Welcome to the Couch Club, our recurring column devoted to all things #DCTV! This week, Jules Chin Greene discusses how Batman: Caped Crusader changes everything we know about Harley Quinn.
 

Animation has significantly shaped the artistic legacies of Batman and Harley Quinn, perhaps more than any other superheroes. I’m willing to bet that there are thousands of other Batman readers who, like me, grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series and still hear the iconic voice of Kevin Conroy whenever they read the Dark Knight’s comic books. And Harley? She was created for the series. It’s hard to think of something more important for a character than that!

Prime Video’s recent Batman: Caped Crusader offers a new take on both Batman and Harley Quinn, with Bruce Timm returning to executive produce the series. Like Timm’s earlier Batman: The Animated Series, Caped Crusader is a noir-inspired show set during the 1940s. Part of what makes Caped Crusader so compelling is its willingness to reinvent how we understand Harley Quinn.

When I spoke to Caped Crusader voice actors Hamish Linklater and Jamie Chung at San Diego Comic-Con, they spoke about their process of switching between the Bruce Wayne and Batman personas, and the Dr. Harleen Quinzel and the Harley Quinn persona. For Linklater, Bruce Timm told him to approach Batman as the core identity of the character, while Bruce Wayne was the “mask” that Batman wore in his everyday life. While this is a dynamic that we have seen before in Batman adaptations, Caped Crusader makes it an integral part of Batman and Harley Quinn’s relationship.

In Caped Crusader, Dr. Harleen Quinzel is Bruce Wayne’s psychiatrist. As they meet for their weekly sessions, Dr. Quinzel eventually reveals that she’s trying to crack the carefree, playboy persona of Bruce Wayne. Harleen is astute enough to get the sense that “Bruce Wayne” is just a front for a different personality lurking beneath the surface. And she’s right!

But what captured my interest even more about Chung’s take on Harley Quinn is the difference between her Harley and Dr. Quinzel personalities. Chung mentioned that she got to use different parts of her vocal register for her performance as both Harleen and Harley, and that’s evident. If you watch Caped Crusader closely, Dr. Quinzel speaks in the bubbly manner that we would normally expect from Harley Quinn, based on our past experiences with the character as played by Arleen Sorkin, Margot Robbie, Kaley Cuoco and more.

But when Caped Crusader’s Harleen becomes Harley Quinn, she speaks slower and in more of a monotone, the pitch of her voice falling. Based on what we’ve seen with Dr. Quinzel in her sessions with Bruce Wayne, it seems like Harley Quinn is the character’s true identity, while Dr. Quinzel is the “mask.” This is, of course, made all the more interesting because both Harley and Batman wear masks.

As Harley Quinn, Dr. Quinzel is able to transcend the rules and laws of society as she gets revenge on men in Gotham City. She does it with a cool and methodical touch, reflected in Chung’s vocal performance, that isn’t unlike that of Batman when he’s doing detective work. Part of what makes Harley Quinn such a compelling character is her balancing act with her inhibitions, and Caped Crusader’s Harley subverts our expectations for how this plays out. We don’t expect her “real personality” to be so, for lack of a better term, clinical!

Bringing this element of dual personalities to Harley Quinn in Caped Crusader makes her more in line with Batman than ever before. Because Caped Crusader is set during Batman’s second week of being a vigilante, he doesn’t yet have the expanded network of Robins past and present and other allies in Gotham City. This makes his relationship with Harley Quinn even more important because this Dark Knight, whether he’d ever admit it or not, is incredibly lonely. Without his sprawling Bat-Family (other than Alfred), Batman can only get perspective on his two personas from outside his home. I really hope we get more of Jamie Chung’s Harley Quinn in the future, because this could be the start of a wonderful relationship for the two characters that’s unlike any we’ve seen before.

There’s an episode (“Shriek”) in the first season of Batman Beyond where Bruce Wayne explains to Terry McGinnis that he doesn’t call himself “Bruce” in his head. When Terry asks what he calls himself, Bruce turns around and gives him a stern look, the musical score swelling dramatically. Even as an old man, Bruce still calls himself “Batman” in his head. One has to wonder how our newest Harley Quinn might answer if anyone were to ever ask that question of her. Frederik Wiedmann, Caped Crusader’s composer, may want to have some dramatic music ready to go, just in case.
 

Batman: Caped Crusader is now streaming on Prime Video.

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics, TV, games and film for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.