WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Batman: The Adventures Continue #12 by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Ty Templeton, Mark Morales, Monica Kubina and Josh Reed, on sale now.
When it was announced that Jason Todd would be introduced to the DC Animated Universe through Batman: The Adventures Continue, it was only a matter of time until Jason Todd's apparent demise found its way into the world that began with Batman: The Animated Series.However, fate was slightly kinder to the second Robin in this universe, even if the results were the same.
In Batman: The Adventures Continue #12, The Joker has captured Jason Todd and intends to kill him with a crowbar in a scenario that's very much the same as the one from Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo's Batman: A Death in the Family. However the Joker's partner, Harley Quinn is present for the Joker's beating in this world. And her presence alone changes Jason's fate and shows just how instrumental Harley is to curbing the Joker's worst impulses, even when she is not always successful.
While Joker begins hurting Jason with his crowbar, Harley begins to show signs of unease with the concept of killing Robin. To her, beating the boy to send a message is one thing, but actually killing him is a line she thinks the Joker should not cross. Angered by this lack of dedication and subservience to him, Joker has Harley thrown out of the warehouse they were hiding out in. This gives Harley the opportunity to demonstrate that, even though she is in love with the Joker, there are some lines she will not cross for him.
Harley tells Batman where Batman to the Joker and Jason's location, and she leads him there. Although the Dark Knight declines, Harley even offers to help take down the Joker. From that point on, the story focuses on Batman's efforts to save Jason after he handcuffed Harley to prevent her from interfering if she had second thoughts. Still, Harley's efforts to run damage control on the situation allowed Batman to do something he never got the chance to do in Batman: A Death in the Family: be there to save Jason. Thanks to Harley, Batman arrived just in time to stop Joker from delivering a fatal blow to Jason. Of course, the issue still ends with Jason missing and presumed dead, but his fate was caused due to his inability to let go of his anger after he triggered a series of explosions that ended up seemingly killing him.
One has to wonder what might have happened had he not handcuffed Harley. Prior to alerting him to the Joker's location, Harley showed a willingness to fight back to stop the Joker. But more than anything, Harley's actions show that she has the incredible ability to limit the Joker's capacity for violence. It has long been established that she is the more sane of the couple, but her attempts to save Robin reveal that she has the power to influence key events of the DC Universe that pertain to the Joker's violent actions.
Granted, Harley has not always been successful, but she has enough pull with her puddin' to at least distract him for a moment. In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Harley and Ivy" she tries to defend Poison Ivy from her ex when he shows up at their hideout. This was one of the first instances of Harley's inner resolve shining through and preventing the Joker from walking a path she refused to follow him down.
Defending her friend was one thing, but trying to save the life of Robin, one of her ostensible enemies, is something else entirely. Harley did not demonstrate loyalty in this instance, but rather a moral compass that was strong enough to steer the Joker away from killing a child.
If Harley is capable of altering one of the DC Universe's greatest Joker related tragedies, then it stands to reason that she could have given other terrible moments in Batman's career a more positive outcome, such as preventing Joker from paralyzing Barbara Gordon in Allan Moore and Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke. Fortunately for Batman, Harley Quinn is on his side in more recent comics and the good she's done has made a great difference in the Dark Knight's life.