That Time Harley Quinn Tried to Make Joker Jealous By Kissing…Batman!?

I Love Ya But You’re Strange is a feature that spotlights strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Today, we look at how Harley Quinn tried to get Joker out of a funk by trying to make him jealous by kissing…Batman!?!

As most comic book fans know by now, Harley Quinn was introduced in an early episode of Batman: The Animated Seriesas essentially a cameo role, just a henchwoman of the Joker’s to be used for a gag or two, and instead, she was so well-received (and the late, great Arleen Sorkin played her so well) that the character kept coming back and became an important supporting character on the series, primarily as Joker’s “Gal Friday,” but eventually as a character on her own.

For years, Harley Quinn was framed against her insane love for the Joker, but that abusive relationship has long been abandoned from the comic books, but while that was certainly a welcome development for Harley Quinn in terms of the development of her character (her romance with Poison Ivy, long hinted at in the cartoons, but only eventually allowed to blossom – pun somehow unintended – in more recent years, was also a significant factor in her development), the twisted original dynamic between Harley Quinn and the Joker still led to some interesting stories, with Mad Love being likely the most famous example (a twisted story that also served as Harley’s origin tale). One of the interesting stories that used the messed-up Joker/Harley dynamic to good effect was “My Boyfriend’s Back,” from 2003’s Batman Adventures #3 (by Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett and Terry Beatty, along with colorist Lee Loughridge and letterer Phil Felix), where Harley has to suddenly deal with a Joker who is TOO into her!

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What made the Joker such a lovesick fool?

The story opens with a Joker who has finally been given so much shock therapy, aversion therapy, drug therapy, group therapy, and drug therapy that he has finally “snapped” and become…a docile, lovesick fool for Harley! The problem is that now that Harley has broken him out of Arkham Asylum again, she isn’t attracted to THIS version of the Joker! She even hints at trying to kill him, but he doesn’t react. She knows that she can’t bring herself to ACTUALLY try to kill him, but when she sees that there is a shadow assassin on the loose in Gotham City, she has a new idea!

It’s important to note that in these stories, while the Joker is obviously an abusive monster, the cartoonish villain take on Harley sees her as being pretty much par for the course with the Joker. This was not really the sympathetic version of the character that we’ve all grown to love in the twenty years since this story came out.

Harley has the Joker capture the Shadow Assassin, and when the Joker brings the killer to Harley, he has him untie him, and then announces that the Shadow Assassin is now meant to kill the Joker! Harley’s theory is that someone trying to kill the Joker will break him out of his pacifistic attitude…

And if it doesn’t, well, Harley will at least avenge her beloved by killing the assassin later on! Makes sense to me!

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What happened when Harley Quinn kissed Batman?

Well, Harley’s plan does not work, and the Joker continues to be a docile fool, albeit a scared-for-his-life docile fool. Luckily for the Clown Prince of Crime, even though Batman was wanted by the Gotham City police department on orders of the Mayor, the Dark Knight still risked his own freedom to show up and save Joker’s life by capturing the Shadow Assassin.

Joker is so out of sorts that he is totally THRILLED to see Batman show up to save him! Batman takes out the Shadow Assassin, but Harley Quinn takes advantage of his fight with the assassin to then daze him with a shot from her weird Joker-bolt gun. She then comes up with her last ditch effort to snap Joker out of it, and she KISSES BATMAN, and tells the Joker that she always liked Batman better!

Jealousy is, as they say, a green-eyed monster, and the Joker is ALSO a green-eyed monster (well, green-haired, at least, his eye color never seems to be that consistent). So that kiss does the trick, and the Joker is back to his normal, homicidal self (it is funny how the modern “All-Ages” Joker is a homicidal maniac, when that was very controversial 50 years ago)!

Batman is still in a daze, but this is Batman, even in a daze, he is able to break away from the Joker’s attack, and flood the room with the pudding that the Joker was diving into earlier in the issue as a love tribute to Harley (His “Harley pudding”), and the Joker and Harley are captured.

Again, Batman is technically a wanted fugitive at this point in the comic, but Gordon then allows him to escape, explaining that he can’t see Batman, even as the Joker shouts where he is. The Joker notes that is homicidal again, and Harley is thrilled to hear the good news…

This was a fun, well-told and well-drawn story. It’s amazing just how good the comic books based on the various Batman cartoons have been over the years. The quality of the cartoon seems to have really inspired the best from the comic book creators behind the tie-in comic books, as well, as they were almost uniformly excellent over a long period of time. Templeton, of course, has long been one of the best creators working in the Bat-cartoon style of comic books (Burchett and Beatty are amazing, as well, and Loughridge is great at EVERY kind of coloring. Felix’s letters were good, too!).

Thanks to longtime reader, Amy R., for the suggestion! If anyone has a suggestion for a future I Love Ya But You’re Strange, please drop me a line at [email protected]!