Harleen #3 (of 3) is published by DC Comics under their Black Label imprint. It is written and illustrated by Stjepan Sejic.
In the finale of Stjepan Sejic’s three-party story about the history of Harley Quinn’s spiral to insanity, Dr. Harleen Quinzel finally takes the last step into the Joker’s world. We all knew she would end up here but watching this re-telling play out is still incredibly emotional and captivating.
I want to preface this and say, this can be hard to read if you have suffered from an abusive relationship. Watching someone get manipulated by a psychopath is hard to do, especially if you’ve actually been there. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship for a number of years, so I relate to Harley Quinn on a number of levels and love her character dearly, it’s not easy to read but at the same time, I feel like it needs to be read. Seeing it from outside eyes is such a weird feeling, it can bring back unpleasant memories, but for me, it was a reminder of how real this kind of thing is – of how easily a good person can be swept away into madness with this idea that “I can save them”.
That being said, read this comic and review at your own discretion.
This review will contain spoilers.
We start off with Dr. Quinzel wracking her brain of how this could be happening. How could she fall in love with a patient, with someone who almost killed her, who someone who has murdered so many people and is considered to be incredibly dangerous and deranged? How could she have worked so hard, come so far, and not been able to save him? No, it’s not that she can’t save him – she just hasn’t yet, but she will, because she’s different than the other doctors. That’s what she tells herself.
We all know the Joker is feeding her bullshit. We know because this is the Joker. Yet here he is, basically regurgitating her own theories on psychology back to her, here he is, “choosing” to “open up” to her. A clever Joker ploy that we and Batman are all too familiar with. Bruce even discovers Joker read Harleen’s papers on criminal psychology, and poor Harleen was so swept up in her own validation she didn’t even consider he could have read her work and told her exactly what she wanted to hear. While the Joker is insane and thrives on chaos, he isn’t an idiot, and he’s incredibly cunning with well thought out plans, as we have learned most sociopaths are.
He studied her and became the ideal patient, the ideal human for her to do anything for, including murder. Which she does, and that’s when Harleen Quinzel snaps and Harley Quinn is born. As madness swirls around her, she embraces it, and as bodies pile up, she laughs, and Joker laughs alongside her.
There’s some comfort to be had at the end of this tragic story. We see Harley Quinn as we know her, in her costume, staring at the Bat Signal glowing above Gotham. Our beacon of hope, shining a light on Harley that she doesn’t understand yet, but we can take solace in knowing that she’ll get there. Sejic’s story of Harley really hit home for me in a lot of ways. I can’t speak for anyone else, but as someone who’s been gripped by a madness (in my case, depression) Batman was my comfort. He was there for me, he understood me, and he gave me strength. That’s the feeling super heroes give us and that’s the special reminder Stjepan Sejic gives us at the end of his sad story.
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5 / 10
Make sure you pick up a copy of Harleen #3 from your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
