Avatar
Harleen F. Quinzel


anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. he would be better advised to ... put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart through the world. there, in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the stock exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with real knowledge of the human soul.

Head Canon

Harleen Quinzel, Harley Quinn, Arlecchino

· Harleen is not superstitious, though she is somewhat religious in certain practices.
· She has a tested intelligence quotient (IQ) of 155.
· She worked as a bartender all through college, including her graduate and post-graduate studies.
· White wine gives her a headache.
· Prior to resigning, Harleen had worked at Arkham for eleven years.
· She drives an Acura TSX. It’s black with a black interior.
· She uses a MacBook Pro and an Android phone. Her work desktop is a Dell Optiplex and her work phone is an iPhone.
· Her birthday is 11 September 1972.
· She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Graduate Center at Brooklyn College.
· While at she was earning her Ph.D. she worked as a graduate teaching assistant.
· After graduating medical school, Harleen worked for two years in the trauma center at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.
· She earned her M.D. from SUNY – Downstate Medical Center School of Medicine.
· She studied Sociology for her Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College.
· She has been involved in gymnastics ever since she was five years of age.
· Harleen was considered for the 1988 Olympic team but couldn’t go for family reasons (her father was arrested for money laundering).
· She continues to visit her local gymnastic center and works out there.
· Harleen is a long-time practitioner of hatha-vinyasa yoga, having started in graduate school.
· She is experienced at capoeira and tactical combat escrima. She prefers collapsable batons to yantok.
· Harleen graduated from New Utrecht High School in 1990.
· Harleen’s father, Harold Raymond Quinzel, was released in November on parole after serving five years of a a five to fifteen year term in Blackgate for fraud.
· Her father is Irish-Catholic.
· Harleen’s mother, Ruth Goldberg Quinzel, is Jewish.
· Her younger brother is named Barry.
· Harleen is a semi-observant member of the Jewish faith. She did attend Catholic mass with her father as a child.
· She has a cousin, Joel Harrigan, who is a Catholic priest.
· Prior to being diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Harleen was diagnosed with and was receiving treatment for Major Depressive Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
· Harleen has three documented alters.
· When she was eight years old, her grandfather was murdered in front of her as part of a mob hit.
· Harleen doesn’t have first hand memories of the event. She knows from personal accounts and news stories what happened. Those memories went to the alter identified as Harley.
· Neither Harleen nor Harley know much of anything about the observer alter without a name.
· Harleen is nearsighted.
· She hates wearing glasses, but she would wear them around Steve since he liked them on her.
· The Harley alter has improved vision than Harleen.
· The observer alter has perfect vision.
· Harleen still has the brain tumors she was diagnosed with by Bruce Banner.
· The tumors would sometimes affect her vision and her muscle function. This has stopped since the events after Steve’s murder. Intital treatment slowed the growth and shrunk the size of some, but she is now undergoing a new treatment that will hopefully be more effective.
· Steve Rogers is the only man to have ever asked Harleen to marry him.
· There are two men that Harleen has ever truly, deeply loved. Steve was one of them.
· Harleen has known Bruce Wayne professionally for over ten years and personally within recent years.
· She considers Bruce to be her best friend.
· Steve was her other best friend.
· Harleen’s former apartment was on the fourth floor of a brownstone in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.
· Steve had never been to her apartment.
· Batman may have been on her fire escape once or twice.
· Harleen no longer calls Bruce’s downtown Gotham penthouse home and no longer has a room at the manor. She has her own apartment in Gotham now, in the Riverwalk area.
· Steve and Harleen’s relationship nickname was “Cookies and Milk” Steve was the Cookies and Harleen was the Milk.
· Bruce and Harleen have a set of nicknames, Sexy Beast for him and Boo Boo for her. They may or may not be trolling everyone with these names.
· Harleen and Bruce are no longer dating.
· All three alters care for Steve.
· All three alters care for Bruce, with the Harley alter obsessed with him.
· Most of Harleen’s mother’s side of the family died in either Auschwitz-Birkenau or Dachau during the השואה in World War II.
· Harleen used to hear stories about Captain America from her paternal grandfather and his war buddies.
· She has a wedding ring that her maternal grandmother was able to smuggle out of Dachau.
· Harleen has a horrible track record with men as she is typically attracted to men who are unavailable emotionally or unable to commit.
· She hadn’t been in a serious relationship since her days as a medical doctor.
· Harleen doesn’t believe that she will ever get married.
· While she had developed an instant crush on Bruce on meeting him, she never worked up the nerve to say anything about it until after she started dating Steve. She did have a crush on Bruce when they were both in their teens.
· Harleen is almost two years older than Bruce.
· Harleen was technically sixty years younger than Steve.
· Harleen is unable to have children. An inmate stabbing at Arkham resulted in her having to get a hysterectomy.
· She’s never wanted children. She likes children and is fond of them, even good with them, she’s just never wanted them.
· Since Steve wasn’t able to have children either, her infertility was not an issue. Neither was his. They never had a chance to discuss adoption.
· Only two people have been able to consistently and accurately tell when Harleen’s alters either come forward or are close to the surface: Steve and Bruce.
· Only two people have been able to get Harleen to come back forward as the dominant personality: Steve and Bruce.
· She doesn’t think that Bruce will ever be in love with her but she doesn’t doubt that he cares for her and likes her.
· Her favorite drink is a gin and tonic with a twist of lime. She also likes it with cucumber.
· Her favorite wine is a merlot.
· Her favorite beer is Sam Adams.
· She doesn’t like sweets unless they are bittersweet or have a spice to them, like pumpkin spice.
· Her favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s Black and Tan. Second favorite is Häagen-Dazs’ Pomegranate Chip.
· Her favorite dessert is tiramisu.
· Harleen hadn’t baked since high school, but since Steve had such a sweet tooth she took it back up.
· She speaks both English and Yiddish, with some French, German, and a few phrases in Spanish and Japanese.
· Her shoe size is a 6½ narrow (US).
· She used to smoke socially as a post-grad.
· Her favorite author is P.D. James. Harleen loves English murder-mysteries.
· When she was a child, she wanted to become a psychologist or psychiatrist and go to work for the FBI in their Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico. Her father’s and grandfather’s criminal records changed that.
· In addition to big band and jazz, Harleen also listens to classical music (particularly early and baroque) as well as punk, new wave, and classic rock.
· She will read pretty much any type of book or periodical. For fiction, the only things she can’t stand to read are romances, westerns, and anything with sparkly vampires in it.
· Harleen is licensed to practice medicine and psychiatry in the states of New York and New Jersey.
· Outside of the complaint filed against her for ethics violations with regard to Tony Stark, she has had a clear professional record.
· She has had five malpractice suits brought against her, two dismissed without prejudice, two settled out of court, and one dropped by the complainant.
· She has been called as an expert witness in trials by the Gotham D.A.’s office.
· She’s never broken a bone or had a sprain.
· Harleen doesn’t know how to play any musical instrument.
· She’s a better singer than she thinks she is.
· When she isn’t self-conscious, Harleen is a good dancer.
· Harleen has a strong dislike of guns.
· She prefers to wear jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers to a suit.
· She sleeps in either pajamas or scrubs.
· At home, she is usually barefoot and has/had the habit of taking her shoes off at work.
· Her favorite flowers are red poppies.
· Her favorite perfume is called Sarawak from Crabtree and Evelyn.
· When she wears make-up, it’s usually light and close in tone to her skin.
· She usually wears her hair up in a ponytail or a bun.
· She doesn’t know how to roller skate or ice skate.
· She loves dogs. She likes cats as well, but she loves dogs in particular. She holds a great deal of affection for Beckham, the resident stray cat of the local Jewish temple in the Palisades.
· Harleen is not a natural blonde. Her hair color is a medium brown.
· Her favorite movies are a series, “The Thin Man” series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.
· When she was a small girl, she wanted to be like Emma Peel from “The Avengers” television series.
· She’s a very good poker player, thanks to her father and his friends.
· She’s also an excellent darts player.
· Harleen’s paternal grandfather was a member of the Westies.
· She loves corsets and corsetry.
· She reads any biography or history book on Queen Elizabeth the I.
· Harleen’s three favorite Broadway shows are Cabaret, Chicago, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
· Her favorite baseball team is the New York Yankees and her favorite football team is the New York Giants.
· She is left-handed.
· Harley is ambidexterous.
· It’s not known if the other is right-handed, left-handed, or both.
· Harleen is heterosexual and female.
· Harley is heterosexual and female.
· The third alter seems to identify with being asexual and gender neutral.
· Harleen was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn.
· She is a decent cook to very good cook depending on the recipe.
· She’s suppressed most of her Brooklyn accent.
· Her favorite poet is Seamus Heaney.
· Her favorite colors are black, dark red, and white.
· Due to Bruce’s liking the color on her, she was starting to love dark blue.
· Harleen loves the Commedia dell’arte and the Harlequinade.
· Her favorite character from the Commedia dell’arte is the Hellequin, not the Harlequin. The Hellequin is the leader of the la Mesnée d’Hellequin.
· Her real name is Harleen Frances Quincy. Errors at Ellis Island with her great-grandfather’s surname changed it to Quinzel and a clerical mistake at Kings County Hospital Center changed her middle name to Francis.