The Batman Adventures: Mad Love

The Batman Adventures: Mad Love is a one-shot comic book

written by Paul Dini (writer on Batman: The Animated Series and
The Batman Adventures:
Batman Beyond) and Bruce Timm (executive producer on The Mad Love
New Batman/Superman Adventures and the co-creator of
Batman: The Animated Series). Set in the continuity of Batman:
The Animated Series, it won an Eisner Award for "Best Single
Story" in 1994.[1] It was later adapted (with minor alterations for
pacing) as an episode of the animated series The New Batman
Adventures.

Contents
Plot summary
Reprints
Critical reaction
Awards
In other media
Notes
References
Cover of The Batman Adventures: Mad
Love (1994)
Plot summary Publication information

After having his latest plan to kill Commissioner Gordon foiled Publisher DC Comics
by Batman, The Joker retreats to one of his hideouts to plan his Format One-shot
next move, but is being annoyed by his lovestruck sidekick
Genre Superhero
Harley Quinn and kicks her out of their hideout. As Harley sits
outside, she remembers how she met Joker, back when she was Publication date December
the psychologist Dr. Harleen Quinzel and spending her internship 14, 1993
at Arkham Asylum. Harleen interviewed Joker and learned that
No. of issues 1
he was abused as a child by his alcoholic father. After more
interviews, Harleen determined that Batman was the source of Main character(s) Harley Quinn
Joker's anger, but also that she was falling in love with him. Joker
Harleen became Joker's partner in escaping from the asylum in Batman
hopes that she could win his love. Creative team
Harley decides that the only way to make the Joker love her is to Created by Paul Dini
kill Batman, which she attempts to do by feeding him to a school Bruce Timm
of piranhas. Batman distracts her by telling her that the Joker had
Written by Paul Dini
been using her from the start, and that Joker's stories of an
Bruce Timm
unhappy childhood were lies. When she tearfully insists that
Joker really loves her, Batman convinces her to call Joker so that Penciller(s) Bruce Timm
he will know she accomplished her goal (as the piranhas would Glen
leave no convincing evidence, other than bones and a tattered Murakami
costume which anyone can fabricate). When Joker arrives, Inker(s) Bruce Timm
however, he is infuriated that Harley would try to kill Batman
herself and knocks her out a window, where she is found by Letterer(s) Tim Harkins
nearby police officers. Joker then decides nonetheless to use the Colorist(s) Bruce Timm
opportunity to finally kill Batman, which escalates into a wild Rick Taylor
chase ending atop a moving subway train. Batman taunts Joker
Editor(s) Scott Peterson
by saying that Harley came closer to killing him than he ever did.
Joker attacks him in rage, but Batman sends him plunging into a Darren
burning smokestack. Vincenzo
Collected editions
Back in Arkham Asylum, a severely injured Harley Quinn
renounces The Joker forever, wanting nothing more than to heal Batman: Mad Love ISBN 978-1-
and leave Arkham for good. A moment later, however, Harley and Other Stories 4012-2245-1
finds flowers sent by her clownish beau with a "get well soon"
card and falls in love with him again.

Reprints
Mad Love was reprinted as a graphic novella in 1998 (ISBN 1563892448), and in 2009 the story was
collected – alongside a number of others by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini – in a hardcover collection titled
Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories (ISBN 9781401222451).[2]

Critical reaction
IGN Comics said that "Mad Love is everything a comic book should be" and called it "one Batman book
everyone should read".[3] The website ranked Mad Love #12 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic
novels.[4]

Awards
1994:

Won "Best Single Issue" Eisner Award[1]

Bruce Timm was nominated for "Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller-Inker Team" Eisner
Award, for his work on Mad Love[1]

In other media
An animated adaptation of the issue, nearly identical in script and design to the original comic, originally
aired on the WB Network on January 16, 1999, as a part of The New Batman Adventures. The script was
written by Paul Dini, and the episode was directed by Butch Lukic. Perhaps the only contrasts to the comic
over the episode were the revamped character designs and the removal of minor scenes for pacing and time
concerns.

In 2008, Warner Premiere Digital adapted Mad Love as part of DC Comics' motion comics line, available for
download through digital outlets such as iTunes and Xbox Live. Subscribers can download each chapter
separately from Xbox Live, but iTunes groups the seven chapters into three downloads (Chapters 1 & 2,
Chapters 3, 4, & 5, and Chapters 6 & 7).
Batman: Arkham Asylum, also penned by Dini, lifts much of its dialogue from Harley Quinn's patient
interviews from Mad Love.[5] Batman: Arkham Origins, the prequel to Asylum, also uses much of Mad
Love's plot in retelling Harley Quinn's first encounter with the Joker.

Paul Dini and Pat Cadigan wrote a novel adaptation of the former's original story under the title, Harley
Quinn: Mad Love, released on November 13, 2018 by Titan Books.[6]

Notes
1. 1994 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees and Winners (http://www.hahnlibrary.net/co
mics/awards/eisner94.php), Comic Book Awards Almanac
2. "BATMAN: MAD LOVE AND OTHER STORIES" (https://web.archive.org/web/2010081100253
0/http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=11319). Graphic Novels. DC Comics.
Archived from the original (http://dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=11319) on 11 August
2010. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
3. Goldstein, Hilary (May 24, 2005). "The Batman Adventures: Mad Love Review" (http://comics.i
gn.com/articles/618/618636p1.html). IGN. Los Angeles, California: j2 Global. Retrieved
July 15, 2018.
4. Goldstein, Hilary (June 13, 2005). "The 25 Greatest Batman Graphic Novels" (http://comics.ig
n.com/articles/624/624619p1.html). IGN. Los Angeles, California: j2 Global. Retrieved July 15,
2018.
5. Batman: Arham Asylum at the Internet Movie Database (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1282022/t
rivia)
6. Holub, Christian. "Iconic DC comics, like The Killing Joke, are getting novelizations" (https://ew.
com/books/2018/04/26/dc-comics-novelizations-titan-books/). EW.com. Entertainment Weekly.
Retrieved 2 October 2018.

References
The Batman Adventures: Mad Love (https://www.comics.org/series/4943) at the Grand Comics
Database.
The Batman Adventures: Mad Love (https://web.archive.org/web/2018010101/http://comicbook
db.com/title.php?ID=4239) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original (http://comicbook
db.com/title.php?ID=4239)).

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Batman_Adventures:_Mad_Love&oldid=928817044"

This page was last edited on 1 December 2019, at 21:08 (UTC).

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