Dr. Harleen Quinzel, later known as Harley Quinn,, was a scientific assistant working for Hugo Strange, who eventually fell in love with the Joker.
History[]
Quinzel was originally the assistant of scientist and inventor Hugo Strange, who was employed by Warden Crichton at Gotham State Penitentiary to create a machine that was capable of extracting evil energies from criminals and rehabilitate them in the process. While she was working on the project, Harleen seemingly began to develop an affection for the Joker. One day, Batman, Robin and District Attorney Harvey Dent visited the prison in order to personally witness how Strange and his assistant Dr. Quinzel wanted to prove the capabilities of the evil extractor machine by sucking the combined evil from the brains of Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Egghead and Mr. Freeze. As the Joker along his fellow criminals were escorted in, he winks at Harleen making her blush. However, the experiment ultimately failed when the machine overloaded with the enormous amount of evil essence, eventually causing the collection vat that stored the evil gas to explode. Even though Batman tried to shield Dent from the explosion with his cape, the substance was still sprayed directly into parts of Dent's face, severely disfiguring it on the left side and transforming him into the dangerous villain Two-Face. Following the incident, Hugo Strange was fired from his job and the experimental project was terminated by the authorities.
At some point after these events, Dr. Quinzel decided to finally break the Joker out of prison. She donned a red and black jester suit, began carrying a mallet, and adopted the alias of "Harley Quinn". One night, Harley went to Gotham State Penitentiary, where she used a time bomb to blow the door to the Joker's cell open. As the smoke cleared, Quinzel approached the surprised Clown Prince of Crime in his cell and introduced herself to her "Puddin'" as the "new and improved Harley Quinn".
Trivia[]
- The origin story of Harley Quinn given in the 2017 animated movie Batman vs. Two-Face and the short Knock Knock, Mr. Joker! directly retcons the Holly Quinn character that was previously introduced as a 1966-style Harley Quinn equivalent in the Batman '66 comic series. Similarly, the comic backstories of Two-Face and Hugo Strange were also ignored for the animated continuation.