So as said in the other thread, DC Black label Harleen #1 written and art by Stjepan Šejić.
It's part 1 of 3 (far as I can tell the whole series will be coming out monthly and then collected). It's a graphic novel in a European softcover format (well sorta, there is no standard European comic format, so this one is a bit shorter than most that I have), so it's larger than standard American comics. 64 pages, no ads whatsoever unless you count issue 2 coming in October at the end.
It's the story of Harleen looking for a grant for her research (with a few flashbacks to her college time and beyond), getting hired at Arkham up to her first interview with the Joker. It's all Harleen before she became Harley Quinn in this issue, so no wacky hi-jinks at all. Just an idealistic young woman, who has made some bad decisions in the past, trying to get a job to prove her theories, but haunted by nightmares.
Spoilers though basically this is all familiar territory for most of us, I guess. Still spoiled for long:
I will be doing my best to sticking to using Harleen for the young Dr. Quinzel and Harley after she has been changed by the Joker/current version, but I may slip from time to time.
In this first issue, Harleen is an idealistic researcher, having done research on American soldiers turning war criminal and is working on a theory about prolonged high stress environments have the fight or flight response overruling empathy till it actually breaks any empathy within a person. She wants to research this further, hoping to find a way to if not cure it, at least predict it/diagnose the early stages and prevent people vulnerable to this behaviour from escalating. Sadly for her, no company seems to think that there is any money in this, so no research money is available.
Harleen is also young (well 30 years by the time the story starts), depressed, single with only 1 friend around (a friend from college who has less scruples but still is a good friend to her). There is the bit with Harleen sleeping with one of her college professors so she has a reputation for sleeping around to raise her grades, but the reputation is unearned: the story establishes that she was already top of the class for the relationship began and that she was just not interested in her fellow students, finding them immature (also one of her later employers points out that she had great grades in *all* classes and they had some of the same teachers (including one crotchety old woman) and knew that Harleen had to put in some real work to pass those classes). Still it was a mistake and she is paying for it, especially as one of the girls that spread the rumours is working at her current place of employment.
After a night drinking with her friend from college, Harleen runs into the Joker and gang stealing weapons. The Joker points his gun at her, but decides not to shoot her (he just thought it was funnier if she would have nightmares for the rest of her life of this moment than the single shot). Batman then arrives on the scene and fights the Joker and the pretty brutal fight is a big part of Harleen's nightmares for the coming months. She does get a bit of good news; Lucius Fox, on behalf of the Wayne Corporation tells her that he believes that her ideas have merit and that Wayne is very interested in ways to reduce crime so she has her money, Wayne has invested in Arkham, so she will have access to Arkham.
So Harleen can go to Arkham to interview criminals to find any that match her theory (quick cameos of a lot of the main Batman rogue gallery including Ivy. Ivy and Harleen don't connect in the one-panel interview, while the original fan comic this thing is based upon is Harley telling this story to Ivy, so if that narrative device was worked in here, I'd have expected some reaction from Harleen to Ivy in the narration. Oh and Ivy is absolutely unqualified for her research; Ivy's problem is not that she lacks empathy, she feels the pain of all plants around her and Harleen taking notes on dead trees does *not* endear her to Ivy. She still has nightmares about her first encounter with the Joker, so she tries to avoid him, but finally decides to look into him. Interviews by other doctors, she realizes that he lies to all of them, displaying a different persona to each of them for his own amusement, but a video of Joker outside a courtroom being accused by the relative of some victim shows her what she believes to be the real Joker and he fits her theory perfectly. Still she does not want to meet him again.
It's only when DA Harvey Dent approaches her and tells her to drop her research, because he thinks it will prove an easy way out for many criminals in Gotham. Harleen is infuriated and fueled by her anger, she finally has worked up the courage to interview the Joker. It seems that the Joker realizes that he can't play the usual games with her as she tells him that she looked through the previous interviews. He asks her to call him Jay and she, thinking that she can control this situation, agrees to call him Mister Jay from now on.
To be continued...
If you read bits of the original fan webcomic by Šejić: this is a complete rewrite/rework, while probably still hitting the same themes (the web comic was mostly short scenes further along in the relationship between Joker and Harley and mostly Harley coming to grips with her mistakes and moving on with Ivy. This first issue is all about establishing who Harleen Quinzel was before meeting the Joker: not a bad person, but haunted by a mistake she made and a traumatic experience and the frustrating experiences she has with her co-workers and the people at Arkham, all building up to her making her greatest mistake.
I really liked it (and I usually care little for Harley (at least the Deadpool-lite version that many current writers have made of her) and even less for the Joker) and am eagerly awaiting the next issues.
Maybe the title should be Harley Quinn and also the Birds of Prey are Here
The screenwriter, Christina Hodson, did an interview where she mentioned the movie started out as a Harley Quinn movie and, per Robbie's request for a female supporting cast, the BoP were brought in after the work had started.
I'm still gonna see it but as someone who was way more excited by Huntress, Black Canary and Montoya, I am getting a bit wary about how much of a team movie this is gonna end up being.
Maybe the title should be Harley Quinn and also the Birds of Prey are Here
The screenwriter, Christina Hodson, did an interview where she mentioned the movie started out as a Harley Quinn movie and, per Robbie's request for a female supporting cast, the BoP were brought in after the work had started.
I'm still gonna see it but as someone who was way more excited by Huntress, Black Canary and Montoya, I am getting a bit wary about how much of a team movie this is gonna end up being.
Yeah this sucks
I'm glad Robbie pushed for a better supporting cast after the last misogynistic shit show she was in
I don't think I can find it now, but if I remember correctly there was a pretty good Twitter thread highlighting the difference in Harley Quinn's costuming between Suicide Squad and what we've seen of this, with the takeaway being "when men dress a woman in a movie vs when she dresses herself"
It sounds like they're using Cassandra Cain in name only
I was excited for the movie but every new piece of info/marketing makes me less and less interested
The trailer hits tomorrow so hopefully that'll be good
Yeah I just read an interview with Winstead where she says Huntress was "raised from birth to be a master assassin and is great at killing but awkward at socializing and everything else"
Which
That's Cassandra Cain! That's her origin! You have her in the movie!
+6
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
It sounds like they're using Cassandra Cain in name only
I was excited for the movie but every new piece of info/marketing makes me less and less interested
The trailer hits tomorrow so hopefully that'll be good
Yeah I just read an interview with Winstead where she says Huntress was "raised from birth to be a master assassin and is great at killing but awkward at socializing and everything else"
Which
That's Cassandra Cain! That's her origin! You have her in the movie!
Although if they were describing each other's character origins, I think that would be pretty funny.
I will find it funny if the references to Joker all use only images drawn specifically to resemble no actor, completely not acknowledging this is supposed to be related to Leto's version
Garlic Breadi'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm aRegistered User, Disagreeableregular
Yeah I'm disappointed in that trailer. I wanted more of the actual Birds of Prey, and I don't understand why they're using Cassandra Cain's name at all
I like the YO FUCK JOKER stuff and Harley striking out on her own is good but man
Just make it a Harley Quinn movie and don't make me think it was gonna be a proper BoP flick
I wouldn’t be surprised if the second trailer is more BOP-heavy to compensate for this first one being Harley-filled
This looks great and I’m gonna see it. Casting Margot as Harley is the one decision I can definitely say I’ve loved from these DC films
Maybe! I am not holding my breath since the screenwriter has said the movie started out as a Harley solo flick and the BoP were brought in due to Robbie's request for a female supporting cast
That combined with the fact that they appear to be using characters names and wildly changing backstories makes me think they aren't gonna be more than secondary players to Harley's lead
Posts
Get that man on LoT immediately
With Brandon Routh leaving this season, he very well could take his place as The Atom
Coran Attack!
I was so annoyed when they inevitably killed him, as they do everyone who isn’t Sam, Dean, or Cas
Those dudes die too. A lot, I thought. They just get to come back.
Ashley Scott, who played Huntress in the terrible Birds of Prey show, is reprising her role for Crisis on Infinite Earths
This makes me so happy.
I have the DVD set for the wonderful terrible show.
I just watched the opening for it on Youtube. How the heck is Huntress 'half-metahuman'? I mean, you either are or aren't.
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
just when i thought i was out
I watched that this morning and it was fucking hilarious
It's part 1 of 3 (far as I can tell the whole series will be coming out monthly and then collected). It's a graphic novel in a European softcover format (well sorta, there is no standard European comic format, so this one is a bit shorter than most that I have), so it's larger than standard American comics. 64 pages, no ads whatsoever unless you count issue 2 coming in October at the end.
It's the story of Harleen looking for a grant for her research (with a few flashbacks to her college time and beyond), getting hired at Arkham up to her first interview with the Joker. It's all Harleen before she became Harley Quinn in this issue, so no wacky hi-jinks at all. Just an idealistic young woman, who has made some bad decisions in the past, trying to get a job to prove her theories, but haunted by nightmares.
Spoilers though basically this is all familiar territory for most of us, I guess. Still spoiled for long:
In this first issue, Harleen is an idealistic researcher, having done research on American soldiers turning war criminal and is working on a theory about prolonged high stress environments have the fight or flight response overruling empathy till it actually breaks any empathy within a person. She wants to research this further, hoping to find a way to if not cure it, at least predict it/diagnose the early stages and prevent people vulnerable to this behaviour from escalating. Sadly for her, no company seems to think that there is any money in this, so no research money is available.
Harleen is also young (well 30 years by the time the story starts), depressed, single with only 1 friend around (a friend from college who has less scruples but still is a good friend to her). There is the bit with Harleen sleeping with one of her college professors so she has a reputation for sleeping around to raise her grades, but the reputation is unearned: the story establishes that she was already top of the class for the relationship began and that she was just not interested in her fellow students, finding them immature (also one of her later employers points out that she had great grades in *all* classes and they had some of the same teachers (including one crotchety old woman) and knew that Harleen had to put in some real work to pass those classes). Still it was a mistake and she is paying for it, especially as one of the girls that spread the rumours is working at her current place of employment.
After a night drinking with her friend from college, Harleen runs into the Joker and gang stealing weapons. The Joker points his gun at her, but decides not to shoot her (he just thought it was funnier if she would have nightmares for the rest of her life of this moment than the single shot). Batman then arrives on the scene and fights the Joker and the pretty brutal fight is a big part of Harleen's nightmares for the coming months. She does get a bit of good news; Lucius Fox, on behalf of the Wayne Corporation tells her that he believes that her ideas have merit and that Wayne is very interested in ways to reduce crime so she has her money, Wayne has invested in Arkham, so she will have access to Arkham.
So Harleen can go to Arkham to interview criminals to find any that match her theory (quick cameos of a lot of the main Batman rogue gallery including Ivy. Ivy and Harleen don't connect in the one-panel interview, while the original fan comic this thing is based upon is Harley telling this story to Ivy, so if that narrative device was worked in here, I'd have expected some reaction from Harleen to Ivy in the narration. Oh and Ivy is absolutely unqualified for her research; Ivy's problem is not that she lacks empathy, she feels the pain of all plants around her and Harleen taking notes on dead trees does *not* endear her to Ivy. She still has nightmares about her first encounter with the Joker, so she tries to avoid him, but finally decides to look into him. Interviews by other doctors, she realizes that he lies to all of them, displaying a different persona to each of them for his own amusement, but a video of Joker outside a courtroom being accused by the relative of some victim shows her what she believes to be the real Joker and he fits her theory perfectly. Still she does not want to meet him again.
It's only when DA Harvey Dent approaches her and tells her to drop her research, because he thinks it will prove an easy way out for many criminals in Gotham. Harleen is infuriated and fueled by her anger, she finally has worked up the courage to interview the Joker. It seems that the Joker realizes that he can't play the usual games with her as she tells him that she looked through the previous interviews. He asks her to call him Jay and she, thinking that she can control this situation, agrees to call him Mister Jay from now on.
To be continued...
If you read bits of the original fan webcomic by Šejić: this is a complete rewrite/rework, while probably still hitting the same themes (the web comic was mostly short scenes further along in the relationship between Joker and Harley and mostly Harley coming to grips with her mistakes and moving on with Ivy. This first issue is all about establishing who Harleen Quinzel was before meeting the Joker: not a bad person, but haunted by a mistake she made and a traumatic experience and the frustrating experiences she has with her co-workers and the people at Arkham, all building up to her making her greatest mistake.
I really liked it (and I usually care little for Harley (at least the Deadpool-lite version that many current writers have made of her) and even less for the Joker) and am eagerly awaiting the next issues.
Steam
The screenwriter, Christina Hodson, did an interview where she mentioned the movie started out as a Harley Quinn movie and, per Robbie's request for a female supporting cast, the BoP were brought in after the work had started.
I'm still gonna see it but as someone who was way more excited by Huntress, Black Canary and Montoya, I am getting a bit wary about how much of a team movie this is gonna end up being.
Yeah this sucks
I'm glad Robbie pushed for a better supporting cast after the last misogynistic shit show she was in
But man I wanna see the teeeeeam
I was excited for the movie but every new piece of info/marketing makes me less and less interested
The trailer hits tomorrow so hopefully that'll be good
Which
That's Cassandra Cain! That's her origin! You have her in the movie!
Although if they were describing each other's character origins, I think that would be pretty funny.
Yeah! She’s the daughter of Batman and Catwoman!
Steam
I like the YO FUCK JOKER stuff and Harley striking out on her own is good but man
Just make it a Harley Quinn movie and don't make me think it was gonna be a proper BoP flick
But it does look like it'll be fun for all the people who do like her portrayal, which is good
I wouldn’t be surprised if the second trailer is more BOP-heavy to compensate for this first one being Harley-filled
This looks great and I’m gonna see it. Casting Margot as Harley is the one decision I can definitely say I’ve loved from these DC films
Steam
Oh well, at least I still have Arrow
That combined with the fact that they appear to be using characters names and wildly changing backstories makes me think they aren't gonna be more than secondary players to Harley's lead