Is Harley Quinn a Mary Sue?

It's the name almost every writer and fan dreads to hear... Mary Sue.

It's a term used to describe a writer insert character... as in, this character is so blank it's an opportunity for the reader to insert themselves into the character's shoes and live out some brief wish fulfilment. It describes a character who has seemingly no flaws, who is loved by all and is so skilled or unusually gifted that it's kind of ridiculous.

Notably used, perhaps unfairly for mainly female characters. For example, no one bats an eye that a young Luke Skywalker - a dust farmer from butt pluckin' nowhere picks up the force fairly easily and ends up helping to bring down the Empire. Anakin had a similar story with a tragic ending but still rose to power pretty quickly. But if Rey does it - also from the same planet, at around the same age or maybe younger - she's a Mary Sue.

Luke uses his Womp Rat shootin' skills to take down a Death Star, Anakin is the only human good enough to build and race Pods...Rey uses her mechanical know how to fly the Falcon as good as Han and Chewie. All have a natural aptitude for the Force.
Why is it different?

In saying that, yes, there are still horrible examples of Mary Sue (or Gary Stu) characters out there. Probably the most famous one of recent times is Bella Swan from Twilight.

Despite claiming she was so plain and not like other girls, she has her literal pick of men falling at her feet. Her only character trait and flaw is that she is 'clumsy'. She has a magic power that blocks the other vampire's own powers, and ends up saving everyone. She manages to be the only vampire not consumed by blood-lust and can control herself. She also manages to have a unique snowflake creep baby with further powers even though she shagged a dead dude. Everyone likes her and their lives revolve around her for no apparent reason.


So I thought that there could be more to my hate of the new Hardly Quinn than just the fact that's she's over marketed and is no longer the same character that I began collecting.

To clarify... what makes a Mary Sue and would Hardly Quinn fit the bill?

• Stylised name
  
  Well there's no escaping this one. Harleen Quinzel - Harley Quinn... Most villains have stupid 'real' names... for example, Victor Fries, Joe Coyne, Roy G Bivolo, Lillian Rose, Edward Nygma, Joe Kerr to name a few. With names like that, how can they NOT grow up and enter a life of crime?
  
  
• Name describes the character or their traits
  
  As above, Harley Quinn is a harlequin. Or, she used to be, anyway.
  
  
• Special pets or similar
  
  Classic Harley Quinn had hyenas... Hardly Quinn has a dachshund and an entire menagerie of pets (mostly dogs, but also birds and other shit) who may or may not be alive as we never really see them anymore. Maybe Nathan was the only survivor?
  
  
• Dark past
  
  Everyone knows that Harley Quinn is a domestic abuse survivor.. most everyone casually overlooks the fact that she is a blatant murderer who hung out with the Joker because she's hawt. Duh.
  
• Every character loves them
  
  Yay... everyone loves Harley Quinn! This is especially true of Hardly Quinn - the wannabe Quinn as she is portrayed in her solo comic. As well as dating Red Tool, Poison Ivy and Mason Macabre, she's had two different gangs of multiple girls who dress in her discarded discoloured off cuts and call themselves versions of her stage name. Her tenants love her, someone gave her an entire building, her roller derby team just loves her despite the fact she can't actually roller derby properly, her residents in her real job just adore her despite the fact she's hardly there and she forces other DC characters to be friends with her.
  
  It seems like every issue has a new 'friend' for Harley to bring home because the writers needed her number of background characters to exceed that of the entire DC universe. It didn't matter that none of these characters were fleshed out at all.
  By comparison - Classic Harley Quinn - was always seen by her peers as exasperating and dopey.. which in itself is exasperating due to how much exasperation Hardly Quinn makes me feel. 

• Masters anything with ease/unusual physical traits
  
  Easy! Her lazy Joker backstory carried on leaving her with that stupid skeleton white skin and imitation jester cap/movie dip dye hair. As well as that she literally does anything she sets out to do and never suffers any repercussions. Add to this her fourth wall breaking and her special ability to 'crazy talk' to certain objects and we have a whiner!
  
• No flaws
  
  This category is a bit hit and miss - Hardly has many... many flaws and yet people around her and Hardly Quinn herself do not see them as flaws. Hardly is a horrible person, constantly killing people yet if someone else does it she lectures them about how bad killing is.
  
• people who hate them are bad guys
  
  See above re: hypocritical killer. Also see: Harley Sinn - inherently a bad guy despite being more reasonable than Hardly as well as the mayor - who is by no means a good guy but Hardly gunning for him 'just because' has lead to more deaths than actual good.
  
• prone to acts of heroism
  
  Or what she thinks is heroism. She has some moments like rescuing a dog - but ruins it by killing that guy, and then shoving said dog into a poop filled level of just animals, and it is shown that those animals have and will eat people. So... not really heroism. Basically anytime she decides she needs to do something, someone dies. Or nearly dies, like when she takes a forgetful aged relative's dodgy memories as fact and almost kills their family because she didn't bother to vet them first.
  
• power fantasy
  Probably the main reason a cheap bit of merchandise like a inflatable mallet in black and red with dominoes either side can sell for upwards of $25.
  People would love to be able to whack people with mallets/baseball bats or kill someone they hate but in reality we can't do that without repercussions. Hardly has none of that. She's applauded for being 'crazy' and acting out violently.
  
• the nature of other characters change when she's around
  
  Oh yes. Poison Frickin' Ivy. Once a proud Batman villain with an ecoterrorist agenda, half human half plant, seductor of men to get what she wants...
  Now a brain dead generic love interest purely for Hardly Quinn because ooh look, we're sooo diverse and the fans totally want it! All she does is coo over her 'cute little psycho', when she's not around all she does is talk about Hardly etc. This is a far cry from literally every other interaction/iteration we've seen with the pair.
  
  As you may well know, I'm against the pairing purely because Ivy is a terrible choice for Harley but this character... is Poison Ivy in name only. It's like that Superhero Girls TV show version but made for sex. It's creepy and gross.
  
  Secondly... the Joker. I was not a fan of the Hardly Quinn bashing up Joker in the prison issue because it was pure fan service and nothing else. Besides, every time the Joker appears in this comic (whether it's actually him or not.. I really don't care) the characterisation is so poor.
  
  Also, every other character. There is a huuuuuge list of people in Hardly's new world however anyone with their own personality is so rare.. pretty much the list is just Big Tony and he barely scrapes in. 

The Verdict?

Well, you all know I'm biased against this particular comic but now I've actually picked it apart it's pretty painful to realise this stupid comic is popular enough to change the public's perception of what the Harley Quinn character was meant to be. This shouldn't be surprising in a world where not only Twilight exists and made a butt load of money, but a dank fan fiction based on THAT emerged and made a butt tonne of money too. 

I've always thought that the solo comic she's in reads just like a fan fiction as opposed to a new comic based on a character. While going through the list above - which by the way is not the complete list but more the general key of things - definitely shows that Hardly Quinn is leaning towards being a Mary Sue quite heavily.. it does not guarantee that she is one. 

People read books and comics for all sorts of reasons and one of those reasons is wish or fantasy fulfillment. If Hardly Quinn is a Mary Sue but you still like it.. well, you do you I guess. 

Personally, I can't stand what they've done to Harley Quinn but that's just me.