Fourcast! 39: Harley & Ivy
March 29th, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: Batman, cartoon, harley quinn, paul dini, poison ivy-6th Sense’s 4a.m. Instrumental for the theme music.
-A little ditty courtesy of one of the subjects of our show opens this one!
-Four Girlcasts in a row! Eat your heart out, Gloria Steinem!
-This is theoretically a Continuity Off about everyone’s favorite Dynamic Duo, the Femmes Fatale, those Titans of Terror, Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy.
-Really, we’re just reminiscing and talking about how great those two are.
-(Or at least how great Harley is, and how being near Harley makes Ivy also great.)
-I said I’d upload some youtubes, but who knew that Warners would scrub most of Batman TAS off the face of Youtube? I’ll put a couple I found after the jump, anyway.
-If you want legit ones, watch online here or start with Batman – The Animated Series, Volume One
–Harley Quinn: Preludes and Knock-Knock Jokes
-See you, space cowgirl!
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The flash series Gotham Girls (with the original VAs) that started in 2000 was pretty special. It was done by the studio that produces Venture Bros.
http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/gothamgirls/multi/episodes/
I hear the Emperor Joker episode of Batman: brave and the bold will have both Harley and Batgirl appearing.
Nice job as always, folks. A little nitpicking re: Poison Ivy – Jason Woodrue’s involvement in the origin story is a post-Crisis addition. Neil Gaiman added it in the Secret Origins story he did back in the late 80’s. The eco-terrorist angle actually came from B:TAS (which as you note used it for several villains), and was then incorporated into the comics. Prior to that time Ivy was rarely portrayed as being interested in anything but power and money. She occasionally used botanically-generated weapons, but normally traded on her looks and a variety of hypnotic drugs to manipulate Batman/ Bruce Wayne/ whoever. Gaiman introduced the idea that she was, or believed herself to be, part plant, and hinted strongly that she had supernatural powers. The character’s subsequent portrayals have relied so heavily on the super-powered ecoterrorist angle that it’s pretty much become the default portrayal.
Personally I have to disagree with Esther in that I’ve always found Ivy more interesting than Harley (who is a cute character but who I find rather one-note). Ivy was a pretty minor Bat-villain until the 90’s, and I’d posit she owes most of her current a-list status to B:TAS and, though no one wants to say it out loud, that terrible movie. Once Catwoman got her own series (and mostly disappeared from the main Bat-books), Ivy stepped into that femme fatale role and filled it nicely, with a nastier edge than Catwoman.
As for a good Ivy story, check out Batman/ Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow by Denny O’Neil & Mike Netzer, which IMO is among the nastiest and best portrayals of the character. She’s VERY far from a feminist character in that story but makes for a very formidable foil for Batman and GA.
Minor point, David, but the ‘she was sleeping with her professor’ thing isn’t a retcon. It’s in the Mad Love comic, which Dini and Timm did before they adapted it for the show. I don’t think it’s canon for the mainline DCU Harley, but it’s been there from pretty much the start.