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In Gotham City Garage, It’s The Joker Who Follows Harley Quinn’s Lead

By now, pretty much everybody and their mother is familiar with how Harley Quinn and the Joker's storied relationship kicked off. Basically, Dr. Harleen Quinzel fell in love with the Clown Prince of Crime while tending to him at Arkham Asylum, thus leading to her turning to a life of crime. But, more recently, she's liberated herself from him and has since established herself as an independent woman in her very own solo series.

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By now, pretty much everybody and their mother is familiar with how Harley Quinn and the Joker’s storied relationship kicked off. Basically, Dr. Harleen Quinzel fell in love with the Clown Prince of Crime while tending to him at Arkham Asylum, thus leading to her turning to a life of crime. But, more recently, she’s liberated herself from him and has since established herself as an independent woman in her very own solo series.

First being told on the now legendary Batman: The Animated Series, this tango has since been explored in comics, video games and, in what arguably reached the widest audience, the Suicide Squad movie. But thanks to Gotham City Garage, all that will soon change.

Keeping up with the latest wildly popular alternate universe takes on DC’s most iconic heroes like Bombshells and Injustice 2, this post-apocalyptic tale will offer a never before seen perspective on the likes of Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Silver Banshee and, of course, Harley Quinn.

As I said earlier, we normally think of Harley as following the Joker’s lead, but with this ambitious series, writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly intend on making the opposite a reality. Here’s what they had to say regarding that when speaking with Screen Rant at San Diego Comic-Con:

“So in our universe, for instance, Harley Quin self actualizes. There is no Joker, so she doesn’t become Harley Quinn as a reaction to The Joker. She becomes Harley Quinn because of things in her own life that force her towards that rebel action. This Harley Quinn inspired The Joker, not the other way around. We have a Joker, but he’s her lackey, he’s following her around, he’s always trying to get her attention.”

That sounds pretty interesting for a book based off a line of collectibles, now doesn’t it? Normally, I’d scoff at the idea of such a Joker, but, again, taking into account that this is an alternate version of him, I’m very excited to see how this knave appearing as if he “walked out of a William Gibson novel” pans out.

Gotham City Garage debuts August 16, with a new chapter released biweekly through October 2017 and weekly thereafter, with print issues available in October.