While I maintain that there haven’t been any “bad” episodes of Harley Quinn, there have been some I would consider average or unsurprising. Unfortunately, “Catwoman” is one of them. Not bad, but not great… it’s an episode that goes through the motions, exploring things that just aren’t that interesting.
Harley wants to go after Mr. Freeze but, to do that, she has to get through his impenetrable ice wall. To do that, she has to steal Firefly’s flamethrower from Dr. Trap. To do that, she has to enlist the aid of Catwoman. Poison Ivy, in the meantime, is crushing on Catwoman who she sees as a hero and the person she could be if she didn’t have any attachments which is unfortunate because Kite Man decides to take the opportunity to steal a ring and ask Ivy to marry him. Also, Harley teams up with Kite Man. Also, Riddler escapes from Doctor Psycho who has to capture him before Ivy gets back.
If anything, this episode has too much going on without enough progression of the story. Harley’s mission to take over New New Gotham is basically put on pause so that the characters can have an inconsequential side quest. Normally, this wouldn’t be a terrible thing as inconsequential side quests can be pretty fun, but this one just dumps so much on you and none of it is really worth caring about.
I will say, though, that I loved the interpretation of Catwoman as the James Bond/David Copperfield of crime. Her continually stealing things (including every scene she’s in) without anyone noticing was a great running gag, but Ivy fawning over her every move and fangirling like a wide-eyed little puppy seemed so much out of character for her. Ivy is the adult of the group and, although she has her own issues, having her be the one embroiled in hero worship was just weird and off-putting.
I enjoyed Harley and Kite Man teaming up as Kite Man is one of my favorite side characters, but the teamup wasn’t taken advantage of as it should have been. Harley’s respect for Kite Man (going from squat to squat and a half) didn’t feel real and seemed to develop only for the sake of the story.
I didn’t really buy the end resolution between Ivy and Kite Man either as, honestly, at this point, I do think that Kite Man is too good for her. Seriously… it’s basically a one-way street at this point.
The B story of Doctor Psycho and the gang trying to hunt down The Riddler was, for lack of a better word, lame. It wasn’t that funny, it was inconsequential, and many of the gags were laughably telegraphed ahead of time.
Was the episode terrible? No… there haven’t been any terrible episodes of Harley Quinn, but it was a waste and poorly executed. I really just want the main story to progress at this point as it’s something I’m interested in seeing. The doomed relationship between Ivy and Kite Man isn’t. It’s a fun side-story, but I’m not invested because we all know it’s going no where. We all know who Ivy’s going to end up with.
Come on.
We all know.
Jason Gaston 