DC Comics novels - Harley Quinn: Mad Love Hardcover – November 13, 2018

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I'd heard that the first one in the novelization series (Killing Joke) wasn't very good. But I'd already pre-ordered, so I decided to give it a chance. WOW. You could completely forget the entire idea that this has anything to do with Batman, comics, a TV show, or any character you've ever seen before. You could come to this book completely fresh, knowing absolutely nothing about who Harley is, and still get at least as much out of it. This is just an amazingly well-written story.What makes it so good? I think the biggest reason is that the author weaves together a lot of the backstory we already know in a very clever way BUT also makes the entire story seem so fresh. You'll recognize a number of elements that we've seen in Harley's story before, in some cases, pieces that were there from the very beginning. But they're put together in new ways (sometimes even neatly retconning things that didn't make sense at the time.) And it somehow all seems so new and unexpected.Even though we KNOW that Harley is going to have to end up with the Joker, for example, it really seems like she might not, like she might be able to pull herself back from the edge in time. We feel her conflicted emotions and thoughts, and we feel how she's pulled into his seductive web, day by day. This is when we really see how smart it was to turn this story into a book. There are ways that we just can't get into the character's head from visual media, but in a book, we can. Harley's motivations have never felt so understandable before, and I think that the author also does a good job of showing how and why she was able to escape the Joker's spell. But the ending of the book is also understandable (I won't give it away here, because even though we've seen the events before, I don't think readers have ever really understood so completely why Harley ended up where she did at the point where she finally got away from the Joker.)If there's a weakness in the writing, I think it's that we're never really shown exactly why the Joker continued to be so appealing to Harley after she got him out of Arkham. This is not a book meant for little kids, so couldn't we have seen a little of the intimate spell he clearly cast over her? There are hints that the sex was amazing, but really... I think we could have gotten a little more, and it could have seemed more believable that Harley would have stuck with him.On the other hand, one thing the author does that is very clever is to shorten the amount of time that Harley was actually in a relationship with the Joker. We never know exactly how long it was, but there are enough pop culture and current tech references so that it's easy to figure out that it couldn't have been too long. My guess is about a year, no more than two, and the way that he treated her really started to go downhill a few months before the end. Keeping her with him as long as they were together in the comics would have made Harley's character ridiculous.Overall, I guess I would say that with a few flaws, this is a really good book, probably much better than it had any right to be. You don't need to have read every single comic that ever existed and dissected them all on your own Youtube channel to appreciate this. (I guarantee that I haven't.) Pick it up for an engaging, fascinating, and thought-provoking read.

DUUUDE!!!! what is up with Paul Dini ? For the life of me I cant understand for the life of me why he insist on make our beloved Harley Quinn into a bad lifetime story about a sexual dysfunctional adult. The reason I believe (IMHO) that the masses fell in love with the Harley we all were introduced in the Batman Animated series is that she was relatable and her sweet caring attitude towards those who suffered and yet she was wild and violent especially towards who threatened who she loved. The first two chapters hint at this especially in her younger years but it comes off creepy, when she calls her Daddy which in itself is innocent but the author goes overboard in a subliminal sexual undertone. I hope the rest of the book strays from this theme

The making of a villain: What turns a person? Innate evil, the creep of greed, or the slights of the system, the slow burn of an oppressive bureaucracy that no one individual can rally against… but it’s even easier when the catalyst is The Joker.Growing up in Brooklyn, Harleen Quinnzel is almost forgotten amongst the diapers of her three younger brothers. With a father in jail and a mother working two jobs to make ends meet, Harley keeps to school and gymnastics to stay on the straight and narrow. She learns from a young age to not trust criminals nor the police. Harleen drifts towards psychiatry in college and then it is her emphasis in medical school. Intelligent and eager to help others wronged by the system, she is hired on at Arkham Asylum and starts her rounds with some of the most famous criminals from the Gotham underworld.Mad Love is an origin story that starts at the beginning and exposes the transformation of Harley’s character from Brooklyn upstart to the Joker’s exclusive therapist to Mr. J’s jester-sidekick. Most of the story is told through her point of view, yet when the camera shifts to The Joker and Batman, we see what she truly becomes. The metamorphosis occurs gradually through psychological manipulation: The Joker’s two pronged attack of guilt and flattery. And I absolutely loved how the changing of her name was subtly used to indicate the rebirth of her new character.Although there is action, great action and yes, Batman does make an appearance… the greatness of this book lies in its dedication to the vile twist of a character’s soul. So many calculating threads are laid at the beginning of the book that can be seen making their way through the entire narrative. Great nostalgia and a well-developed voice make Mad Love a must-read for fans of Harley Quinn and Batman.Personal Note: I have great memories of running home from school to watch Batman: The Animated series when I was a kid. Arleen Sorkin’s voice is fried into my brain with those indelible lines, and I heard it every time Harley opened her mouth in this book. Much love!

As a Harley superfan I can say without hesitation that this is NOT the definitive story of Harley Quinn. What it actually is is a transcript of the 'Mad Love' episode from 'Batman: The Animated Series', sandwiched between a newly written prologue and epilogue... and quite frankly all three pieces are at odds with one another. This story is supposed to be about 'classic' Harley (or so the cover illustration would have us believe), but it soon becomes obvious that this is not the story of a beautiful, intelligent, courageous and fiercely loyal woman, caught up in a intricately complex relationship of love, devotion, need, domination, oppression and abuse... physically, mentally and emotionally. Those concepts are now politically incorrect in our 'enlightened' world, and so it has just become a story about a woman who throws off the shackles of male oppression and strikes out on her own as an independant icon of female empowerment. Now while I in no way support, advocate or tolerate the domination and abuse of either gender, the true story of Harley Quinn concerns an intricate and sensitive relationship between two emotionally fragile and mentally unstable individuals that need each other as much as they don't. That is not a story that can easily be told in a book that tries to be a gritty novel and a slapstick comic book all at the same time.I had great hopes for this book in the first few chapters as it laid out an evenly paced backstory of Harley's early years before becoming an intern at Arkham Asylum. However, after reading what was basically an almost word for word transcript of the TV and comic book versions of 'Mad Love' (with a couple of unnecessary changes), the book was painfully vague about exactly the reasons why and how Harley fell in love with The Joker and missed out a whole period of time when the two would have gone on the numerous crime sprees covered in other graphic novels, madly in love like Gotham's very own Bonny and Clyde. The story then became rushed, and seemingly just to move Harley's character onto that depicted in the Amanda Conner comics in order to explain to newcomers why Harley is now an unhinged misandrist.I really wanted this book to be the definitive story, but it's a Frankenstein's monster of incomplete, undeveloped ideas, hashed together in a confusing world of pseudo-reality where references to real-world companies like Google, Amazon and YouTube and real-world places like Coney Island and Brooklyn sit alongside unreal and farcical ones like 'Happy Happy Joytown'. In an attempt to give the story some credibility by offering real-world references, all that happens is that the story gets lost between the realms of our world and the comic book world. As a Harley fan, from her earliest appearance, I really wish I hadn't read this book now as it gave me so little that was new or insightful about such an incredibly interesting character and went some way to ruining all that I do already know. I'm just glad that I didn't waste my money on purchasing the hardback edition.That being said, if I had purchased the hardback edition, I would at least have a physical copy of the beautifully illustrated cover artwork, which in my opinion, is this book's only redeeming feature.

I've been a fan of Harley Quinn and the Batman mythos for years now, and whilst I love the classic comics, I also love a good book, and that's what this is. An amazing adaptation of both the original comic and the animated tv episode, whilst also going into greater depth about Harleen's past and her motivations. Though I will warn that this is a very adult version of the story, holding nothing back when it comes to the brutality of crime.

Love this book! Massive Harley Quinn fan and it gave a great insight into her backstory and relationship with the joker. Would recommend for any Harley fan!

Arrived yesterday. Purchased as a Christmas gift. Book us exactly as shown.

Utterly fabulous, you can imagine the batman animated style illustrating it all the way through