Could Mad Love be published today?

[Aioros22]

Fandom is fickle as shite, can`t take it seriously so I won`t even bother. His designs are crappy now, yeah.

On a serious note, the answer to the question is no, it wouldn`t happen today. Joker and especially Harley aren`t near the same place they were back then.

[Mithrill]

Of course they would publish it today. People hated Timm's new projects but their real reasons to hate it weren't related to some moral business

[Chubistian]

I don’t know if the animated adaptation would be allowed (I also can’t remember how close to the comic it was, but I have the impression it was pretty loyal to it), but the comic could exist and be a success. The thing is, we don’t know where Harley would be nowadays without Mad Love. She has made a huge impact on the audience and there’s people who doesn’t like she being paired with the Joker any longer, but I think popular perception of her is still as “Joker’s girlfriend”, even though in comics she has progress beyond that, it’s still impossible to talk about Harley without mentioning Joker just as you have to mention Batman if you’re going to explain Nightwing to someone.

I think the biggest problem would be Timm’s pencils, that are pretty good but could make some people think that DC, Dini and Timm aren’t taking a violent relationship as seriously as it is, since the style is pretty cartoonish and identical to a series that was aimed specially at kids. Also, an aspect that I haven’t seen mentioned when people talk about Harley is that she didn’t course college by studying, but by getting in sexual exchanges with authorities of the faculty, so Mad Love was never intended for children, though a kid could see that and not understand the full scope of it, he should get the general idea, so she never was intended as a role model nor as a healthy person before meeting Joker (she wasn’t shown regretful or anything similar by her ways of obtaining good grades and it could be seen as a first step towards her love for Joker despite his treatment to her). I think the big problem with Harley is that some people idolize her and don’t get that she’s a victim of the Joker just as she was a victimizer (how many people has she killed directly or by helping Joker?) to other people and also Suicide Squad showed her relationship with Joker in a lighter way when compared to the comics or even to the animated series of the 90s

I don’t know if there was any controversy surrounding Mad Love at the time it was released, nowadays it definitely would get some controversy but I think it would end up being a success, just as Killing Joke would be despite an audience criticizing the treatment it gives to Barbara Gordon.

[Nick Miller]

Wait. Didnt dini just publish a joker harley backup in Harleys book?

Any abuse in that story? Havent gotten to reading it.

[Mithrill]

Wait. Didnt dini just publish a joker harley backup in Harleys book?

Any abuse in that story? Havent gotten to reading it.

Nope, in fact its name is a reference to I love Lucy cause it was basically domestic situations, if something Joker was a saint there too sweet but it has some funny moments.

[wafle]

Probably not.

[Tupiaz]

I think we're being a little overly-PC here these days.
(I don't want to go back to the days when things like the Care Bears ruled the cartoon airwaves and you couldn't go beyond them for action and adventure.)

Let's remembers this, people:

1.) Joker is a psycho villain; he's not a "good guy" / person in power with a decent reputation who is just now revealed to have mistreated women in the past
2.) Harley ain't exactly right in her head, either. If people are trying to use her as a paragon of female virtues, we've got a few problems.

Now, the relationship those two have could not exactly be carried over to, say, Batman and Catwoman without consequences. But neither Joker or Harley are characters playing with full decks.

Care Bears is from 1983 and coexisted with the shows like He-Man (1982), Transformers (1984) and G.I. Joe (1985). To say there was a Care Bear age of animation where they was no action shows is not accurate.

[WhipWhirlwind]

Well, to be honest, it’s not Timm’s Works that get backlash, just his obsession to pair Batman with all the ladies.

This, at least for me. His current stuff is very much professional wish fulfillment fan fiction.