The next comprises spoilers for Harley Quinn Season 3, Episode 5, “It is a Swamp Factor,” which premiered Aug. 11 on HBO Max.
One of the intriguing, welcomed points of Harley Quinn has been the way it managed to juggle a sprawling solid. The collection has labored her supporting crew in fairly properly, paving the best way for Harley and Poison Ivy to embark on a romance, whereas protecting their imaginative and prescient to rebuild Gotham intact. It is also allowed different villains to shine, detailing Joker attempting to redeem himself, and Bane slipping right into a melancholy.
Nevertheless, the present has subverted its heroes, for each good and dangerous. Harley Quinn made Jim Gordon a flawed man working for mayor, turned Swamp Factor right into a poisonous drawback, whereas comically shaping Batman as a hero extra targeted on pleasing Catwoman than repairing the town. Now, as Season 3 rolls on, it is clear two members of Bruce’s household deserve their very own spinoff as a result of how a lot they’ve elevated the humor within the collection in such a brief span of time.
That is none apart from Damian Wayne and Nightwing/Dick Grayson. Up to now, Damian got here off like a whiny, spoiled, entitled brat, which led to Harley and Co. educating him a lesson. The current, funnily sufficient, did the identical when an emo Dick got here again house, annoying his teammates in “There’s No Ivy in Group.”
Damian was the one who laid into him, calling him “dickwad,” and making enjoyable of how he operated like a child. They’d bicker afterward in an escape room as properly, making a wacky dynamic as siblings that did not match what the comics had. There, Dick was extra severe, changing into a dad to Damian after Bruce “died” in Closing Crisis, so a by-product with them at one another’s throats would subvert the lore brilliantly.
Such a route would proceed the universe’s model of foul-mouthed, kooky adventures, with Damian studying extra about being a Robin. He’d additionally discover himself dabbling in household drama with the al Ghuls hoping he’d grow to be a stone-cold killer — one thing Dick did when he left Gotham. It’d even enable former Boy Wonders comparable to Tim Drake and a resurrected Jason Todd, aka the Red Hood, to consider, giving the Bat-family its personal area to breathe relatively than cramming them into Harley’s world. As for Dick, he’d study duty, selflessness and methods to impress a Barbara he is solely simply met.
The present can dial into Dick desirous to take over the cape and cowl, as soon as extra remixing how scared he was of the image within the books. Finally, a Dick and Damian spinoff would cowl a spread of feelings, cowl the loss each confronted in life, whereas pushing them to evolve towards different Bat-rogues not seen within the collection. And most significantly, it’d show to The Dark Knight that they don’t seem to be immature screw-ups in any case.
New episodes of Harley Quinn debut Thursdays on HBO Max.