Most of us are thoroughly familiar with DC villain/antihero Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn.
Initially a nameless Joker henchwoman in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley was then further developed to be the perpetually used and abused Bonnie to Joker's psychotic Clyde-- a tragic dupe whom the Joker successfully conned with crocodile tears and tall tales, as detailed in creator Paul Dini's story Mad Love.
However, the popular DC character reached a new level of notoriety when Margot Robbie brought her to life in Suicide Squad, there filling the role as antihero and Joker's paramour.
Although Suicide Squad wasn't beloved, most fans agreed that Margot Robbie brought the necessary zest and zany energy to Harley Quinn
However, a major point of contention with Suicide Squad was that it romanticised Joker and Harley's messed up relationship; at the very least, the movie added layers and layers of gloss to the Joker's sinister manipulations and vicious abuse.
Though a children's cartoon could be forgiven for skirting around violent depictions of domestic abuse, it seemed odd that a movie hyped up as "dark and edgy," and directed by David Ayer no less, would do the same.
However, while it's true that the Joker inflicted on Harley Quinn horror after horror, it's also true that Harley Quinn has been fully capable of exacting revenge on her lover/tormentor/puddin'.
Whether it be by striking at his vanity and ego -- or literally striking him -- there've been a few cheer worthy moments over the years when Harley got one over the Joker.
Here are the 15 Worst Things Harley Has Done To The Joker.
Harley Bites A Chunk Of Joker's Lip
In Harley Quinn #25, Harley Quinn gives Joker a long overdue hard goodbye -- by biting off a piece of his lip.
By this time in her life, Harley was well and truly outside of the Joker's sphere of influence and had become a better person -- or at least a less villainous and co-dependent person.
However, the insanely violent Harley was still lurking inside this new Harley when, during a desperate bid to free her boyfriend Mason from prison, the Joker goaded and taunted Harley like she was still his play thing.
Harley enters his cell to calmly cut ties from him for good. However, the Joker keeps pushing her buttons, like he does.
Then she beats him to a pulp, even tearing off a piece of his bottom lip when he tries to force himself on her.
Harley Kisses Batman
In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Harley's Holiday", the first episode in which Harley is separated from the Joker's shenanigans, Harley Quinn leaves Arkham Asylum with a clean bill of mental health and second chance at a normal life.
However, Harley doesn't find it so easy to escape her chaotic past when an incident at a shopping boutique escalates, and, within the span of a day, reverts to crime.
During this episode, Batman displays quite a bit of compassion for Harley, urging her not to throw away her freedom so rashly. After giving Batman the old runaround, he saves her from nearly falling to her death and returns her to Arkham Asylum.
Finally, he reveals a kinship to Harley, confessing that he too suffered from "one bad day." Batman then gives Harley the dress she bought from the boutique.
Overcome with happiness, Harley kisses him. It's a full on smooch that causes even the Dark Knight to crack a smile.
Your girlfriend kissing your sworn enemy? That's gotta be rough.
Harley Ended The Joker's Life
In an alternate reality of the DC Universe, in the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, Harley Quinn finally snaps and takes the Joker's life.
After defeating Superman, a confident Harley Quinn and the Joker celebrated with a wedding that "set Gotham ablaze."
The Joker makes the mistake of playfully mashing Harley's face into the wedding cake. With Harley still wielding the ceremonial wedding cake knife, the Joker's throat is cut open in one swift movement. She was sentenced to Arkham Asylum for life, still wearing her wedding dress.
All it took to crack Harley's well-practiced devotion to the Joker was, in the grand scheme of their tempestuous relationship at least, a minor goof. This is funny in a nihilistic sort of way, and appropriate.
Harley Quinn Hid Their Daughter
In Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 2, it was revealed that Harley Quinn had been keeping her daughter Lucy a secret from her homicidal clown of a lover. This was not just for a small amount of time either-- Lucy is four years old when Harley reveals this bombshell.
Its place on this list might seem debatable at first. After all, this might be one of the only noble, selfless deeds Harley Quinn has committed in her whole life.
However, through the admittedly sick point of view of the Joker it's quite awful; not only was he denied his flesh-and-blood without his knowledge, but he was also denied another plaything through which he could raise a legendary killer. Gotta feel a little bad for Mister J.
Harley Almost Ends Batman's Life
If there's any big bad who's gonna off the Bat, it's gonna be the Joker. Anybody who gets between Joker and Batman's never-ending battle will have hell to pay.
In Paul Dini's Mad Love, Harley Quinn concocts a comic and gruesome plan to end the Dark Knight's life, in a tragically backwards effort to win the Joker's respect and undivided attention.
The plan involves Batman strung upside down with his head dipped in a fish tank full of hungry piranhas.
The joke, Harley helpfully explains, is that from Batman's upside down point of view, the ravenous fish' frown will appear as a smile. "Brilliant," Batman deadpans.
This plan enrages Joker to no end. Both the fact that she would remove Batman from his devious "chess of life" game, and that Harley had to explain how the joke worked, therefore precluding any laughs.
Harley Attempts To Shoot Joker Multiple Times
The direct-to-video Batman: Assault on Arkham begins with Harley Quinn as a free agent (at least until she's forcibly recruited to be a member of a secret black ops group Task Force X -- the Suicide Squad), because she's fed up with the Joker after years and years of his abuse.
During a Task Force X mission, Harley and Deadshot happen to run afoul of the Joker, who's locked up in Arkham Asylum.
All Joker has to do to get Harley to try to end his life is ask if she still has the "bruises." With murder instantly in her heart, Harley steals Deadshot's gun and pumps a full cartridge worth of bullets into his tiny cell.
The bullets ricochet and very nearly put the Joker six feet under. The Joker's split-second look of pure fear while the bullets bounce around is a rare site indeed.
Harley Lays A Solid Beating In "Joker's Millions"
"Joker's Millions" is certainly one of the more lighthearted and whimsical episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. The conceit is that a thoroughly broke, penniless Joker inherits millions of dollars from a deceased relative.
Joker uses some of that money to hire a new Harley Quinn after leaving the actual Harley Quinn stranded at the scene of a crime.
Upon learning from the evening news that Joker was hosting auditions for a new sidekick, Harley seethed and plotted her revenge.
Her revenge involved some good old fashioned, straightforward brutality. After breaking out of jail and posing as a cop, Harley Quinn gave the Joker a sound thrashing with a policeman's nightstick-- offscreen, of course.
Nonetheless, it sounded entirely painful and likely that Harley broke a few bones.
Harley Thwarts Joker's Sanity
In Batman Adventures #3, Harley is dismayed to learn that her beloved homicidal puddin' has been sapped of all his venom and dark wit-- the medication he was on in Arkham Asylum turned him into a harmless, lovey-dovey dope.
Harley Quinn then devises a lunatic scheme to get her old bonkers Joker back. She hires an assassin to take him out, hoping that the shock of it will restore his glorious insanity and unpredictability. Failing that, she reasons that she'll avenge his death by murdering the assassin.
It doesn't work out. However, what does work out is Harley kissing Batman right in front of the Joker, taunting that she always preferred Batman to the Joker.
This causes Joker to instantly revert to his former murderous persona, much to Harley's delight. It's a fun little mirror version of Mad Love.
7. Harley Exposes The Joker
After cutting ties with the Joker for good in Harley Quinn #25 with a broken lip and a few bruises, Harley's devastating finishing move is to finally weaponise her psychology acumen to wound the Joker's ego by exposing just how pathetic he is.
"I finally get why Batman never just killed you all these years. It would give you exactly watcha want."
Aside from Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and Harley Quinn in this issue, few have managed to cut through the Joker's terrifying mystique with such precision.
The Joker has a kind of supernatural ability to heal from terrible physical wounds and beatings; but Harley Quinn shifting the power dynamics so brutally, even for just a moment, is a scar that will mar the vainglorious Clown Prince of Crime for quite some time.
Harley Quinn: Saboteur
The new comic book series Batman and Harley Quinn borrows its aesthetics and tone from Batman: The Animated Series. However, there's one neat subversion: Harley Quinn isn't nearly as much of a pushover in this series as she was in Batman.
To wit, in the very first issue, Harley continually sabotages Joker's attempts to end Batman and Nightwing's lives.
Every weapon that Joker attempts to use against the dynamic duo comically backfires; Harley can barely contain her laughter at the ridiculous site of him.
The reason for Harley's sabotaging? The Joker doesn't pay enough attention to her. She exclaims that his preoccupation and obsession with Batman has pushed her to her limit and enough's enough.
Harley's agency has rarely been so wonderfully pronounced as it was in this issue.
Harley Desecrates Joker's Face
The Joker has committed many heinous, twisted deeds over the years; among them, in terms of pure visceral horror, letting the Dollmaker cut off his own face. Why he would allow such a disgusting act doesn't seem answerable. That's the Joker for you.
However, in Suicide Squad #7, Harley adds her own twisted dimension to this. She manages to acquire Joker's freshly cut face and captures Task Force X teammate Deadshot.
She then stretches out the Joker's face and hangs it over Deadshot's own. Harley then talks to Deadshot like he is the Joker.
A nervous and horrified Deadshot plays along with this sick game, until he manages to get the drop on her and shoots her.
Harley and Ivy: Queens of Crime
The first story to team up Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, and thus the first story to begin a beautiful friendship, was "Harley and Ivy" in Batman: The Animated Series.
When the Joker tosses Harley out of their lair in a bout of rage, Quinn runs into Poison Ivy when they cross paths at a museum heist. They strike up an instant bond and embark on a gleeful crime spree.
Meanwhile, at Joker's hideout, his life becomes a shambles. Then one of his lackeys nervously shows the Joker the latest headline: "New Queens of Crime."
Joker shrieks in shock and rage. Harvey is not only doing better without him, but she's stealing his spotlight as Gotham's main crook.
It was Harley's first taste of the supervillain life outside of the Joker's shadow, and it was fulfilling and fun.
Harley Teams Up With Batman
In the DC animated film Batman and Harley Quinn, Harley Quinn commits an even worse act against her former grinning homicidal paramour than trying to kill Batman-- she teams up with him and his partner Nightwing to thwart global chaos, courtesy of Poison Ivy.
That's at least three betrayals in one right there.
Batman and Harley Quinn is of a piece with the modern incarnation of the character: a wise-cracking, Deadpool-esque antihero who isn't reliant on the Joker.
Less tragic, more funny -- and crudely objectied to the max. Although the movie wasn't a big hit with fans and critics, its spin-off comic Harley Quinn and Batman has fared much better in repurposing and modernising Batman: The Animated Series' tone and style.
Harley Sleeps with Deadshot... And Nightwing.
Although technically Harley Quinn and the Joker were broken up when Quinn slept with Deadshot and later Nightwing, it'd still smart something fierce to hear that your ex-girlfriend has slept with your rival in villainy and your enemy's partner.
In Batman: Assault on Arkham, Harley taunts the Joker, saying that "I have someone new now," even going so far as to imply he's the superior lover.
This triggers the Joker to no end, and most amusingly, plagues his mind for the duration of the movie. When he first confronts Deadshot in Arkham he holds him at gunpoint, "Hey, new guy! I don't like people touching my stuff."
Harley has a brief tryst with Nightwing in Batman and Harley Quinn. Though Joker never finds out about it, it's not difficult to imagine that it'd unglue him for a moment.
Harley Destroys The Daughter of the Joker
"The guy is a dead end!" Harley Quinn screams as she kicks the delusional and schizophrenic Duela Dent, aka "The Daughter of the Joker" into oncoming traffic.
Dent had the Dollmaker sew Joker's decomposing face onto her own and had his vials of blood coursing in her veins. When she refused to believe news of the Joker's death, she embarked on a gruesome murder spree just to get his attention.
Her devotion to the Joker, or at least the idea of what the Joker represents, made Harley Quinn's former starry-eyed devotion seem positively healthy and normal. Joker's Daughter is only part of the Suicide Squad very briefly, as Harley takes her out of commission with a well-placed kick.
Although this doesn't affect the Joker directly, symbolically, there's no greater "F you" to the Joker -- to the person she used to be -- than this.
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Can you think of any other awful things that Harley Quinn has done to the Joker? Let us know in the comments!