee, another ex-fiance of Jim’s, will become Harley. Others suggest that the little girl Bruce saved in the season 3 finale will grow up to be her.
Basically, if she’s a principal character, or a kid, she could be Harley. I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything about Sofia Falcone.
The thing is, though, that Gotham doesn’t need Harley. In fact, it’s doing just fine without her.
Gotham is one of my favorite currently airing television shows. It’s beautifully shot, directed and designed. The casting, for the most part, has been stellar, and it draws on it’s source material, all 80 years of it, beautifully.
It’s spinning a wonderful history for Gotham, specifically focusing on how the city factors into the creation of Batman. It’s creating a bold psychological profile of a city and its inhabitants.
It’s everything I, as a longtime Batman fan, have been looking for.
In my opinion, at least, adding Harley would bring unnecessary camp to a show that balances it’s campiness with it’s seriousness perfectly. Besides that, it’s too early to introduce Harley in a way that would benefit the character.
Introducing Harley now, before the Joker’s even come into his own, would change her backstory dramatically, and, as much as I hate it, that’s what makes her great. The journey her character’s been on, overcoming all of the adversary, has made her a pop culture staple. If they wanted to introduce her and keep any of the integrity of her story, she’d either have to be introduced as a child or as an adult, older than Jerome, Bruce, and Selina. They’d have to take away, or omit, major parts of who she is to fit her in. It would add nothing to the overall character of Harley, and even if Gotham is an Elseworld, those have a long history of leaking into continuity.
It’s not so much that Gotham doesn’t need Harley, but that Harley doesn’t need Gotham.
They’re both perfectly good parts of the DC Universe, and they can coexist, without falling victim to unnecessary fanservice.