Re-reading this, it dawned on me that years later, when they did the ‘last Batman vs the Joker’ portion of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, it was 100% Harley who came up with Tim’s new name, ‘J.J’
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I thought that was Ivy but wasn’t sure so I didn’t make a random note of it in my random notes.
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Oh my lord, Ivy here is holding that plant like she’s Gollum and it’s her Precious. 
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I thought the SAME thing! And then wanted to cry cause of how tragic it all was
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Why on earth are they allowing Ivy to habe plants???
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The start of a beautiful partnership 
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At that point in the animated series, she didn’t have the crazy powerful control of plants she has in more modern takes. She grew her own crazy plants with her own chemicals, she had toxins she extracted from the plants, but she didn’t have the ability innate in her.
Also, without a plant or something, she would just look like a random redhead in prison orange.
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with a random red head in prison orange.
I would probably appreciate a chance to look at a random red head in prison orange.
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Good evening, everyone~ I have read this many times in my life but it was nice (and sad!) to revisit it again. As a child watching B:TAS I felt aware of the abusive relationship but didn’t fully understand it. In the Dini/Timm 'verse, there are a few instances where Harley is also abusive towards the Joker, and Batman just hits everyone! So I think looking at the show and this comic in my younger eyes was sort of my first example of domestic violence. Even though at the time it was not so serious because it was fictional. Obviously nobody would fall in love with a serial killer, right? …
“Psychotic mass-murdering clowns and the women who love them” - best tag line.
I love how Paul Dini writes Harley Quinn, and I obviously have to give him tons of credit because she’s his character. Harley is always portrayed as intelligent, cunning, devious, funny, and sweet. She makes a great villain but remains carefree and joyful~ She knows much more than she lets on, like any good trickster archetype.
In this version, she is totally fine with using her “influence” to get good grades in college, and she completely bamboozles Batman and Gordon. She took advantage of how she was perceived as a victim, and used it to trap the Bat. She comes up with good ideas and clever twists to plans.
It’s apparent that Harls originally wanted to publish a book on Joker’s psychology and cash in on her analysis. So… why does she end up falling in love with him? This book attempts to answer that question. Harley leads with her heart. She wants recognition and love.
I think J initially related to her name because he’s a narcissist and has to own all clown-related themes. He decorates everything with his image. I think he was charmed with turning a doctor’s mind to insanity and felt that he could use her for his benefit. He started “trusting” her so that she’d trust him. He understood and listened to her, giving her the illusion that she was actually understanding him.
HQ started seeing J in a sympathetic light, despite his continued psychotic clown antics. I think she saw their similarities and attributed them to mutual love, dissociating from reality because the others, the normal people, just wouldn’t “get it” and they were so different from those people. J is so extreme and the antithesis of normal, he made HQ feel like they were the same, against the world. He definitely feels like he “created” her as much as Batman “created” him.
Paul Dini has said that the Joker loves Harley as much as his little black heart is able to. Obviously the Joker’s capacity for love is nothing similar to a healthy/normal relationship. I don’t think he necessarily expected Harley to fall so deeply in love with him. I think the novelty of having someone just as crazy as him, who is there to stroke his ego and is honestly very useful as a partner in crime, is what kept her interesting enough not to kill.
I’ve always found it funny how Harley fantasizes about this super violent and dangerous criminal living an adorable, boring, and safe domestic life with her. They are happily married with children in that classic suburban setting pretty dang often in Harley’s mind. It really shows how out of touch with reality she is at this stage in her development as a character. She is driven by her desire to be loved so much that she literally creates it for herself. She is ever forgiving, and so ready to take him back, as long as he apologizes. See B:TAS and the rest of the Batman Adventures for more examples.
Part of what draws me to Harley in this era of her relationship is that she’s both comedy and tragedy. She is a comedian in her own right but she’s actually funny and doesn’t use murder as the punchline. And naturally her relationship is extremely heartbreaking. I hate seeing her abused. I do think it’s important to try and define a healthy version of love and media like this is good to talk about. It definitely opened the door to thinking about abusive relationships in my life.
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Not so fast…
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xD that’s why I said it like that.
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YES!
I value having people in my life with whom I can have deep conversations inspired by comic books!
Thank you @iJest !!!
#goodtobejo
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Well thank you both 
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Agreed.
This go-around with Mad Love (probably my 15th time reading it) was a lot of fun, plus it was the first time I read it on my TV (love that Landscape Mode!). Bruce Timm’s art looks even more spectacular that way.
This is absolutely the best book to bear the title of “Batman Adventures”. Not to take anything away from the regular issues of the series (which is a fantastic and underrated gem), but the Mad Love one-shot NAILS everything it sets out to do. Writing, art, mood, everything here just WORKS. A great, great read!
Also, I forgot that my name was in the book. Even though I’ve read it many times, the last was prior to DCU existing so that had slipped from my mental sponge.
I only remembered it from the TNBA adaptation, which I did watch after reading the book. A great comic makes for great TV.
Mad Love is easily one of my favorite episodes of The New Batman Adventures, as well as being one of the top 10 quintessential Batman comics of the last 30 years.
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I had no idea this was a thing!
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