WARNING! SPOILERS TO BATMAN #98, OUT NOW!
Ever since she first appeared, Joker's current partner Punchline has made the defeat and elimination of Joker's ex-partner Harley Quinn a personal mission, especially when she returned to Gotham with her mission to kill the Joker once and for all. With their first battle ending in Punchline's favor, fans heavily anticipated a rematch when it was revealed that Harley was alive, and in the latest Batman issue, Punchline and Harley fight with weapons, their bodies, and somehow, their origin stories in the ultimate deathmatch.
When Punchline first encountered Harley alongside Catwoman in Gotham's sewers, she attacked them both to prove how much of an improvement she was over Harley and the latter's attempts to warn her about the Joker ended with her throat slit and being left to die. However, Harley proved to be quite resourceful, returning with a nasty scar, a new dystopian-style outfit and helping a drugged and disoriented Batman recover from Punchline's latest Joker toxin. When the Joker gave the kill order, Punchline jumped at the opportunity and the two clown-themed vigilantes met for a rematch in Poison Ivy's secret sanctuary underneath Gotham. When flamethrowers and big freaking guns got them nowhere, the two clown-themed psychopaths decided to get up close and personal.
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With Harley's bat versus Punchline's knives, Punchline gains the upper-hand while accusing Harley of being a has-been who invested too much into their own hype. She summarizes Harley's famous origin story from Doctor to Joker's girlfriend in a quick series of panels and states that she was too dumb to realize she was being used as a patsy and escape plan. When the tables are turned on her, Punchline declares herself as an intellectual whose perceptions of the world connected with Joker and his ideals, whom she sought out and earned both his love and respect. When she states that she believes in the Joker and that they'll spread his message once Batman is gone, its Harley's turn to laugh as she tells Punchline the truth whether she accepts it or not.
Harley's message simply states that Punchline and Harley may have different personalities or styles but they're essentially the same person. One thought they could win the Joker's heart and the other could appeal to his psychotic intellect but in the end, Joker manipulated them both because he doesn't believe in anything. Harley gets the upper-hand in the end, no longer holding back her strength or honesty. Telling Punchline that Joker was manipulating her was one thing but hearing that Joker will never love anything as much as he does Batman struck a nerve. Throwing Harley off, Punchline moves to kill Batman once and for all, which the Joker would not approve of, as he lays unconscious from the special tea Harley gave him to cure the Joker toxins' side effects.
Punchline is unsuccessful as Batman awakes, his mind and body free and ready to take back the city starting with defeating Punchline. As Harley compliments him on his dramatic re-appearance and how she couldn't take another moment of Punchline's warped story logic, it would appear that Harley is the winner. However, the truth is when it comes to the Joker, there are no real winners, just lives irreparably ruined, traumatized, or transformed by the Clown Prince of Crime's maniac philosophy and madness.