From Harleen Quinzel to Harley Quinn: science, symmetry and transformation

ABSTRACT

Harley Quinn has become an important and popular character in the DC Universe, especially for representations of women scientists in comics and the associated cinematic and TV adaptations. Understandably, much of the analysis of this character has tended to focus on her relationship with the Joker and the gender-based dimensions of this dynamic. However, to distill her identity to these dimensions would be unnecessarily, even unfairly, reductionist, and would narrow our understandings of a rich and complex character. By focussing on her identity as a scientist, this article offers a different analytical lens through which to understand Harley Quinn. Drawing primarily from Stjepan Šejić’s Harleen (2020), with supporting insights from appearances in other DC comics, we examine the ways in which her scientific training and aspirations shape her transformation from Harleen Quinzel to Harley Quinn. Specifically, we demonstrate how symmetry, as an orienting concept, is useful for analysing how scientific logics and practices inform and enable this transformation. In doing so, we hope to both enrich understandings of Harley Quinn and foreground science as a potentially useful broader lens through which to understand other significant themes and characters in the DC Universe.

KEYWORDS:

• Harley Quinn
• Harleen Quinzel
• science
• symmetry
• identity
• transformation

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the two very engaged anonymous reviewers for their insightful and incisive feedback. We would also like to thank the reviewer who provided cleaner images of the scenes analyzed in the article. Although we were not able to include them, we appreciate the effort nonetheless.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. All emphasis in this and the following quotes is taken from the original texts which often do not have page numbers. The authors are fully aware that it is insufficient to reference the authorship of comics with only one or two names as is common in academic writing, as each comic is the result of the talent and hard work of many people. Space does not allow us to include all writers and artists – colourists, letterers, cover-artists, co-authors and many more. Further information about the comic book artists referred to in this paper can be found at www.comics.org.