Changes: Duela Dent

Revision as of 05:52, 30 November 2013

Duela Dent is a former member of both the Teen Titans and Titans East. Introduced under the alias of Joker's Daughter, she has also used the aliases "Catgirl", "Scarecrone", "Riddler's Daughter", "Catwoman's Daughter", "Penguin's Daughter", "Card Queen", and "Harlequin".

History

Pre-Crisis

Duela Dent first appeared as Joker's Daughter in the Batman Family series of comic books. She gained the attention of Robin, as she later claimed to be the daughter of Catwoman, Scarecrow, Riddler, and Penguin. She deduced Robin's identity and he revealed that she was Duela Dent, Two-Face 's daughter.

Duela claimed she wanted to join the Teen Titans to atone for her father's crimes. Not everyone was in favor of this idea. In Teen Titans #48 she changed her identity to Harlequin . As Harlequin, Duela utilized gimmicks such as smoke-inducing powder puffs and bullet-firing lipstick.

After the Teen Titans comic books were canceled, she popped up in the Batman titles, calling herself Card Queen while infiltrating a criminal organization called MAZE.

Duela's last pre-Crisis appearance is in Tales Of The Teen Titans #50, as a guest at Donna Troy 's wedding where she appears to be a middle age matron. Dick Grayson notes that he'd finally realized she was too old to be Two-Face's daughter, which she agrees with, but disappears before he can take the matter further.

Post-Crisis

Delusional and schizophrenic, the mysterious Harlequin has been in and out of mental institutions for several years. An acrobat who possesses numerous "clown-motif" gadgets, she calls herself Duela Dent (while her true identity remains unknown).

Her first significant Post-Crisis appearance was in the Team Titans comic book, as a patient in a mental hospital. The writers of the title originally planned to reveal that Harlequin was a time-traveling member of the Team Titans driven insane by her warping experience.

However, due to the cancellation of the series, plans for her to return were aborted. The final issue of Team Titans solicited a non-existent story for Team Titans #25, and provided a commentary on the title's cancellation. In the solicitation, Duela steals a reality-altering device and shifts New York City into the late 1970s.

Harlequin aided the Titans during the "Technis Imperative," in which Cyborg's automated system seeks out all Titans allies, past and present. Although she is in a mental institution, Duela is rescued by Cyborg and helps the Justice League for Cyborg's soul.

Duela makes a brief appearance in Titans Secret Files #1, insisting to anyone who would listen that the Titans would soon contact her about membership. She also claims that she is the daughter of Doomsday.

Duela's next appearance is in Titans Secret Files #2, in a backup story in which Gar's obnoxious cousin Matt holds a membership drive for the Teen Titans West, "Titans L.A." Harlequin crashes the meeting-turned-party with a small group of villains, including Beast Boys's enemies Fear and Loathing, simply because she hasn't been invited. Flamebird and Terra defeat her and return her to The Helping House Mental Institution in Industry, California. How she met up with the dangerous villains with whom she crashed the party is unexplained.

In the same comic, a feature states that her claims regarding her paternity have been disproved, save one; no further information is provided.

In a short story contained in the Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files #2, Duela socializes with several villains at their secret satellite headquarters and makes a series of wild claims regarding her parentage, all of which are dismissed by the nonplussed villains (she claims that she has been resuscitated by a Lazarus Pit and that her mother may actually be the villainous parent).

Duela returned to action alongside the assembled Titans who faced Dr. Light in Teen Titans (vol. 3), and Superboy-Prime in Infinite Crisis #4 and Teen Titans #32. She later appeared in a double-page spread that was added in the Infinite Crisis hardcover collected edition.

One Year Later

The Joker's Daughter and Enigma both served on the Teen Titans during the lost year. Duela is a member of the splinter group Titans East, with writer Geoff Johns stating: "Yeah. We're going to really get into her. Tony Daniel did an amazing redesign on the Joker's daughter for the Titans East."

In Teen Titans #43, Miss Martian and Cyborg arrive at Belle Reve prison to question their former team mate Bombshell, who has betrayed the team. Risk and Batgirl arrive, and Batgirl murders Bombshell by slitting her throat with a razor sharp batarang. Duela and Enigma cut the prison's power supply, allowing the inmates to escape and attack Miss Martian and Cyborg.

During the attack, Enigma comments to Duela: "Wait'll dear old daddy gets a load of us!"

The two are the captors and tormentors of Raven, whom they torture psychologically. Duela reveals that she joined Titans East simply because they asked. Raven points out that Duela has always been an ally of the Titans, and offers her membership on the team. Duela accepts the invitation by punching Enigma, and fights alongside the Titans against Titans East. When the battle ends, Duela and Batgirl disappear.

Countdown

252834-169442-duela-dent — Duela had a forbidden love affair with Owlman (Thomas Wayne Jr.)'s Robin, Talon.

In Countdown #50, Jimmy Olsen interviews an incarcerated Joker about the murder of Duela Dent, who had called herself the Joker's Daughter. The Joker states that he never had any daughter, and expresses awareness of the Multiverse's existence and of shifts in reality. The Joker appears as he did before Batman #655.

Powers and Abilities

Duela is a skilled detective, an impressive acrobat, and using many clown-based gimmicks.

Trivia

In Batman: The Killing Joke the Joker's wife was pregnant, and though she died, the fate of the unborn baby was not explicitly stated, as she was nearly due.
In actuality, Duela is the daughter of the The Jokester (Earth-3), the Joker's heroic counterpart and archenemy of Owlman (Thomas Wayne Jr.) This means she is Joker's daughter, just not the mainstream one.

In other media

In the cancelled Batman Triumphant film Harley Quinn was reimagined as the Joker's daughter instead of his girlfriend/sidekick.
Also, in Batman: Arkham City, Harley Quinn is revealed to be pregnant and it is explicitly implied it is The Joker's child. During the credits Harley sings "Hush little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna kill for you the whole damn world", implying that the baby has already been born.
- In Harley Quinn's Revenge, it is revealed that it was a false positive and was using Scarface (dressed up as the Joker) as a surrogate surrounded by a lot of negative pregnancy tests.

Villainous Parentage

Duela has claimed to be the offspring of the following villains

The Joker
Catwoman
Scarecrow
Riddler
The Penguin
Mr. Freeze
Two-Face
Wildebeest
Doomsday
Dr. Light
Punch and Jewelee

@@ Line 72: / Line 72: @@
 *[[Riddler]]
 *[[The Penguin]]
+*[[Mr. Freeze]]
 *[[Two-Face]]
 *[[Wildebeest]]