If you follow DC Comics’ announcements about upcoming titles and creative teams, you’ve probably heard that a new Birds of Prey title is due to be released in September 2023. Marvel transplant Kelly Thompson will be writing the comic as her first major gig with DC, and Thompson cleverly used her Twitter account to tease out the team’s lineup, one character at a time over the course of the week.
Before we get into the meat of this topic, I applaud DC and Thompson for using marketing tools to build intrigue and buzz the right way. More creators and DC’s marketing arm should take note.
However, the final team member’s reveal stirred buzz for all the wrong reasons. In DC’s infinite wisdom, DC decided Harley Quinn should be a core member of the Birds of Prey – a superhero team comic.
If you’re familiar with Harley Quinn, you already know where this is going. If you only know Harley from her filmed appearances (not Batman: The Animated Series), I recommend you give this post a read to understand Harley’s character.
Is Harley Quinn a Villain or a Superhero?
Harley Quinn, in her current form, is not, and never will be, accepted as a hero within DC. She can perform heroic acts. She can associate with heroes on a cordial level. But she’s missing the one thing that would get Harley over as a hero, and it’s the one thing DC refuses to do – put in the work to redeem her.
Whether you like Harley or not is irrelevant. Her history is awash with multiple crimes, including murder, through her association with Joker and other DC villains of Gotham. Harley is not a nice person, and her origin strays about as far from heroic as you can get.
So, why does DC keep trying to push Harley into hero roles? Put simply, she’s popular. Harley’s depiction on the big screen by Margot Robbie brought recognition to the character beyond the comics and animation. HBO’s adult-themed comedy series starring Harley keeps that popularity going. Within the walls of DC headquarters, a mantra has formed that states, “Harley is popular, so we need to make her a hero.”
Putting aside the superficial thinking behind that mantra, there’s nothing preventing a villain from becoming a hero as long as creators put in the work to make it happen. To be accepted in any heroic capacity, Harley would need to go through a redemption arc that definitively puts her villainous ways in the past.
Instead, what does DC do? DC puts Harley on comic covers with the Justice League. Harley gets her own (terrible) ongoing comic where she takes pseudo-heroic actions but cries foul when she doesn’t get a fair break from Batman and other Gotham vigilantes. And now, Harley is named in the core lineup of a Birds of Prey comic, despite having no powers or abilities that put her on par with her teammates.
DC keeps cramming Harley Quinn in hero teams and “heroic” scenarios without doing the work to redeem the character of her crimes, assuming popularity is enough to win fans over. It’s not. In effect, DC keeps making the same mistake, over and over, expecting a different result.
If DC wants Harley Quinn to be accepted as a hero, stop repeating the same insane mistakes and do the work to redeem her first.
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