Warning: this article contains spoilers for Future State: Harley Quinn #1!
As promised, Future State is rewriting the status quo over at DC Comics. Readers are — for the most part — getting a bleaker vision of their favorite characters as the cities and worlds they inhabit are turned upside down in a range of possible futures. Seemingly no one is left unscathed, and many are deeply transformed by the quasi-apocalyptic events leading to these still unwritten “worlds of tomorrow.” For fan-favorite Harley Quinn, this means a whole new way of doing things.
Harley Quinn’s popularity has only grown since she was first introduced in an episode of the iconic Batman: The Animated Series titled “Joker’s Favor”. For some fans, her rise has overshadowed other longstanding members of Batman’s rogue’s gallery, even the Joker himself, as her battle for redemption has added layers of complexity to a character who's equally dangerous and intelligent. In Future State, Harley's particular expertise have never been sharper, and she's using them in a way that aligns her with one of the most terrifying and effective villains in film and literary history.
Future State: Harley Quinn #1, written by Stephanie Phillips with art by Simone Di Meo, opens on a familiar scene: Harley — baseball bat in hand — acrobatically delivering a beatdown to some cops. However, these aren’t the run-of-the-mill GCPD law enforcement officers she’s used to, but the well-equipped paramilitary force run by the Magistrate. Outnumbered and outgunned, Harley is overwhelmed and arrested. When readers see her next she’s been locked in a glass cell being lectured to by a former colleague. Her captor, Dr. Jonathan Crane, formerly known as the fear-toxin toting villain Scarecrow, has put away his mask and joined the new order. Now, he’s been put in charge of rounding up the remaining costumed supervillains he used to rub shoulders with. Unfortunately for him, the task is proving to be harder than expected, despite his experience and considerable brain power. What he needs is the help of a once brilliant student of the diseased mind, and now he has one at his beck and call.
The narrative thrust of this first issue is chillingly reminiscent of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs; more specifically the 1991 Oscar-winning feature film adaptation of the same name directed by the late Jonathan Demme. It’s easy to forget that in her life before the Joker, Harley Quinn was actually Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist who worked at Arkham Asylum. Another famous character well known for being a psychiatrist before turning evil was Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Just as Lecter was in the film, Harley finds herself imprisoned and at the mercy of an imperious warden.
Crane — as depicted in the comic — even resembles the vainglorious Dr. Frederick Chilton, portrayed by actor Anthony Heald. Both Harley and Crane, much like Lecter and Chilton, their analogs in the film, engage in a game of quid pro quo: information leading to the capture and arrest of wanted criminals, in exchange for privileges. The symmetry is astounding, but rather than feel contrived, it works to further expand on both characters’ pasts and futures. Crane isn’t used to being beholden to anyone, or afraid of a master's wrath should he fail in his assigned duty. Harley hasn’t needed to construct psychological profiles or disassemble complex pathologies in who knows how long. And yet in the near future, both find themselves adjusting to a new order in Gotham.
What readers are getting here is a compelling reevaluation of Harley Quinn that explores her less chaotic and eccentric side. It’s the side of her that existed before the Joker came crashing into her life and made a madhouse of her mind. Behind the acid-bleached skin, colorful hair and deadly gimmicks is a powerful mind capable of unraveling the minds of Gotham’s most dangerous. It shouldn’t be long before she gains the upper hand on Crane and the Magistrate. When that happens, all bets are off, Future State or not.