The very existence of the Harley Quinn <\/em>animated series<\/a> has always been a testament to its titular chaos agent\u2019s status as one of the most wildly popular characters Warner Bros. and DC have ever created<\/a>. Instead of trying to directly adapt any one specific plot that\u2019s defined Harley over the years, the show has woven many of her now-signature quirks, like her love for Poison Ivy and her dalliances with antiheroism, into a definitive take on who she is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As has been the case in the past, a big part of what makes Harley Quinn<\/em>\u2019s fourth season sing is its ability to toe the line between celebrating and taking potshots at the larger superhero genre. But the thing that really sets this chapter of Harley Quinn <\/em>apart and makes it feel like the series is still nowhere near losing steam is the way it steps back to have more than a little bit of fun with the reality of how large Harleen Quinzel looms in the grand scheme of the DC brand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now that she\u2019s dumped the Joker (Alan Tudyk) for good, established herself as an independent villain, and finally made it official with Poison Ivy (Lake Bell), Harley Quinn<\/em>\u2019s latest season sees Harley (Kaley Cuoco) reinvent herself as the newest member of the Bat Family.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With Batman (Diedrich Bader) still absent from Gotham, Batgirl (Briana Cuoco), Nightwing (Harvey Guill\u00e9n), Robin (Jacob Tremblay), and Alfred (Tom Hollander) need all the help they can get keeping the city\u2019s cutthroat criminals in check. But with Ivy now leading the Legion of Doom, Harley\u2019s hero turn isn\u2019t just a matter of switching teams \u2014 it\u2019s her signing up to punch out loved ones in the name of justice, and much of this season revolves around what a precarious situation that is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As season 4 opens, Harley Quinn<\/em> seems like it\u2019s just poking fun at how Harley Quinn\u2122 has gone through multiple reinventions that made her a far more morally complex character as she jumped from Batman: The Animated Series<\/em> to DC\u2019s comic books and beyond. But woven into the show\u2019s jokes about how uncomfortable Harley\u2019s fixation with Nightwing\u2019s ass<\/a> makes him or the kinky strain Ivy and Harley\u2019s new jobs put on their relationship is an interesting bit of commentary about what Harley Quinn has come to represent for DC Entertainment and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When DC Comics\u2019 artist-turned-publisher-turned-president<\/a> Jim Lee referred to Harley<\/a> as the \u201cfourth pillar of [DC\u2019s] publishing line\u201d back in 2016, he was talking about how significant a presence she\u2019d become in the publisher\u2019s monthly books, where she was then starring in four different ongoing series. Unlike the other three pillars \u2014 Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman \u2014 the proliferation of Harley-centric comics spoke to a relatively recent but undeniably consistent growth in interest from fans rather than her being a foundational part of DC\u2019s brand identity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harley didn\u2019t have a particularly deep canon compared to her peers in her early days of fame, and it wasn\u2019t until writer Amanda Conner and artist Jimmy Palmiotti took over the Harley Quinn <\/em>comics in 2014 that it felt like that was beginning to change. But almost as soon as she debuted, fans were as ready to devour new stories about her as they were eager to drop cash on merchandise emblazoned with her face. Unsurprisingly, DC Entertainment has spent years seizing on this opportunity with projects ranging from kids shows like DC Super Hero Girls to <\/em>more mature fare like Batman: The Enemy Within<\/em>, both live-action Suicide Squad <\/em>films, and Cathy Yan\u2019s Birds of Prey <\/em>feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s funny about Harley Quinn<\/em> sending Harley off to the Batcave to be scolded about her inability to refrain from killing is how the show\u2019s tapping into the idea of her being more of an antihero than a straight-up villain and making fun of how that shift for her across DC\u2019s brand has sometimes made it seem like the company doesn\u2019t know what to do with her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Batman\u2019s more traditional proteges begrudgingly accept Harley\u2019s help tracking down a masked psychopath who\u2019s mutilating rich and beautiful Gothamites, Harley Quinn<\/em> repeatedly emphasizes that her criminal background actually makes her pretty damn good at hero work. Similarly, Harley\u2019s own twisted moral compass is what makes it somewhat easy for her to take \u201cno\u201d for an answer when Ivy refuses to give her details about who the Gotham butcher might be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In both situations, you\u2019re meant to understand that \u2014 more than her athleticism or analytic mind \u2014 Harley\u2019s innate adaptability is what makes her formidable and capable of doing things that others can\u2019t. For all that capability, however, you\u2019re also meant to understand that Harley\u2019s determination to become a member of the Bat Family isn\u2019t working \u2014 at least in part \u2014 because she\u2019s been pushed to this point in her life by a forward-moving momentum that\u2019s out of her control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Harley Quinn <\/em>stops short of flat-out saying that its central character\u2019s popularity can only do so much to counteract her feeling overexposed and stretched thin by an enterprise that knows how much value she brings to the table. But as Harley\u2019s stressing about whether she\u2019s being true to herself by working with the Bats, it seems very much like Harley Quinn<\/em>\u2019s trying to make a point about how a character becoming a big fish in the IP pond<\/a> can lead to their ending up in messy situations<\/a> that don\u2019t exactly feel \u201cright\u201d or true to who they are. What does feel very on-brand, though, is Harley Quinn <\/em>digging into all of this while sticking to its guns about keeping Harley\u2019s queerness, crassness, and irreverence regarding the rest of DC\u2019s brand quite intact \u2014 all of which are feats, especially in Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s David Zaslav era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n