Harleen Quinzel

"*Say hello to your new and improved Harley Quinn!*"
—Harley to Joker.[src]
Dr. **Harleen Frances Quinzel**, PhD (born July 20, 1990)is a former psychiatrist that worked in Arkham Asylum and acted as the assistant of Hugo Strange, aiding him in his appointments with patients. She is also the girlfriend of The Joker and a close friend of both Poison Ivy and Catwoman. When Indian Hill was falling apart, Harleen ended up betraying Strange and giving information to Batman who in turn, let her go. After being assigned to treat an unnamed patient, later known as The Joker, Harleen fell in love with him and became a criminal alongside him as **Harley Quinn**. She stayed by his side through all of his various crimes, despite his abusive behaviour towards her, even going as far as to be thrown into a vat of chemicals at Ace Chemicals to prove herself to him.

However, during Gotham's No Man's Land incident, after Harley failed to execute his plan, she was kicked out of his gang and joined up with Poison Ivy and Catwoman in the Gotham City Sirens. After the team fell apart, Harley was recaptured and incarcerated in Arkham, however, she was later transferred to Belle Reve to become part of Amanda Waller's Task Force X, taking part in the siege of the Conway Estate, the apprehension of Jillian Conway and the confrontation with the ancient entity, Enchantress. During the chaos, Harley managed to deactivate the nanite explosive placed in her neck and escaped into the night away from Waller.

After months of being MIA, Harley returned with an army of Joker goons by her side, having revealed herself to have been planning Joker's escape from Arkham for several months. Whilst she was offended he had seemingly picked up a replacement, she quickly forgave him and the two ran off together once again for their next plan, assassinating Commissioner Gordon's daughter.

## Biography

### Early Life

Harleen Frances Quinzel was born on July 20, 1990 to Nick and Sharon Quinzel in Brooklyn, New York City. Growing up, Harleen's family was extremely dysfunctional with her father regularly in and out of Blackgate Penitentiary and her brother becoming addicted to drugs. In her late teens, Harleen moved to Gotham City and became a psychology student at Gotham City University and later graduated with a PhD.

### Working Under Hugo Strange

#### Becoming Employed

At some point after graduating, Harleen became interested in Arkham Asylum and eventually managed to obtain a job there as a psychiatrist. During her first few weeks at the Asylum, Harleen became good friends with Dr. Jonathan Crane. Seeing potential in this newcomer, Professor Hugo Strange also gave her a tour of the Asylum's secret underground facility, Indian Hill, which interested Harleen. She then agreed to become his assistant and aided him in his experiments.

#### Working on the Freaks

After the Battle of Gotham, many new inmates were taken into Arkham and some were even transferred down to Indian Hill. As Harleen was helping a guard toss a prisoner into a cell, the guard asked what Professor Strange had planned for the inmates and Harleen simply told him that it was none of his business and went to inform Strange of the new victims.

## Personality

Harleen Quinzel was shown to be a compassionate, kind and naive woman who was influenced by Hugo Strange to aid him in his dirty work. Even though her workplace was a place of horrible experiments, Harleen was not a bad person at heart, unlike her boss, as shown when she couldn't watch Strange experiment on meta-humans and had to leave the room. She also showed compassion toward Poison Ivy by giving her food whilst the Arkham guards planned on stopping her.

After becoming the girlfriend of The Joker, Harleen retained her kind attitude and worry for other people, however, she would still go through with brutal acts on her victims for her boyfriend due to her love for him driving her. Even though she regretted her actions, she still never backed down from a fight with innocents. After Harley had her skin bleached at Ace Chemicals, she fully went over the edge of insanity and her previous feeling of guilt disappeared, creating a new and unapologetic persona. Her regard for human life is heavily overshadowed by her love for Joker, making her completely and utterly loyal to him.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Chemically-Altered Physiology:** After being thrown into the same vat of chemicals as the Joker, Harley's physiology was slightly altered, allowing her immunity from certain poisons and toxins. Her physiology was later altered again by Poison Ivy who granted her immunity to several more poisonous substances in order to allow her access to Ivy's plants.
	+ **Toxic Immunity:** Like her boyfriend, Harley was originally only immune to Joker Toxin and it's effects due to the toxin being created from a mixture of substances from Ace Chemicals, the same plant she was exposed to originally. She was later administered a serum by Poison Ivy that granted her immunity from a plethora of other poisons and toxins.

### Former Powers

* **Meta-Human Physiology:** After Joker was given reality-altering powers by the demon, Neron, he used them to alter Harley's physiology and granted her the meta-human gene, granting her access to a set of newfound powers. Harley's physiology was later returned to normal after Neron's death at the hands of Wonder Woman.
	+ **Cellular Replication:** Harley was granted the power of replicating her own cells at a super-human speed, allowing her to create life-like clones of herself at will. The clones can operate completely on their own and share the same abilities, desires and goals as the original Harley. She is also able to recall the clones back into herself at will.

### Abilities

* **Peak of Human Physical Condition:** Being a former gymnast, Harleen was already in good physical shape and retained remarkable flexibility and coordination. After becoming Harley Quinn and joining Joker's gang, her physical condition was only improved greatly. She is capable of taking multiple targets on in a fight and emerging the victor and is also able to take on grown men twice her size and still come out on top. Furthermore, she was able to fight head-on with Batman, Robin and Batgirl.
	+ **Acrobatics/Free-Running:** With a background in gymnastics, Harley is extremely skilled in acrobatics and regularly uses these skills during her crimes. She appears very coordinated and lightweight and uses her gymnastics to dodge incoming attacks as seen when she used backflips and cartwheels in order to avoid Batgirl.

* **Genius Level Intellect/Expert Tactician:** Even though Harley is regularly seen as a ditsy and even stupid individual, she is in fact remarkably intelligent as she was previously able to achieve a PhD from Gotham City University and then went on to become a skilled psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum. She is also seen as a skilled tactician, being able to carefully plan out attacks for Joker's Gang, something he himself would never give Harley credit for.
	+ **Psychiatry:** Harley was an extremely skilled psychiatrist and, even though she left to become a criminal, she is still remembered as one of Arkham Asylum's most intelligent staff members. She is able to use her skill of psychiatry to read people extremely accurately, regularly using this skill to jokingly give her enemies diagnoses in order to toy with them.

* **Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** Having grown up in a rough neighbourhood during her early life, being trained in self defence classes and then being trained by the Joker's gang, Harley is very well versed in combat. She was able to go toe-to-toe with Batgirl, who had been trained by Batman, by herself and without backup from the Joker. Even when fighting Batman, though she doesn't come out the victor, she is still able to hold her own against his attacks.
	+ **Master Stick-Fighter:** Harley is extremely skilled in the use of blunt stick-based objects during combat. Her main weapon of choice is a glamorised baseball bat that she has shown herself to be extremely dangerous with. She was able to defeat and even hold down Batgirl with the baseball bat and even take down and entire GCPD precinct by herself simply with her baseball bat.

## Equipment

* **Baseball Bat:** Harley's main weapon of choice is a decorated, steel baseball bat that she uses to fight against her enemies.

### Former Equipment

* **Harley Quinn Suit****:** As Harley Quinn, Harleen wore a red and black jester outfit along with a porcelain, white mask in order to hide her identity from her victims. The suit also contains several knives and other weapons holstered onto her thigh and calf. She later discarded of the suit after having her skin bleached at Ace Chemicals.

## Appearances

### *Batman: Anarky*

Season 1
* "Battle for Gotham"

Season 2
* "Fallout"
* "Loyalty"
* "Frost Warning"
* "Lost Love" (mentioned)
* "Abandoned"
* "Fractured Minds"
* "We Are The Freaks"
* "Hello, Junior"
* "Swimming With The Fishes"
* "Bat Family" (mentioned)
* "Welcome To Earth-2"
* "Escape From Earth-2"
* "Metapocalypse"
* "Arkham Has Fallen"

Season 3
* "New Beginnings"
* "Narrows Rising"
* "Born On a Monday"
* "Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body"
* "Eye For an Eye"
* "Jokes On You"
* "Nothing To Fear"
* "Fear of Man"
* "A Bird That Can't Fly"
* "Demons" (mentioned)
* "Batgirl Begins, Part 1" (mentioned)
* "Batgirl Begins, Part 2"
* "Wildcard"
* "Joker's Wild"

Season 4
* "Blood Is Thicker Than Water" (mentioned)
* "Joy of the Holidays"
* "Agencies"
* "Better Half"
* "Order & Chaos" (mentioned)
* "A Tale of Two Sisters"
* "So You Wanna Start a War?"
* "Shadows"

Season 5
* "Crazy Love"
* "The Owls are Watching" (mentioned)
* "Allegiances"
* "Watch Your Back"
* "Girls Night Out"
* "Heritage"
* "Underworld Unleashed, Part 1"
* "Speak Not a Whispered Word"
* "Regrets"
* "Harley & Ivy"
* "The Joke's On You"
* "The Gray Son of Gotham"
* "Sisters Are Forever"
* "Judgement Day, Part 1"
* "Judgement Day, Part 2"

Season 6
* "No Man's Land"
* "Fear the Reaper"
* "Fire and Ice"
* "We Are Legion"
* "Chaos Lives"
* "Enter the Sirens"
* "Gotham in Green"
* "Hope"

Season 7
* "Mad as a Hatter" (mentioned)
* "The Identity Thief" (mentioned)
* "The Laughing Cult" (mentioned)
* "Hush, Hush"

### *Wonder Woman*

#### Season 1

* "Pilot" (name seen)
* "Glass Ceiling, Glass Heart" (photograph)

## Behind the Scenes

* In DC comics, **Dr. Harleen Quinzel**, later known as **Harley Quinn**, is the girlfriend and long time partner in crime of the Joker. In more recent comics, Harley has abandoned her relationship with Joker and either gone out on her own or teamed up with her best friend and love interest, Poison Ivy.