Mad Love (1994) vs Be Careful What You Wish For (2016)
When Harley wishes for the Joker to be a nicer and more sensitive guy, the outcome feels pretty familiar - but the roles are reversed.
Okay but this is still domestic violence, regardless of if a woman is doing the throwing around. Who thought this was a good idea??? Flipping the narrative doesn’t make it any better, and it solves nothing. In fact, it’s even worse, because it reinforces that men “can’t be abused” because we’re meant to root for Harley. This was in poor taste.
Also I don’t know the full context, but to say that if Joker were like Harley in the sense that he’d be sensitive, that Harley would immediately start abusing him is just really shitty? This frames it like if only Harley were the dominant one, then SHE’D be the abuser, which isn’t true? Joker and Harley are not equal in thier cruelty. The lack of Joker’s would not bring out Harley’s. And I don’t want to root for Harley abusing her partner for no reason. And that’s what Mad Love is, abuse for no reason. It’s different when she’s defending herself but if this scene has the same context as the original, she’d be doing this just to be shitty and it makes no sense for her no matter how sensitive Joker is.
Also! That plot already played out in “My Boyfriend’s Back”. Like this exact plot. Joker’s therapy finally works and he’s kind and sensitive. Harley likes it at first, but it begins being too much when he doesn’t want to commit crime with her anymore. So she kisses Batman in front of him which makes him snap out of it. And at no point does Harley beat the shit out of him for no reason.
!!!!
I agree so much omg. I couldn’t put it into words but you’re so right. That’s what’s been bothering me so much about this scene.
I’ve mentioned it before, but the context is that Harley wishes for him to be nicer and more sensitive and he ends up being a really sweet guy and she absolutely hates it. Then, when he starts crying nonsensically she kicks him out Mad Love style. The whole thing is maybe three pages long, it’s a short sequence in a longer comic, and I suppose, mostly written for the irony and the Mad Love reference.
Basically, she’s being violent with him for no reason at all, which is pretty out of character. And it’s played off as a joke, because as we all know, abuse against men isn’t real and can be used for comedy.
Also, it’s possible that perhaps the Palmiottis were going for something…different than what they ended up with. These panels also read as a messy attempt to put on the page that what’s happened between Joker and Harley won’t work in this day and age. Or rather, that it won’t fly. But to flip the tables by having the abused become the abuser, regardless of it being a dream sequence, is still in poor taste, as I’ve said below.
I agree with @missharleenfquinzel it does frame Harley as just an aggressor. It also, by virtue of referencing it again in 2016 in a comical light, downplays the serious and harmful events in Mad Love, wherein we’re meant to feel immensely sorry for Harley for the situation and lifestyle she’s tangled up in, as well as admire her resilience and strength.
And, again, it also reinforces the mentality that 1) gentler boys are weak and undesirable, and a larger number of boys read the Harley comics than you’d think, and 2) that a woman committing the same violence isn’t equivocal to when it’s carried out through the hands of a man.
Perhaps in THIS context, the kick and nose tug are merely meant to get a laugh, but that doesn’t change that the comic they’re directly referencing is meant for us to take those scenes and get heart pangs of “something isn’t right, you don’t do that to people who love you.”
The discordant nature we’re all feeling from seeing this page is in part because the Palmiottis have taken Harley, a well-rounded character, dumbed her down, and then tried to reapply serious and previous situations to her, and it just doesn’t stick.
Basically @ DC pls fire the Palmiottis lmao