#Titanuary #BookReview ‘Harley Quinn-Mad Love’ by Paul Dini and Pat Cadigan

‘Mad Love’ is one of three Titan Books publications which creates a novel from the graphic novel of the same name, without losing any of the brilliance of the source material.

Focussed on DC Batman titles, I have high hopes that will be more in this vein!

About the book…

The definitive story of Harley Quinn by her co-creator, Paul Dini, and Pat Cadigan, revealing the secrets of her history even as she seeks to kill Batman.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel grew up in an abusive household with a criminal and became a psychologist to deal with her own broken family. At Arkham Asylum, she attempted to treat the Joker and instead fell hopelessly in love with him, helping him escape and becoming a member of his organization. Quinzel became Harley Quinn, a bizarre contradiction of violence and mercy. She blames Batman for her inability to maintain a stable relationship with the arch-villain, and that causes her to have an abiding hatred for the hero, who she seeks to kill.

Part of Dr Harleen Quinzel’s dissassociation with Gotham, and it’s vigilante defender, Batman, is the insitence that she will never ‘get’ the place because she is not from there. Brooklyn born and bred, a pivotal childhood outing results in a complete severing of her relationships with her parents and fractures her into the Brooklyn kid, complete with accent, and the determined young woman who wants to use that background as a launchpad for something truly incredible.

Following in her mother’s footsteps, she goes to medical school-a neat name check at this point, to other DC universe stalwarts S.T.A.R Labs-she begins to see her path to notoriety in her chosen field lies in Gotham institution (literally and figuratively)Arkham Asylum

And here, as legend tells it, she becomes unravelled by her association with the inhabitant of the sub sub sub basement…

However, this not a cash in on the origin story of Harley Quinn by simply expanding her seminal story line, Mad Love, into a novel sized doorstop.

This is a re configuring, a re-centering of Harley as the crux of her story, not a creation who is an adjunct of The Joker. One of the finest scenes in the book is based around ehr first therapy session, where she tries to get MAry Louise Dahl, March Harriet, Poison Ivy and Magpie to open up. Each of these women represents a part of Harley’s need to be more than what she is, the therapy session may be ohysically with these other women, but really,they are all parts of her psyche.

The child/woman who wants to recapture the best day of her life. The one whose goal is shiny trinkets to reflect her status and covet them endlessly. The organic self made villain with the deadly touch. And the one who is half of a criminal couple, and whose refuge in her forced accent reflects her need to be a part of that pair again. It’s almost as though the over done-ness of March Harriet is a protestation against her becoming a person in her own right.

Harley is therapising herself, as she aims to take over the care of, and emmancipation of, Mistah J. The main thrust of the narrative is reflected in the cover design-Harleen always was Harley Quinn. She was there from the start, and,make no mistake, this is a bright, intelligent woman who does not lose herself at the sight of Batman’s greatest foe.

She sees both him, and Batman, for what they are and they become parts of her push to take on the mantle of superviallain, but as in life, so in fiction, the men vastly underestimate the women they seek to subvert and put in their places.

This has added to my understanding and appreciation of the character of Harley Quinn, it is subtle, nuanced and multi faceted-like a Coney Beach hall of mirrors, there are multiple perspectives on her life but this tale is 100% Harley’s, through and through. You underestimate her at your peril….

About the authors…

Pat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her early novels and stories all shared a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.

Her first novel,‘Mindplayers’ introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel,‘Synners’ expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.

She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels ‘Synners’ and ‘Fools’.

PaulPaul Dini is an American television producer of animated cartoons. He is best known as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros./DC Comics series, including ‘Star Wars:Ewoks’, ‘Tiny Toon Adventures’, ‘Batman:The Animated Series’, ‘Superman:The Animated Series’, ‘The New Batman/Superman Adventures’, ‘Batman Beyond’ and ‘Duck Dodgers’. He also developed and scripted ‘Krypto The Superdog’ and contributed scripts to ‘Animaniacs’ (he created Minerva Mink), ‘Freakazoid!’, ‘Justice League’ and ‘Justice League:Unlimited’. After leaving Warner Bros. In early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the popular ABC adventure series ‘Lost’.

Paul Dini was born in New York City. He attended the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California on an art scholarship. He attended Emerson College in Boston, where he earned a BFA degree in creative writing. (He also took zoology classes at Harvard University.)

Links-https://patcadigan.wordpress.com/

http://pauldini.com/