Shifting from Batgirl, Doctor Harleen Quinzel, better known as the Joker’s girlfriend, Harley Quinn, started out as a henchwoman on Batman: The Animated Series. The show maintained a balance between dark and kid-friendly, notably showing the villains’, sidekicks', and innocent bystanders’ perspectives of Gotham City instead of focusing solely on the main characters like Commissioner Gordon or Batman. Based on her outstanding popularity as the Joker’s henchwoman, she became a series regular, working with the Joker or teaming up with Poison Ivy, and was fully integrated into DC Comics. continuity in September 1993.

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Shannon Austin writes:

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When Harley Quinn first appears in Paul Dini’s comic Batman: Harley Quinn, her debut into the Batman comic universe, she is buried under some rubble after a near-death encounter with the Joker. Another female rogue who has the ability to control plants, Poison Ivy, finds Harley wounded, decides to take pity on her, and nurses the woman back to health. During this initial meeting between the two women, Harley recounts how she had been the Joker’s psychiatrist before falling in love with him and ultimately becoming his henchwoman.

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Austin goes on to talk about female agency and how Harley is decidedly as dangerous as the Joker to Batman because of societal constructs. “As women in positions of power and dominance, they are seen as a threat and must therefore be controlled or otherwise diminished by men.” Whether by Joker as a henchwoman or Batman as an enemy, Harley’s agency is infringed upon, despite suffering from Stockholm’s Syndrome and being abused by the Joker constantly. In Batman: The Animated Series, Injustice: Gods Among Us, the comics, and even in the recent Suicide Squad movie in 2016, Harley Quinn shows signs of being in abusive relationship.

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John Goodwin and Izzat Tajjudin point out that:

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Fictional depictions of mental health diagnoses may make for dramatic and entertaining viewing, but such inaccuracies present audiences with misinformation and contribute to stigma. Mental health issues are trivialized in Batman stories. These stories, whether in comics or movies, are often based around the eponymous hero’s attempts to recapture an escaped inmate and return him/her to Gotham City’s mental health care facility: Arkham Asylum.

 

In Harley’s portrayal in the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, she lives in an alternate reality free of the Joker and yet creates the “Joker Clan” in honor of his death by the hands of Superman. In this reality, the Clown Prince of Crime was responsible for the death of Lois Lane, her unborn child and the destruction of Metropolis and his murder marks the beginning of Superman’s transformation from hero to tyrant. Even in death, Harley’s Stockholm Syndrome from her time with the Joker continues to haunt her. When she meets the other Joker from the main DC universe, she’s tempted to return to her old way of life. But when she discovers this Joker cares as little for her as her “Mistah J” did, she is happy to send him back to his dimension.