One of DC Comics fan-favorite characters in recent years is Harley Quinn. Originally created for Batman: The Animated Series, her popularity skyrocketed into film, video games, and of course comic books. The character has evolved quite a bit over the years, from the love-sick psychiatrist of the Joker to a member of the Suicide Squad and her own anti-hero.
A humorous villain turned hero in the vein of Marvel’s Deadpool, the character has faced many challenges over the years. From heroes she battled as a villain to villains who came after her when she became a hero, here are the ten toughest foes Harley has ever faced.
10 Batgirl
One of the first foes worth mentioning of Harley’s has to be Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon. The first thing that binds these two together is that Batgirl fights alongside Batman, while Harley used to fight alongside Batman’s nemesis, the Joker. However in recent years the two have clashed outside of the men they worked for previously, striking out on their own as time went on.
While Harley has since worked with Barbara and the Birds of Prey on occasion, she is not averse to battling Batgirl on occasion, even in the Rebirth era during a holiday issue of Batgirl’s Rebirth era series.
9 Amanda Waller
The next foe on Harley’s side of things is Amanda Waller, the secret government operative in charge of putting together the Suicide Squad. For an ordinary human, Amanda Waller holds a lot of power over the superhero community. She is a ruthless operative who is willing to sacrifice anyone for national security, she is as cold as they come.
She holds the switch to the brain bomb in the villains heads of the Suicide Squad, including Harley. While Amanda is technically her boss, Harley would just as soon take Amanda out herself if she could. The two are constantly butting heads with one another.
8 Gaggy
One unusual character that had become a foe of Harley’s during the Gotham City Sirens series is Gaggy, aka Gagsworth A. Gagsworthy. The Joker’s solution to having his own version of Robin, Gaggy was a tightrope walker who was ousted by the Flying Graysons and was forced to become a clown.
Teaming up with the Joker, Gaggy saw the Joker’s turn from the Clown Prince of Crime to a psychopath as the turning point in their falling out, and saw Harley as partly responsible for his former friend/mentor’s “fall from grace.” He pretended to be the Joker and attacked the Sirens, but failed.
7 Jim Gordon
The next foe that Harley has faced on several occasions would be the Police Commissioner of Gotham himself, Jim Gordon. The father of Barbara Gordon and the longtime ally of Batman himself, Jim Gordon has been responsible for the arrest of Harley Quinn on more than one occasion over the years.
Often arrested while taking in or attempting to take in the Joker for one crime or another, Harley’s hatred for law enforcement could partially stem from her many run-ins with Jim Gordon. This has led to many manhunts led by Jim Gordon to take down Harley during her villainous years.
6 Joker Edwin
To say that Harley has been an inspiration to many over the years would be an understatement. While a villain for much of her early career, her humor and antics while transitioning into a more heroic role over the years has led to some fandoms being born in her name both on her villainous side and her heroic side.
One major foe of Harley’s is in fact the President of the Harley Quinn Fan-club, Edwin, who turned himself into the Joker. On the Joker’s orders, he transformed himself into the Joker after Harley refused to visit him while he was in prison.
5 Minor Disaster
As fans enter the new age of DC Comics and witness old villains and heroes creating new generations of metahumans and creating their own legacies, Harley Quinn was introduced to one villain’s legacy herself when a new villain arrived, Minor Disaster. It turns out that she is the daughter of the DC Comics villain and amoral hero, Major Disaster.
Desperate to prove her power and worth to her father, Minor Disaster went about trying to destroy Harley Quinn’s image when her social status online climbed to astronomical numbers. She also caused a small volcano to arrive on Coney Island, but Harley helped to avert that disaster.
4 Harley Sinn
When Harley’s rise from criminal and villain turned slowly towards more entertaining and perhaps even heroic means, she started to gather the attention of others who either idolized her or wanted to see her destroyed. She got a little bit of both when she met Constance Brand, otherwise known as Harley Sinn.
Sinn was the daughter of a wealthy New York City real-estate mogul who was raised by her father’s servants rather than her parents. Becoming detached and violent, she eventually turned to crime. She tried to join Harley’s gang but was sucker punched in an alley, and decided instead to destroy Harley’s life.
3 Red Orchid
One villain Harley encountered while working with the Suicide Squad was none other than Red Orchid. Once known as Chang Ming-Zu, she was a scientist who was caught alongside her brother in an explosion when Superman’s battle with a villain accidentally destroyed a geothermal reactor under Metropolis, changing both of their physiologies.
She became the villain Red Orchid, running the Chang Gang out of Chinatown in Gotham. Working for Basilisk, she was holding onto the thought to be late husband of Black Canary, Kurt Lance, and has since been shown to be working in China, fighting Super-Man of China alongside the Justice League of China.
2 Batman
The second most powerful foe that Harley has faced in her long career is also one of the most revered and feared heroes of the DC Universe, Batman. Batman was in fact the first hero to face off with Harley in her career, as she began working as her love interest Joker’s sidekick.
As the years have gone on, their status as enemies has fluctuated. While they have combated while she served as a member of the Suicide Squad, she has worked to prove herself worthy in his eyes in more recent years, trying to show she’s not the psychopathic monster Joker made her into years ago.
1 General Zod
The most powerful foe that Harley has faced in DC Comics has to be the ruthless, powerful Kryptonian General, General Zod. In the Rebirth era of Suicide Squad comics, Zod was found to be harbored inside a device that served as a prison leading into the Phantom Zone, which Amanda Waller had Task Force X to retrieve.
Harley, despite her lack of powers, fought alongside the team to take down the monster known as Zod. When he broke free of his restraints at Belle Reeve and removed his own brain bomb, Harley tried to drive him back into the Phantom Zone.