Dr Harleen Quinzel?

[johnnygobbs]

Can anyone explain this character to me?  Everyone says she's stupid, but she's a medical doctor, so I don't see how she could be anything but pretty intelligent.  I can only imagine that she's suppressing her true intelligence when she's hanging out with the Joker, much like Lorelei Ambrosia in Superman 3 (remember her?  Ross Webster's girlfriend.)  I've also heard some people say she cheated her way to her medical degree.  Well, that may be possible with some college degrees, but not with a medical degree.  So my take is that she must be fairly intelligent.

[Catwoman]

she's like me. brilliant but hides it well since it serves her purpose to...for now.

[The Joker]

In the comics, Harley Quinn is described as having a genius-level IQ. So, despite her typical demeanor ... No. She's not dumb.

Harleen attended Gotham State University on a scholarship for gymnastics, where she majored in Psychiatry. To get into the graduate program, she had Dr Markus meet with her in her dorm room (yeah, the same Dr. who she begged to that she would do anything to get an internship at Arkham Asylum), then outlined what she believed would be a good graduate thesis. The basis of which would be 'There are only two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society. When they commit a crime, or when they're in love.'

Upon graduating, and with a glowing reference from Dr Markus, Dr. Quinzel began her first-year residency at Arkham. As soon as she was accepted by Dr. Arkham, she requested to meet the Joker. Claiming she was researching for a book on serial killers, she was allowed complete access. In their first session together, she introduced herself as Dr Harleen Quinzel, though the Joker chose to call her Harley Quinn, referring to the medieval jester, Harlequin. Joker soon after began laughing and asked if she was flirting with him. She moved closer, whereupon he chose to strangle her.

Upon getting a loving look from Harley as he attempted to strangle her, instead of shock or fright, he ceased, stating it was a joke. The pair then began an affair with Quinn helping Joker escape from Arkham numerous times before eventually being caught herself. Needless to say, her medical license was revoked and she was committed to Arkham as well, despite her plea that all of the releases were actually therapeutic.   

[johnnygobbs]

Thanks for the excellent write-up The Joker.  That bio makes a lot of sense.  I always got the impression that Harleen Quinzel was actually rather gifted academically and athletically, despite her apparently 'dumb blonde' Harley Quinn persona.  I also get the impression that she uses this persona as a means of tricking her enemies by causing them to lower their expectations.

Even if she did cheat to get into the graduate program, she still had to have been reasonably bright to manipulate Dr Markus so effectively.

I also think that Harley must have gone through something traumatic in her childhood, or else, be emotionally/ psychiatrically damaged to behave so submissively in The Joker's company.

[The Joker]

I also think that Harley must have gone through something traumatic in her childhood, or else, be emotionally/ psychiatrically damaged to behave so submissively in The Joker's company.

Well, Harley's full blown infatuation with the Joker really occurred in the aftermath of her college boyfriend's death.

As the story goes, Guy (Harley's college boyfriend) invented this a 'Think Drink' that apparently was successful in being able to calm, and center himself. One day Guy came into the dorm, making flirtacious jokes, and wondered why Harley wasn't laughing. She explained she had driven through a red light, whilst driving a stolen car after blackmailing Dr Markus and possibly even shooting him. Hearing this, along with the evidence of a recently fired handgun, made Guy run out with it when she asked if he still loves her. When she found him in the gymnasium (where the 'shooting' took place) she found him laughing nervously standing over a homeless man he had just shot, believing him to be Dr Markus. He begged her to help him shoot himself, asking her to do it because she loved him. The gun went off, though it's unclear in the issue this story takes place (Harley Quinn #8) if she did actually help pull the trigger.

Later, she is found by Dr. Markus sitting alone, in shock, and convinced that everything was caused by chaos and nobody except Guy - and The Joker was on the news at this time after having recently being caught again - knew that. Harley came to the conclusion that only she truly understood Joker.

Stating, "CHAOS. HA HA! You gotta laugh, Doc! I've tried to be in control all my life, but Guy was right! It's all CHAOS! You can't control anything! Best you can do is be the snowball that starts the avalanche! The atom that starts the chain reaction! Guy knew that, and the Joker! The Joker understands that better than ANYONE! He's a genius!"  

Which was followed upon by Harley frantically requesting to meet the Joker, pointing to his image on the screen as she grabbed Dr. Markus by the collar and continued to go on about how they DESERVED one another and so on and so forth. But as fate would have it, it later turned out in the story that Dr Markus had actually spiked Guy's 'Think Drink' with diluted Joker Venom to counteract the stresses that Harley would put him through. With the point being that if Harley had known this at the time, it may have kept her from thinking everything was caused by chaos, but by this point, which was well into her Harley Quinn days, there was no going back for her.

[The Joker]

Here's a cover of the issue detailing Harley's backstory with Guy and Dr. Markus, BTW.

Being a Harley Quinn fan, I have the complete run of her 1st ongoing title. With this issue being definately one of my favourites.

[johnnygobbs]

Sounds like an excellent issue.  Are there any graphic novels that deal with Harley Quinn's back story by any chance?

[The Joker]

The only trade that I know of that goes into her history, is the "Batman: Mad Love and other stories" TPB. Which collects the Batman: Mad Love one shot, and some other stories by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm that feature Two-Face, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and Bat girl.

There is a "Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock Knock Jokes" trade, that deals with the first 6 or 7 issues, but not the aforementioned #8.

[The Dark Knight]

The basis of which would be 'There are only two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society. When they commit a crime, or when they're in love.'

Indeed.

As The Merovingian said: "It is remarkable how similar the pattern of love is to the pattern of insanity."

[phantom stranger]

Having a medical degree (or any advanced degree for that matter) doesn't preclude one from going insane. There are plenty of real-world examples.


Slightly off-topic: I was so excited when Harley was introduced into the regular DC continuity but I was rather disappointed with her debut. First of all, they made her a meta-human. Second, I was so used to her original design that I felt the more realistic depiction of her took away from her charm.