- Joined
- Oct 20, 2019
Just as I was about to give up my DC Universe subscription they release something entertaining. Gory, actually funny and the art style isn't so bad it puts me off. My chief problem with it is a personal one - which is that I have been hit over the head with "strong, independent woman fighting the patriarchy" media with an agenda so much over the last few years that I have to consciously remind myself that a woman escaping an abusive relationship IS a positive message. Sad to say but that's the sort of reaction years of "men are evil" propaganda tends to foster in its victims. SJW-ism creates such tribalism it's hard for anyone to remember that the rationales they use are actually real. And few pop-culture figures have been appropriated by SJWs the way Harley Quinn has. From her original victim-villain status in the Batman: The Animated Series, she was claimed by feminists as Victim Supreme who had licence to do anything and everything (up to and including killing babies with exploding dolls in one comic) whilst still retaining her moral pedestal above us all. Seriously - I can't think of anyone who has been more of a fantasy outlet for unpleasant people who think brutalising people is fine so long as you act kooky, have been abused and are "reclaiming your power". So the new Harley Quinn series has a serious obstacle to overcome.
But I think the writers might actually be aware of this because they don't so far seem to be making Harley a "good guy". They might also be lampshading this stuff because we have a villain delivering the line: "My fellow White males, let us get back to fucking the poor!" I honestly can't tell yet whether that is unironic or self-satire. But I'm leaning towards the latter because this show is actually funny and SJW-produced media almost never is. Also, it allows actually positive and negative people within a classification whereas SJW media pretty much always works solely around your group identity. I.e. white males bad, queer people good, etc. Whereas here you have Joker an awful person, Riddler a (very loosely) decent person - at least to his friends and both "white males".
Almost everything in this is over-the-top and fun. Commissioner Gordon is a nervous wreck which makes sense for the police chief of Gotham. The Riddler a call back to the original sixties Batman TV show where he was actually funny and wild. And I like that they've actually made him clever again. He's my favourite Batman villain when done right but he so seldom is portrayed as actually a genius. There are too many broken bones (the protruding through your skin kind), flying organs and deaths to count. It's liberal with the cursing. They've taken possibly the most annoying character in current pop-culture and made her entertaining by simply not putting her on a moral pedestal whilst she does awful things.
TL;DR: I enjoyed it. It's funny. Whether I continue to enjoy it will depend if it goes the Margot Robbie / recent comics route of Victim = Moral Superiority route or not. And whether "My fellow White males..." turns out to be satire or not.
Trailer:
But I think the writers might actually be aware of this because they don't so far seem to be making Harley a "good guy". They might also be lampshading this stuff because we have a villain delivering the line: "My fellow White males, let us get back to fucking the poor!" I honestly can't tell yet whether that is unironic or self-satire. But I'm leaning towards the latter because this show is actually funny and SJW-produced media almost never is. Also, it allows actually positive and negative people within a classification whereas SJW media pretty much always works solely around your group identity. I.e. white males bad, queer people good, etc. Whereas here you have Joker an awful person, Riddler a (very loosely) decent person - at least to his friends and both "white males".
Almost everything in this is over-the-top and fun. Commissioner Gordon is a nervous wreck which makes sense for the police chief of Gotham. The Riddler a call back to the original sixties Batman TV show where he was actually funny and wild. And I like that they've actually made him clever again. He's my favourite Batman villain when done right but he so seldom is portrayed as actually a genius. There are too many broken bones (the protruding through your skin kind), flying organs and deaths to count. It's liberal with the cursing. They've taken possibly the most annoying character in current pop-culture and made her entertaining by simply not putting her on a moral pedestal whilst she does awful things.
TL;DR: I enjoyed it. It's funny. Whether I continue to enjoy it will depend if it goes the Margot Robbie / recent comics route of Victim = Moral Superiority route or not. And whether "My fellow White males..." turns out to be satire or not.
Trailer:
