People loved Michelle Pfieffer’s Catwoman so much WB greenlit a solo film. Sadly, it came out around 11 years later in the form of the Halle Berry version. Personally, I think WB didnt want to use their top female ‘DC talent’ on something so ‘experimental’. Afraid that if they mess with something so well known it could backfire. Maybe it would have been worth the risk. We unfortunately will never know.
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Almost any character can become popular if you give them care and attention, meaning: the level of respect which is paid to certain other characters that are historically way over-exposed.
Look at what Fiege did at Marvel. Right now, Cap is arguably bigger than Superman. Thor, Thanos, T’Challa, Widow, Loki, are household names. Why? Because he cared enough to treat them w/ the same respect as Wolverine and Batman. He also didn’t rush things. That’s a huge tool in his arsenal.
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I love Harley quinn. But yeah I think she is getting over exposed. But I think that’s part of how characters RETAIN their status. Superman and batman were pushed HARD In the world war 2 era not just in the 90s. So was wonder woman. Plus i think people fell in love with Harley as she became her own person not just a Joker prop. But yeah i wish it wasn’t at the expense of the other birds. Coz i LOVE black canary as well.
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Superman and Batman are still the most household names in pop culture superheroes.
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Yeah. Because they get all the resources. How many tv shows and movies do they have?? That’s the point. It’s about exposure and spreading it around.
Also, believe it or not, there are adults and children out there who know everything about Iron Man & Black Panther, but nothing about Superman & Batman other than they wear capes. And they don’t care.
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Everyone knows what Kryptonite is. Captain America isn’t as well known as you think. I know plenty of older men who know Superman and Batman. But not a lot of people who know Iron Man and Captain America. I would argue that Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman are the most well known superheroes of all time. I think the Joker is the definition of supervillain in pop culture as well. Loki may have his little cult following of people who like Tom Hiddleston. But he doesn’t have the level of recognition that the Joker has. People only know what the movies show them. They don’t care about any of the Iron Man villains or history. They care about RDJ’s Iron Man. No one cared about Iron Man really. Except for his Avengers movies, he really wasn’t doing that well. Iron Man 3 was not successful by marvel standards of intake. His fan base was dying down. But children don’t pick up trash can lids and pretend to be Captain America. They want to fly. The put on their little towel-cape and run around in their diapers because of Superman and Batman.
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They could have easily called it The Harley Quinn Movie Featuring The Birds of Prey And Others. The movie is told from Harley’s perspective and she is the main character. It was just their choice to have an enormous secondary title (fantabulous emancipation, etc) that’s more accurate than the first title. It’s goofy. It fits the movie’s level of wackiness.
Is she getting overexposed? Probably. She’s very popular and DC / WB are featuring her in a lot of things right now. She’s in some current comic books, the HQ animated series, and this film. It’s just how they do. They use popular characters because at the end of the day they want to sell more comics and movies. I would have aggressively loved all the HQ spotlight when I was a kid. She was my favorite character before the Joker.
I would imagine she’s mostly popular among millennials and younger, because we were growing up during Batman: the Animated Series or something that came after it. We are a big target market for DC / WB because of our purchasing power. Harley is the only villain on DC’s Power Visa credit card. I think this is verrrrry interesting. I would also like to see more variety but they’ve done the market research.
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Actually, HQ has been around 28 years. She’s be operating on a slow burn to stardom for a couple of decades. I’m glad she’s finally getting her due. She is now a second level character, with the trinity holding that first level spot.
I’m glad to see it. IMO, she has grown into one of the most compelling characters in the DCU.
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I disagree with that. That implied scene in SS, she knew exactly what she was doing.
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She’s a 50/50 character for me. Depends on the treatment. I’m actually digging how she’s a tad DID and the Dr. Quinzel persona is evaluating situations to help her deal with complicated problems. In the animated series. That’s fun to me.
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As you said: ‘People only know what the movies show them’.
Thats literally my point:
Expose more people to more characters and they too will become popular, because we don’t all live in the same bubble.
Saying “everyone” is super extra, btw. Not remotely accurate considering the populace of the world, But if you’d like to continue speaking in sweeping general terms: I’d say the majority of people only know Kryptonite makes him weak—they don’t actually know what it IS.
Try to remember not everyone watches TV or reads comics—and a huge crop of young people do know Iron Man and Cap better than Superman or Batman. Hell, my 70yr old mother knows more about them. It’s not personal, it’s just a fact that not everyone likes/knows the same things.
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Marvel is an unfair comparison these days. The amount of money driving that machine is beyond the point of having a competitor. Marvel is ubiquitous because Disney can afford to make it so. WB can’t compete with that.
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But I’d wager that in 20 or 30 years, once again more people will know and want Superman & Batman more than Iron Man and Cap.
Especially with Iron Man and Robert Downey Jr. Marvel caught lightning in a bottle. Not unlike how DC did with Christopher Reeves as Superman or Julie Newmar as Catwoman. They were once in multiple generation characters and castings. I’d argue, some 50+ years later, plenty of people not born for 20 or 30 years after the Batman’66 and a couple of decades after the first Superman movie still see those two as the physical personification of Superman & Catwoman. RDJ has will likely stay the personification of Tony Stark/Iron Man.
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@WondyFan I typically reserve my negative perspective on things like this but I am so strongly against the new content and want to share a few thoughts.
I believe that Harley Quinn Animated Series and the “Birds of Prey” movie both do a complete disservice to all of the characters included - most especially the Birds of Prey. I’m currently reading the Birds of Prey series. The storylines and depiction of strong female heroes are absolutely phenomenal. Being titled “Birds of Prey” without including The Oracle (one of the core creators) in the new film is shameful. It’s obviously not about them. Earlier iterations of Harleen Quinzel are interesting and exciting - a doctor who flipped the switch from sanity to insanity and ran off with The Joker. The newer version of her character is quite different, with nothing redeemable or likable in my opinion (Margot, get a grip on that accent!?). I would argue that this might be ushering in new fans but that’s not true. I actually think that it may have hurt their popularity. I hope that the future brings a better, more meaningful introduction where audiences can get a real grasp of who these leading women are.
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I do think she’s getting lots of attention, but I do think that she’s earned it. She’s a diverse character and you can do so much with her that the different appearance of her can all be interesting individually and next to each other.
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I feel like Harley Quinn has always been a popular character. I wasn’t super interested in her until a couple of years ago when I was in a women’s comic group and learned about her back story. I think characters will always have waves of popularity. But I think the end of the Birds of Prey movie addressed some of the confusion as to why she was so involved. It seemed like she was one of the things that brought the women together and rallied them in a sense (she is in the mental health field after all and can be a good inspiration). I enjoy her roll more in this movie than I did in the birds of prey TV show.
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Harley’s first 20 year was a slow build to success and recognition. It really only the last 10 years or so, she’s really conly ashes through the ceiling to becoming on of the top 10 (maybe top 6) of DC characters in popular culture.
God, I have so many mixed feelings on harley.
Like. Yes. She is a compelling character- but she’s also a terrible person and the fact that she was abused and manipulated by the Joker does not mean she’s not responsible for any of that terrible stuff she did. Are we all just ignoring what she did to Robin in the DCAU?? You know, the universe where she was born???
And she’s supposed to be some kinda anti-heroic figure now but there’s no actual character growth in that direction. She grows away from the Joker and gains “emancipation” but then doesn’t do anything to make any sort of amends to the people she has hurt. Redemption arcs require acknowledgement of a need for redemption and working toward it. You can’t just have someone say “oh I dumped the person who influenced me into doing all this awful stuff and I’m a better person now!” It just doesn’t work like that.
Even in Birds of Prey, at the end I don’t understand why they chose to have Cass go with her. Like. Harley is not a parent. Harley is not parent material. Harley Quinn is not a good person and the movie explicitly states this itself. So why the heck does it consider saving the life of one person- once the situation changed and said person had a gun on her, by the way - enough to make her a good person now?
I’m sick of seeing Harley and I’m not looking forward to the new comics set in the DCAU solely because of her.
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