This is a Dynamike Network podcast.
a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and
DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm
his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode we are reviewing season 4 of the Max
exclusive series, Harley Quinn. Watch all the episodes at the very last minute before writing
this review. I loved this season, love the series overall. I feel like I keep waiting for a bad
season of this animated series and it just hasn't happened yet. It's really well done. Yeah,
we'll talk all about season four later on in this episode. Before that, we're going to break
down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which there was the Doom Patrol season
four B official trailer. It's a trailer for the last episodes of Doom Patrol. So this is
a all Max episode. I'm still trying to figure out who Max is, but As always, we list our
segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you
want to skip ahead to a particular topic. As our listeners may know, our dual simulator
is so advanced that it's gained sentience and has named itself the artificial life form for
running extensive duels just a rather very intelligent Simulator 9000 or Alfred Jarvis 9000. Here's
a quick message for our listeners, so listen up! Why hello there, do you love listening
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your show via email at dynamic dual podcast at gmail.com or by reaching out to them on
social media Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic dual pip cheerio Thanks a j-9k and
thanks to everyone who supports the podcast especially Abner Oteri whose birthday was this
past week happy birthday Abner If I could get you any gift from the world of Marvel it would
be a spider-man suit Specifically the one with the web armpits, you know since I know that
you're going skydiving for your birthday and you're probably gonna want like a backup squirrel
suit type thing just in case things go south with the parachute. Not that I'm putting that
out there. Geez. Well, in that case, I'll give you one better than that. And that is Kite
Man's kite. The hang glider one. Hell yeah. Thanks so much for being a patron Abner and
best of luck to you with the skydiving. Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows in the
Dynamike podcast network. Right now Max Destruction is on a season hiatus. Season two will be coming
out in a few weeks. Those guys are smart. They're actually putting out seasons and taking short
breaks in between a batch of episodes. Unlike our dumbasses, why aren't we doing that? I
don't know. But also definitely while they're on a break. Check out their back catalog of
episodes. Also make sure to tune in to Senjoworld this Thursday to find out who would win between
Esteth from Akame Kagil and Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click
the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network.
But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to
give out to fans. is a digital award we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter for
the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week's question
was, do you plan on seeing Aquaman in the Lost Kingdom in theaters? Why or why not? And of
course, this was coming off of the first trailer that we received for the film. The trailer
was awesome, but I still know that there's a lot of bad taste regarding the film for a lot
of people considering not only its status within the DCEU, but also Amber Heard. We got four
answers. So let's break down the honorable mentions before revealing this week's no prize winner.
Our first honorable mention goes to Travis Bailey, who said, Hey guys, Travis here. So my answer
would have to be a cautious yes, while I am hyped to see Black Manta, given all the controversy
that's been happening through this movie, particularly the whole Amber stuff. for this movie similar
to the whole Ezra Miller with Flash. So while I will give this movie a shot, I don't expect
walking out of there saying it's gonna be a 10 out of 10 movie. This sounds like an entirely
reasonable answer to me. For as amazing as the trailer was, I think people have to check their
expectations because word on the street is that the movie is actually not that great and that
there were people walking out of the theater. Jonathan had his own theory regarding that
we discussed last week about why people were walking out, but. Who knows? I do know that
a lot of people are still upset by Amber Heard's involvement in the film, even though it sounds
like it's been diminished considerably. I, for one, have no problem separating art from the
artist. I see the character more as Mera, not necessarily as Amber Heard. So I'm still looking
forward to this movie and seeing it in theaters despite any of that actor behind the scenes
controversy. But remember, Jonathan, you have to check your expectations. Like, it's gonna
be good! You never do and you always get disappointed when you don't? That's not always true. Our
next honorable mention goes to Cornelius Robinson, who said, Hey guys, this is Cornelius Robinson.
And yes, I plan on seeing Aquaman 2 in theaters. Why? Because not only this is the final, final
movie in the DCEU, but judging from the preview with the visual effects being presented, it's
required. to go see at theaters. Yeah, the special effects look incredible, except for like one
scene in the trailer where Aquaman was trying to punch a submarine or underwater vessel of
some kind. I thought all of it looked top notch. Yeah, certainly better than the recent Flash
movie, right? Which is kind of surprising how Warner Brothers allocates their assets, especially
for movies that are a long time coming. Both the Flash and this Aquaman movie have been
delayed multiple times. So it kind of made the special effects for the Flash a little bit
confusing, but you're right, judging from the trailers, the visual effects for Aquaman look
just as good as they were in the first film. Which kind of bothers me, because I thought
that the special effects in the Flash trailers looked great. So my biggest fear is that they're
just polishing up all the effects that are appearing in the trailers and not necessarily everything
for the film. I guess we'll see. We'll see. Our final honorable mention goes to... Miggie
Mathingian who said, Hey, what's up guys? This is Miggie and of course I'm going to see Aquaman
the Lost Kingdom in theaters. I'm a diehard DC fan and I see every DC movie in theaters
and this trailer looks really good. So I'm actually pretty excited. Yep. So keep up the good work.
Yeah. As I mentioned in our last episode, I was ready to write this film off just because
of what's happening with the DCEU. And honestly, I'm not even sure. whether or not Aquaman 2
counts as being a part of the DCEU or the DCU. Like maybe Jason Momoa is going to continue
to be Aquaman and James Gunn's new universe. I guess we'll find out. But the trailer has
definitely re-energized my excitement for the movie. All I can say, Miggy, is check your
expectations. You know what, Miggy? Don't. You know what? Raise those expectations as high
as you damn well please. Don't let anyone, especially a Marvel guy, tell you what you should or should
not do. When Joseph tries to tell you that, your response should be, no Joseph, fuck you.
I'm pretty sure I get told that on the Discord like every other day, so it doesn't even phase
me anymore. That's true, we even have a GIF. That does it for all the honorable mentions,
let's go ahead and move into the no prize winner, who is Peter Troll, who said. Hey, it's Peter
Troll again. I do plan on actually going to see Aquaman, The Lost Kingdom. I think it's
gonna be a really great movie based off of how it looks, just visually it's gonna be beautiful
and it gave off Thor Ragnarok kind of vibes and I love Thor Ragnarok and I think it's gonna
be similar and if it can be, I think it's going to be a great movie and I am so excited to
see it. Thanks guys. I'm sorry to tell you guys but the actual correct answer for this question
of the week was no, I will not be seeing in theaters. That's what we were looking for.
That was the expected answer. But I guess if you had to give the opposite answer of yes,
at least Peter Troll threw in a reference to Thor Ragnarok. As a Marvel fan, that is why
I give this answer the no prize win. Actually, the correct answer was, yes, I will be seeing
this in theaters. In fact, multiple times, probably like five to 10 times. I really want this Aquaman
sequel to make a billion dollars as much as the first movie made, because I'm really sick
and tired. of these diminishing returns on not just DC films, but also Marvel. Yeah, superhero
films in general have kind of seen a decline. You're right. And the real reason that Peter
Troll won this week's No Prize actually was because of the Thor Ragnarok reference. A lot
of people made references to Thor when the first Aquaman movie came out. I think, you know,
long haired, bearded Jason Momoa is an easy comparison to make to a character like Thor
played by Chris Hemsworth. They also deal with these fantastical worlds as well. But Thor
Ragnarok was a fantastic film that was beloved by most people. And I'm really hoping that
Aquaman 2 captures that same kind of spirit as a sequel. Yeah, hopefully it doesn't pull
Thor Love and Thunder. Yes, we want Thor Ragnarok, not Love and Thunder. Big difference. But congrats
again to Peter Troll for winning this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at
winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another
Question of the Week. And now that that's done. On to the news!
Okay, so a lot of the series that first began on the DC Universe platform back when that
was a thing are now ending. We saw Titans recently wrap up its final season and Doom Patrol is
also wrapping up its final season this year with season 4. They split up this final season
into two parts and the second half of it will be released starting October 12th. It's about
time. I guess I actually haven't even started season 4 yet. Yeah, and I hope this trailer
doesn't give away any spoilers because we do learn that they lose their longevity. I'm wondering
if that's the first half cliffhanger that gets resolved in the second half. But either way,
I don't really mind knowing that the show is so off the wall that you could basically show
anything within these trailers and I wouldn't be surprised. But I'll always be intrigued
because that's just the nature of the show. They throw everything at you. Everything is
just so bizarre, but it's a great ride nonetheless. It's been really hard for me to be sentimental.
about the ending of this series because I haven't started its final season. This trailer, though,
made me realize just how close to the end we are for what's been a fantastic series so far.
At least you got four seasons of this, though. You know, you look at a show like Daredevil
that only got three seasons, which was also a fantastic show. And you got to be grateful.
I mean, that's a bad example, because isn't Daredevil getting a fourth season on Disney
Plus? Damn right it is. You damn right it is. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. No, but I loved Doom
Patrol. I've been super surprised by it each and every season. And I can't wait to start
this season because it looks like more of the same heartfelt, comedic, bonkers storylines
that the Doom Patrol is known for. I'm glad to see that Timothy Dutton is returning, if
at least for a bit, as the chief, Niles Calder, in this season, because he was, I think, sorely
missed from season three. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And it looks like a number of characters are
returning. You know, we're getting General Immortus again. Looks like the brain and Monsieur Mala
are making a return. Garguax, Mr. Nobody, totally miss that guy. I can't wait to see all of them
return. I think those are just flashbacks, if I'm not mistaken. Are they? They could be,
honestly. But then why show them in the trailer if they're not going to show up in the season?
Because it's kind of like a retrospective of everything they've gone through leading into
the series finale. Possibly, but it also does look like a time machine is involved in this
second half of the season in some way And you know the fact that they're even name-dropping
them maybe enough for me. I guess we'll see how those episodes play out I wasn't thrilled
with how the Titans series ended I'm really hoping that Doom Patrol has a more satisfying
conclusion to everything Well, I think the Titan show had a decent resolution in the final episode
when they all had dinner together, you know and said goodbye But yeah, I'm looking for
something a little bit more substantial. Just because the Doom Patrol show is more substantial
than most other superhero fare out there. Absolutely. If you guys aren't watching Doom Patrol, this
is your last chance to get caught up. So we could all experience the final episode together
in this beautiful moment. Hopefully, we'll see how beautiful it turns out to be. It looks
like the final episode is going to drop on November 9th of this year. Yeah, we'll be reviewing
it, looking forward to it. Even as a Marvel fan, I do think the show is criminally underrated.
I hope a lot of people check it out for its resolution. But that brings us to our question
of the week.
What has been the most underrated Marvel or DC TV show in your opinion and why? Yeah, what
is the show that you think a lot of people didn't check out but should have based on how good
it was? Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in
the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail.
Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case
we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic
Duel No prize that we'll post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer before
September 30th.
That does it for all the news for this episode, now let's move on to the main event, where
we review Season 4 of the Max-exclusive animated series, Harley Quinn.
Harley Quinn is a Max-exclusive animated series that stars Kelly Cuoco as the title character
and is showrun in season 4 by Sarah Peters, as the show's former head writers, Justin Halpern
and Patrick Schumacher, left the series to write the upcoming Kite Man spinoff series also for
Max. You'd never really have known, however, because the show maintains its trademark balance
of irreverence and lewd humor with heartfelt themes and top-tier comedic voice talent. If
you're not watching Harley Quinn by now, I'm guessing you've probably decided that its style
of humor is really not your thing, but I assure you, the show is much more than the dick jokes
they put into the marketing for the series, which also makes my eyes roll. But season to
season, Harley Quinn has been an absolute riot and joy to watch. So I encourage you to do
so if you haven't already before listening to the spoiler review. Yeah, the show is one of
the more consistent series that I've ever come across. You know, almost every other superhero
television series has like one season that dips a little bit in quality. But season to season
with Harley Quinn has been impressively top notch. Yeah, I don't know why season by season
I keep getting surprised by how good the writing for this is, but it is fantastic and I laugh
every time. Yeah, I think you get reminded each season just how good of a handle the writers
have not only on this incredible character they developed in this world's version of Harley
Quinn, but also, you know, the grander world building that they've done. Yeah, this world
they've built in this alternate universe for Harley Quinn is very well realized. I'll agree
with that. This is only our second season that we've reviewed on this podcast, not counting
the Valentine's Day special episode that they released early this year. I honestly don't
have much to say about this season that I haven't already said in the Season 3 review, but I
think that's a testament to the show's mostly consistent nature. I will say that this season
differs from past seasons in a number of subtle ways, resulting in a somewhat diminished return,
but not by much. Yeah, I think, you know, one of the strengths of the show is that it never
fails to build on the character of Harley Quinn. You know, she's gone tremendous character growth
over the course of four seasons. You know, season one was about her discovering that she can
truly be somebody apart from the Joker. Season two was her discovering that she was in love
with her best friend, Poison Ivy. Season three was about her discovering that she had a conscience
and a heroic side to her. Season four almost felt more like an addendum to season three
where like, I guess her big lesson was that... She's kind of neutral. Yeah, she has a conscience,
but also she doesn't want to be a hero, right? So that type of revelation isn't quite as profound
necessarily. So the season overall had less of those profound moments, even though it was
still enjoyable. Yeah, I'll touch more on the themes later, but I agree. You know, last season
we saw Harley's heroic inclination begin to develop. So in this season, she's a fledgling
member of the Bat family. and with Ivy's foray into executive management of the world's largest
villain organization, the Legion of Doom, it wasn't surprising that the two of them would
spend more time apart than in past seasons and that heartfelt romantic nature of the show
would take a dip. But, you know, over the past couple of seasons, and especially with the
Valentine's Day special, I don't mind a break from the romance. And the conflict brought
about by Harley and Ivy's new professions kept the pace running smooth for the most part.
Yeah, I mean, it was a great setup. I wasn't sure that they could deliver on the setup of
Ivy running the Legion of Doom and Harley joining the Bat family. But for the most part, I do
think that they landed the concept. Yeah, I agree. I do have to say I feel like the show
has definitely lost a lot of the charm brought on by its ensemble cast, particularly this
season, you know, with the absence of Kite Man and why it felt like a diminished role for
King Shark. I do miss some of the banter and comedic hijinks between Harley's old crew.
Though I will admit we got just the right amount of Clayface and Bane this season. Nora carried
a lot of that side story weight much better than I thought she would. Nora was freaking
hilarious. She was such a minor character before this, but like the fact that they kind of elevated
her to side character status was brilliant because she's freaking hilarious. Who's the actress
that does her voice? It kept like driving me crazy that I could recognize it, but couldn't
pin it down. Rachel Dratch from SNL. Oh, that's right. OK. Alright, that makes sense. It was
hilarious. I love that she did the voice. She did a fantastic job. I thought we were going
to get a lot more out of the Bat family this season, but of course, you know, the lack of
side characters allowed the writers to further dive into the two leads of Harley and Ivy,
which was great. Now each of the two leads, Harley and Ivy, got their own separate cast
of side characters this season, with each also struggling to achieve acceptance and maintain
those relationships. Interestingly, I think by the end, the overall theme of the season
that both Harley and Ivy learned was that they shouldn't depend on acceptance from others
if they're unable to accept themselves. I thought it was an interesting theme like very Thelma
and Louise, us against the world kind of approach and I'm curious to see where it leads with
Harley and Ivy having burned a lot of bridges this season. You know, they formed the Gotham
City Sirens with Catwoman and Batgirl at the very end, but I have no idea. what that team
is going to do. Like, are they good? Are they bad? Who knows? But I'm excited to see. Stan,
you know, that's a great testament to the quality of the show is that even four seasons out,
they're still finding new ways to approach these characters. Like, I'm super excited with the
Gotham City Sirens. I'm really excited to see what happens with Nightwing and the whole Lazarus
pit situation. Because that was one of the threads that I was hoping that they wouldn't abandon
because it felt like they were just gonna drop the whole Nightwing thing. Like, she got away
with it, you know? But I'm really glad they didn't do that. And it looks like one of the
major plot threads for next season is going to be Harley Quinn's comeuppance for her actions
during this season. Right. Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, a lot of
the conflict comes next season from Harley's guilt over killing Nightwing, you know, with
Batgirl on her team. And maybe eventually Batgirl learns and forms a rival team, the Birds of
Prey, with Black Canary and Huntress or something like that. That would be cool, I think. That
would be cool. Yeah. The Nightwing death was spoiled for me, unfortunately, before I started
watching the series. Again, for these reviews, I like to watch as much of the show in one
piece as I can, so I kind of waited to the last minute to even start this season. But like
you, I'm really glad with the way they resolved that in the end, because I was about to be
pissed off. If anything, it's almost like this season could have done with a few more episodes,
because I think most Harley Quinn seasons are like 13 episodes, but this one was only 10.
Season three was also 10 episodes. Well, I guess not counting the Valentine's Day special. Right,
yeah, I saw that they counted the Valentine's Day special as episode 11 of season three,
which was strange, I thought. One major component missing from this season that I felt was sorely
lacking was the introspective psychological analysis we get of certain characters that
happens at least once per season. Last season we got to go into Bruce Wayne's mind, which
ended up being my favorite episode of the series so far. Prior to that, we delved into The Joker,
Ivy, and Harley, but nothing this season. For a show starring a former psychologist, I thought
they would keep that aspect of the show running, and I definitely thought the sleepwalking storyline
this season was going to lead to something like that, but that ended on an unsatisfying note,
I'd say, with Harley's random ass potato clone. That's true. Yeah, that was definitely the
most unsatisfying aspect about the season was that they introduced this element that they
never really followed through on. I don't remember Harley sleepwalking at any point during the
whole series, and I think they tried to rationalize her disorder as due to her inability to cope
with the loss of her villainous side. But it didn't ring true for me. Totally. I totally
get it. Let's talk more about that and Harley Quinn in our character breakdown. Now, Harley
Quinn was voiced by Kelly Cuoco. who by now portrays my favorite version of Harley Quinn
in any medium. I've said this before, but I would love it if James Gunn used Kelly Cuoco
and Lake Bell to portray their live action counterparts as part of the new DC University's building,
but I'm not holding my breath. They would be great. For sure. This season, Harley struggles
with her foray into superheroism alongside the Bat Family while Bruce Wayne is incarcerated.
Unable to get a flow with the team, whether due to their no killing rule, her poor eyesight,
or stubbornness against training under Alfred, Harley also had to face Nightwing's distrust
and the relationship ethics of going to Ivy with her problems. This all compounds into
bouts of sleepwalking where Harley fulfills her destructive desires, which leads up to
her killing Nightwing. Unable to deal with that guilt, Harley is forced to face the fact that
she can't cut it as a hero, and decides to embrace both her good and evil natures. I think the
sleepwalking was brought about entirely by stress. Like you mentioned, because she was unable
to fulfill her villainous tendencies like were expressed by the whole Hargrit alter ego that
she developed when they went to Vegas. If anything, she probably should have maintained that for
her own mental health, right? Right. Yeah. Lots of superheroes have secret identities, and
the fact that her alter ego was a villain I think would have been kind of an interesting
thing to explore further. Yeah, I think they could have easily gotten a few more episodes
out of this season. I would have definitely loved to have seen a return of Hargret. Moving
on to Poison Ivy, she was voiced by Lake Bell to perfection. I'd say this is also my favorite
version of Poison Ivy now. who I feel like DC has had a hard time balancing in the comics
as both a sexual femme fatale for Batman and a queer icon that subverts gender expectations.
Ivy's arc this season was very similar to Harley's in that she struggled in this new environment
around new people, with her being the new CEO of the Legion of Doom, you know, working for
the undercutting and mansplaining Glex Luthor while trying to push her socially conscious
evil initiative. Between keeping employees happy while navigating the high class yet cutthroat
world of female business elites, or championing your image and brand on social media while
mentoring the next generation of aspiring and talented women, it's a lot to balance. And
despite Ivy's competence, she ultimately comes up short, learning that by trying to please
everyone, she ends up pleasing no one, especially herself, as she ends up embarrassed in her
public confrontation with Lex Luthor at the end of the season. Through her failure, she
learns that her success should be on her own terms, and manages at the very end to get revenge
on all of her enemies, making her, in my opinion, the most interesting character this season.
I was just about to say that. I do think that between the two main arcs of Ivy's Legion of
Doom situation and Harley joining the Bat Family, I prefer Poison Ivy's story, largely because
I feel like Harley's time with the Bat family was dismissive. Like they had a dismissive
attitude toward Harley and it never quite felt like she ever became a part of what they had,
you know? Well, I mean, the Legion of Doom was just as dismissive to Poison Ivy, but I think
Ivy did more about it. Like she was less whiny, she was more active, she was more proactive,
you know, teaming up and taking advice with people like Talia. Yeah, and I felt like overall
we just got more screen time with Ivy for some reason. I'm not sure if that's the case, but
it definitely felt like that. Yeah, you might be right. There's, of course, a ton more characters
to talk about. But one character I wanted us to focus on was the villain this season, Lex
Luthor. He is voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, who kills it as the character. Like every time
I hear his voice, I just remember how brilliant and menacing he was on Breaking Bad. And I
just have to admire the fact that the casting director landed an actor of Giancarlo Esposito's
caliber in an animated show with dick jokes. I'm glad that I largely forget who the voice
talent is for these seasons and just being reminded that it is Giancarlo Esposito makes it so much
better in hindsight. Yeah, I would love to see Giancarlo play a live action Lex Luther in
like a Kingdom Come Elseworlds project. That would be incredible for sure. Or even in James
Gunn's new DCU. He might be a little old for that, but maybe not. Maybe I'm wrong. Lex definitely
had a larger role this season than I thought he was going to have because, you know, in
previous seasons, he's been relegated to kind of a figurehead. Kind of it was very much a
supporting role as opposed to this season. I just loved everything that they chose to do
with this character. Like he was like injecting himself with like Falcon DNA, you know, to
try to get his hair to grow back and lifted his cheekbones and those chicken breast caffeine
plants. Right. Everything was so hilarious. It was great. And it made total sense for the
character because for the most part, Lex Luthor has always been trying to compete with the
superior specimen that is Superman. Right. So it totally makes sense that he's kind of like.
doing all this shit to his body, like bathing in baby seal blood and stuff like that to try
to achieve that perfection. Right, yeah I thought it totally made sense for the character. You
know, Lex Luthor in this season he makes Ivy the CEO of the Legion of Doom not only for
the public optics of having a woman-led legion, but also because it allowed him to focus on
his master plan of destroying and replacing Superman, which I thought was a pretty decent
plan. Of course, his unveiling of a moon-based laser that could increase Earth's ozone layer
to repair holes in it was mocked as stealing Ivy's socially conscious evil idea, but it
proved to be an effective and new way to bring down Superman by blocking out the sun. Like
you mentioned, watching Lex throughout the season preparing to supplant Superman by perfecting
his physical body through caftoning and regrowing his hair was not only fairly humorous, But
it resulted in what I thought was a satisfying evil master plan for the series overall and
definitely led to higher stakes than what I thought was just going to be cheekbone implants
for vanity's sake. Yeah. When Harley and Ivy realized that, wait, was this all just a plot
to get at Superman? I was legitimately impressed at how good of a plan it was. Yeah. But let's
talk more about that plan in our story highlights.
Episode 1 was titled Gotham's Hottest Hotties. In it, Poison Ivy, the new CEO of the Legion
of Doom, struggles to gain her employees' respect on her first day on the job. She approves all
of their evil plans in an attempt to win them over, but this backfires when Bane blows up
an oil rig, causing chemical pollution in the sea, which Ivy had originally wanted to prevent.
After some encouragement from Nora Freeze and a fight with Snowflame, Ivy stands up to the
Legionnaires. and hires Nora as her assistant. Meanwhile, a serial killer is targeting Gotham's
hottest people, which Harley investigates with the Bat Family and eventually realizes that
Professor Pig is the killer. Pig is trying to surgically create the hottest human specimen
by using his victim's best body parts. Using Nightwing's perfect ass's bait, the Bat Family
captures Pig, but Harley goes too far and kills him, to her teammate's horror. Meanwhile, King
Shark's wife Tabitha is expecting babies and Talia Al Ghul decides to travel to Gotham after
hearing about Wayne Enterprises financial problems. It was kind of cool to see how the Bat Family
took on a Bat Rogue in Professor Peg. I wish we got a little bit more of that this season
for sure, but I also thought the stuff between the Legion of Doom employees and Poison Ivy
this episode was great. It was a great first episode to the season overall. There were a
lot of moments that had me laughing my ass off during this first episode. I love the part
when the Legion of Doom roundtable was like telling Poison Ivy get out of the way because
they want to see who the new CEO is. And then she was like, I am the new CEO. And then Mattello
was like, oh, fuck, the rumors were true. It was so good. And then later on, he was like,
so in a hissy fit. Yeah. And then later on, he was like, if we wanted to be bust around
by a woman, we'd get girlfriends. I like the part where they're like, she probably slept
with Lux to get the position. I hope she gets pregnant. It was so bizarre. So hilarious though.
The scene where Harley Quinn stages a nude photo shoot with Nightwing to draw Professor Pig
was freaking hilarious. Like all of the direction that she was sending his way was top-notch
writing for sure. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the writer's room
while they were coming up with those ideas for how Nightwing should pose. It was just great.
Oh man, I bet the writers room is just non-stop them cracking up. Yeah, holy cow. How could
it not be? Episode 2 was titled B.I.T.C.H. Ivy attends a networking event for evil businesswomen
and meets Talia, the conservator of Wayne Enterprises while Bruce Wayne is imprisoned. Talia advises
Ivy on her plan to legally replace Gotham's male trees with female trees, which unknown
to Talia would ruin Wayne Enterprises' pharmaceuticals division. and Ivy and Talia develop a mutual
respect for each other's intellect and villainy. As punishment for breaking the Bat Family's
no-killing rule, Harley is demoted to Alfred's assistant. Alfred teaches her a technique called
BITCH. Breathe, identify the problem, T-break, consider your options, handle it, which she
uses to stop Alfred from robbing a bank. The Bat Family is impressed by Harley's actions
and gives her own bat outfit. Alfred is arrested and sent to Arkham Asylum for rehabilitation.
I gotta say, I'm gonna start using the bitch method in real life. It's not bad advice. I
don't know what use the tea break has, but I'm sure, you know, helps with lowering your blood
pressure, just calming down and stuff. Teas just delicious, you know, you need a reason
for it. The whole Alfred arc here just had me dying. Like the character was so hilarious.
This whole episode, when it turned out that he was trying to get arrested so that he could
be back with his master Wayne again, I thought it was hilarious. And even later on during
the course of the season when he became like this gourmet hooch wine creator was just brilliant,
I think, for the character. Yeah, white color wine. Yeah. One of my favorite jokes for this
episode was when Harley finally got her bat costume for stopping Alfred. And Robin was
like, snitches get stitches, but he was talking about the stitch work on her costume, right?
I thought that was pretty good. Right. Yeah. I don't think Robin was as funny this season
as he has been in past seasons, like where he had like a crush on Harley and stuff like that.
His dynamic with his mom was pretty good. I thought that was funny. Yeah, that was good.
It was great to see Talia this season for sure. Moving on to episode three that was titled
Icons Only. Harley and Ivy go to Las Vegas for a vacation, hoping to see Clayface's new show.
though all of the tickets are sold out, and Harley realizes that her hero reputation has
made her an outcast in the villain community. After seeing that Bruce Wayne can be a DJ in
prison while still maintaining his public identity, she decides to create a fake identity for herself
as well, calling herself Hargrit. She enjoys her time with Ivy as Hargrit until Clayface
foils their attempt to steal tickets to a show as revenge for Ivy not keeping in touch with
him. This results in a fight between the two, which is interrupted by Tabitha giving birth
to nine shark babies. Tabitha agrees to co-parent one of the babies with King Shark, who gets
the rest, and chooses Harley and Ivy to be the children's godparents. Afterward, Ivy admits
that she was worried that she and Harley would have nothing in common anymore because of their
different jobs. Harley then announces that she is moving in with the Bat family to learn more
about being a hero. Ivy sad to hear this, but she supports Harley's decision. This episode
kind of felt like a break from the normal storyline, and I think it was there really just to maintain
the relationship of Harley and Ivy, because for a large portion of this season, the two
really aren't together kind of tackling life side by side. Right, well it's kind of a shame
though that they introduced one of the season's more compelling concepts in the alter ego thing,
considering that this was kind of like a side story episode. I think you're right. in terms
of the level of clay face that was in this season. I think he was getting a little grating in
previous seasons and how much he was included. Right. Plus after the guy falls in love with
his own ass, like, where do you go from there? That's right. I'm wondering how they go from
that, though, to having him be like this super successful mega celebrity star with his own
review show in Vegas. Well, he became like a superstar with the whole Batman movie at the
end of season three, where he was pretending to be Billy Bob Thornton. So I could see how
he could segue that into a successful Las Vegas career. I did love the fight between him and
Harley. I think it just really showed how much of a powerhouse those two characters are. That
was some awesome action this season. Yeah, speaking of fights, one of the amenities at the Lexor
Hotel for the villains was that they could bet on gladiatorial matches, which I thought was
pretty interesting. I think the first fight was between Doll Man and Ragdoll, which was
perfect. I thought that was great. It just reminded me of Dynamic Duel for some reason. I was like,
oh yeah, this is cool. I just love that was a thing though at Lexor. Instead of the Luxor,
hilarious hilarity. the first person to come back from a business conference without chlamydia,
which has to be a record for like the longest episode title of a television show ever. Hyvi
attends Malcon, a supervillain convention on the moon, where she expects to give a presentation,
but is instead asked to give an opening speech for Luther's presentation. Following Talia's
advice, she decides to network with other villains and impresses them with her ideas, including
Steppenwolf. As Luther gives his presentation, he realizes that everyone is more interested
in Ivy than him, which angers him and causes him to destroy his lunar base and call off
the convention. Meanwhile, due to Talia cutting the Bat Family's budget, Harley teaches them
how to fight without weapons and gadgets and rents out Wayne Manor to Scandinavian tourists
to make more money. When the Scandinavians try to rob the manor, the Bat Family uses Harley's
teachings to stop them. After Harley sells some of Ivy's panties online to exploit her newfound
fame, the Bat Family is able to buy new equipment. As they check the Batcave's security footage,
they miss the footage of Harley sleepwalking and wrecking havoc in the manor during the
night. Which is a clue to her whole arc a little too little too late. Perhaps I didn't love
the Bat Family arc for this episode. I think this is where Poison Ivy started to become
a little bit more interesting to me for this season. I love- how she kind of just took over
the convention on the moon, knocking people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg off their
villain panels, which I thought was hilarious. Yeah, I agree. Loved the Poison Ivy stuff,
loved everything about it in this episode. It didn't make sense to me in the Harley Quinn
portion why she was training the Bat Family how to fight without weapons and gadgets because
they already fucking know how to do that. It's the Bat Family, as if Batman would not train
them how to fight without weapons. That's an absurd notion to me. Yeah, I think that's just
part of the gag was that they had become too reliant on their bat gear. But yeah, the idea
of Harley Quinn training them in hand-to-hand combat felt very off. And the whole storyline
seemed very random, like Scandinavian tourists. I mean, the show is kind of humorous in its
randomness, but that just seemed like okay. Yeah, I was expecting them to be like name
super villains or something like that. But no, they were just really just Scandinavian Airbnb
guests who were high on drugs. Episode five was titled Getting Ice Stick. Don't wait up.
I honestly, when I saw the title for the episode, I was going in a completely different direction.
I was thinking Dick Grayson or something like that, you know, I think the bad family was
off getting ice or something. But when I realized what the title was in reference to, I was laughing
my ass off. That is funny. Now, Harley Quinn has eye surgery performed by Supergirl. I'm
not sure why to improve her vision for night missions. She calls Barbara Gordon to pick
her up, but is instead met by Barbara's roommate, Alyssa, who found Barbara's phone. Nightwing
tells Harley that Barbara has gone missing, but refuses to let Harley help find her because
he doesn't trust her. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor assigns his PR team, the Johns, to manage Poison
Ivy's career. They convince Ivy to increase her social media activity to gain more followers.
As a result, Ivy neglects her relationships with Harley and her mentees, Tara, Volkanna,
and Te Faye Holland. Harley finds Barbara in the mountains and goes there with Alyssa to
save her. Harley discovers that Barbara is in the mountains and goes there with Alyssa to
save her. They learn that Barbara went there to bring her mother home from the family cabin
after Jim Gordon rushed back to Gotham to accept a security job at the Legion of Doom headquarters.
Harley laments that she gave up everything from her previous life to join the Bat Family, but
still doesn't feel accepted. Barbara assures her that it takes time just before they find
Nightwing's dead body, which shocks them both. And again, I wasn't shocked here because I
knew Nightwing was going to die. I guess it just kind of threw me in the way that they
just tacked that on at the end of the episode. It seemed like something very big and I was
like, wait, what? Yeah, I was shocked for sure. I did not see that coming. Overall, I think
this is my least favorite episode though, largely because I really did not like whatever joke
they were doing with the Johns. I just don't think it landed for me and they kept repeating
it. And I didn't like that Nightwing died. Yeah, I could see how the Johns kind of overstayed
their welcome. I thought it was great at first though. I also did like Ivy's group of mentees,
how they were all like elemental in nature. I thought that was a really cool team. Yeah,
that was fun. I think actually the biggest gem that came out of this episode, everything else
aside, was the annual boys night out with the cold themed superheroes like Captain Cold and
Isocal. Yeah. I thought that was hilarious. And they were just like playing in the snow,
having a snowball fight and their underwear. I agree. That was probably my favorite part
of the episode, too. But moving on to the next episode, episode six was titled Metamorphosis
after Nightwing's funeral. Harley, Batgirl, and Robin go their separate ways to avoid being
killed. Harley learns about her sleepwalking from Frank after he witnesses it when she returns
to Catwoman's apartment. Lucius discovers that Nightwing's tracker pinpoints the Legion of
Doom's headquarters, leading Barbara to believe that Ivy is behind the murder, which Harley
refuses to believe. The tracker is later found by Gordon in a parking garage but is no longer
traceable.
so she decides to take them down with help from Terra, Volkana, and Te Fae. She acts out in
public at a children's beauty pageant she's hosting, purposely angering the Jons, who then
morph into one giant person and try to destroy Ivy. Ivy and her mentees use their combined
abilities to defeat and kill the Jons. The Joker later arrives at the Legion of Doom, announcing
his return to villainy and claiming that he is Nightwing's killer, much to Barbara's anger.
While the Legionnaires cheer on the Joker, a shocked Harley notices an alternate version
of herself winking at her from the crowd, leading her to believe she's going insane. So is the
assumption here that Harley took Nightwing's tracker to the Legion of Doom, I guess just
hanging around? I think the assumption here is that Nightwing was tracking Poison Ivy,
which he did while Poison Ivy was on that one talk show. But then why would he have left
the tracker there and then go up to the mountains? because he was also following Carly. Okay.
All right. That makes more sense now. That's just a guess. I'm not entirely sure. It's a
little confusing. Again, I don't really care for anything they did on the show in reference
to the whole sleepwalking and sleep eviling habit. Yeah, the fact that her doppelganger
was created from one of her hairs and a potato was kind of strange. Random. So unbelievably
random and not a good payoff at all, I would say, if they were trying to make me believe
that Harley Quinn was going insane. I thought the show very much dropped the ball in that
regard, because at no point did I think that Harley was going insane. Even when she saw
the doppelganger of herself, I was like, I don't know, Clayface, there's so many people that
can impersonate Harley Quinn. Episode 7 was titled the most culturally impactful film franchise
of all time, which we learn is apparently Avatar. Well, Batgirl exposes the Joker for lying about
killing Nightwing on Dr. Psycho's podcast, Harley and Ivy use a time sphere to visit their future
selves for advice. They arrive in a post-apocalyptic Gotham in 2048, where they learn a mysterious
force destroyed the city in 2024, and an adult Robin rules as a tyrant. Harley and Ivy meet
their future daughter, Naityri, who betrays them to Robin. Naityri reveals that Harley
and Ivy were bad parents and a bad couple due to their lack of communication.
and escape with the help of one of King Shark's adult children. They accidentally return to
the present six days after they first traveled to the past, only to learn that in their absence,
the apocalypse began a year early. This episode felt sort of like the Las Vegas episode to
me in that it's kind of fillery. I'm not sure they needed to take this whole approach that
they did with them traveling to the future, considering it never really played a part later
on this season. No, it was just for the gags, I think, but I thought the gags were pretty
funny. I'm wondering how Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn could have a kid. I'm assuming through
cloning, I guess, put their DNA together and then come out with a kid that way. But the
concept of Naetiria, I thought, was pretty solid and I love their reaction to their daughter.
Yeah, the funniest part of this episode to me was Robin, the way he was just like controlling
everything from a video game. I thought that was great. And he turned out to be this like
bearded guy who couldn't even stand anymore because he's so used to sitting in his chair.
While Harley and Ivy were in the future, Bane travels to Italy to fix the Legion of Doom's
pasta maker for Nora. After discovering that the model is discontinued, he learns how to
make pasta from an elderly and abusive Italian woman. Luther plans to thicken the ozone layer
with a laser from his moon base, but needs Volcano's powers to activate volcanoes and expand Earth's
ozone for his plan to work. Nora refuses to let Luther abuse his power while Ivy is away,
so Luthor traps her and the others in the Legion of Doom's headquarters. They escape by blowing
up the headquarters, which gives Luthor the ozone range he needs to use his laser to block
the sun, causing chaos. Harley and Ivy realize upon their return that Luthor's goal was to
weaken Superman. I do love how they managed to take what was kind of a really dumb element
from Season 3 with Bane and the whole pasta maker thing, and turn it into a pretty awesome
gag for this season. You know what? I think we both complained about Bane's story arc from
season three, but love how they just doubled down on it by actually making him go to Italy
and learn how to make pasta. It was actually hilarious. It was great. It was super funny.
I thought the whole grandmother stabbing him and then like teaching him how to cook and
then being like, you're going to stay here forever. It was such a great arc and great storyline
this episode. Who would have thought when the pasta maker subplot was introduced at the very
end of season two that it would have such a great payoff in season four? No one would have
guessed that. Nah. I also loved all the stuff with Nora this episode, like between her and
Captain Cold. I thought it was just hilarious how they're just trying to get together and
all this other stuff keeps happening. Rachel Trash again was just phenomenal as the character
of Nora. Moving on to episode nine. It was titled Potato-Based Cloning Incident. Harley and Ivy
discover that Harley has a clone, unknowingly created by Gordon, with the Legion of Doom's
cloning device slash microwave. Potato Harley suggests Ivy use her Lexcorp board membership
to vote Luther out so they can legally turn off his ozone laser. To secure the last vote,
Ivy organizes a golf tournament to sway an influential board member, but accidentally kills him. Nonetheless,
his wife votes against Lex Luthor because Harley had previously saved her life, allowing Ivy
to shut down Luthor's machine. Meanwhile, Potato Harley reveals that she witnessed Harley killing
Nightwing during one of her sleepwalking episodes, which Dr. Psycho confirms by entering Harley's
memory. Though with Flash's help with time travel, Harley prevents Psycho from remembering and
exposing her as the killer on his podcast. Potato Harley attempts to arrest the real Harley along
with other people whom she considers criminals for minor infractions, leading Harley to fight
and destroy her clone. Ashamed of her actions and realizing her failure as a hero, Harley
announces to Batgirl she is quitting the Bat family before the Joker shoots Batgirl in the
spine in order to rebuild his reputation. I do love the different ways sometimes this show
will reinterpret comic canon like the Joker shooting Batgirl. I thought this was a perfect
and shocking moment to do that. Yeah, for sure. When they did that, I was like, oh, this is
the killing joke. And it made sense, like, why he would do that because his reputation was
destroyed. So he was like, I got to take out a member of the Bat family somehow. Yeah. This
episode was really the pinnacle of Harley's arc. It ended a little bit early, which I thought
was interesting, when she realized that she really wasn't cut out to be a hero and was
too guilty to continue either way. Again, I don't love Potato Harley and I don't really
love the fact that Harley learned she was able to be a hero because of Potato Harley. I think
there was a different way the writers could have done it. It's just so unbelievably random
that they went this direction. I did think it was funny that her first line after Potato
Harley died was, she killed Nightwing. Yeah, yeah, I can't wait to see the repercussions
of her line to Batgirl in the next season. Episode 10 was titled Killer's Block, and this episode
was actually dedicated to Arlene Sorkin, who was the inspiration for Harley Quinn due to
a Harley Quinn performance that she gave while she was cast on the Days of Our Lives. I thought
that was pretty cool that they did that. In the episode, Harley is conflicted when she
can't break herself to kill the Joker for paralyzing Batgirl, and she later joins Poison Ivy on
the moon for Lex Luthor's birthday party, which Ivy plans to ruin. They learn however that
Luthor has captured Superman and weakened him, creating a suit that mimics his powers. After
getting into a brawl with Luthor, Ivy is easily defeated by him. Embarrassed and realizing
that her business partners are not interested in making a change, Ivy quits her job and teams
up with Harley and Batgirl to use Luthor's laser to destroy their businesses, blowing up the
earth bases of LexCorp, Wayne Enterprises, Veronica Kale's company, and the Legion of Doom. Just
before the moon cracks in half from the overloaded laser, Steppenwolf sends Luther to Apocalypse
as punishment for harming Ivy, and Harley saves Superman, having finally accepted both her
good and bad qualities. Three days later, with Superman regaining his powers restoring the
moon, Bruce Wayne is released from prison and becomes Batman once again. Harley and Ivy then
form a new team with Barbara Gordon and Catwoman called the Gotham City After discovering that
Nightwing's grave has been robbed, they decide that they will investigate the case, unaware
that Talia Al Ghul has taken the corpse and have resurrected Nightwing in a Lazarus pit.
I thought this was a solid final episode. I like how the show adapted the idea of Lex's
battle suit into a means of specifically recreating Superman's powers. Yeah, that's actually from
the comics. You know, there was a time when Lex Luthor attempted to be a more superior
Superman and showed up, even like stole his logo and everything like that. So, yeah, this
was an interesting interpretation of that. I agree. I loved this episode. I loved the fight
scene between Ivy and Lex. I love how Ivy destroyed like all of those different companies on Earth.
And I love how Harley saved Superman. I thought that was pretty interesting. Yeah, it kind
of felt like. Poison Ivy's arc was going to be anti-climactic, just losing to Lex in the
way that she did, but there was something very cathartic and satisfying when she just said
fuck it and started blowing up all of her enemies' shit. I mean it's not the most clever way to
culminate an arc, but there's something still satisfying about how she did it. I thought
it was clever, actually. I didn't see it coming, at least. But you know, Ivy's smart enough
to be able to retool a device like that to be a weapon. Again, I'm excited for the Gotham
City Sirens. I wasn't sure that they were ever going to go in that direction with the show
and it looks like they are. Season five is not going to come soon enough, I can tell you that.
Yeah, it's gonna be great. I initially thought they were going the birds of prey route, so
I thought it was funny when, you know, they kind of subverted that with the Gotham City
sirens. I was like, okay, that makes sense because that's a little bit more true considering the
team members. But then Barbara Gordon brought up, or we could call ourselves the birds of
prey. And they're like, no, like we have nothing to do with birds. Like, why would we do that?
None of us are even bird themed. Yeah. That was funny though, because to my knowledge,
I think all of, if not most of those characters were actually also part of the Birds of Prey
in the comics too. I don't think Poison Ivy was, but yes, Catwoman and Harley Quinn, I
believe, have both been members. In addition to Batgirl. Right, right. She founded the team.
But that does it for all the episodes. I thought it ended on a really high note. I don't think
it was as strong as past seasons. I don't think it was as heartfelt as prior seasons. but the
series' fantastic voice talent and irreverent raunchy humor just continues to make this DC's
greatest guilty pleasure. I'm giving it three and a half stars, just one notch down from
season three, but still a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, I agree. I think it was an
enjoyable season, maybe just a small notch below previous entries for the series, but still
a solid entry for DC television, and hopefully we get more. Yeah, I'm absolutely looking forward
to more. I feel like if the show got canceled, there would be like a sore lack of dick jokes
just out there in the world. The show kind of fills that kind of like dick joke niche. 100
percent. I definitely agree with that. It would definitely be missed if and when it ever gets
canceled, which I think the show is pretty popular, so hopefully it doesn't. But that does it for
this review. Let us know what you thought about season four by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com
or by visiting us on Instagram or X. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking
out our show notes or visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you can also
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Next week's episode, we don't actually know what next week's episode is gonna be because
our executive producer meeting is this weekend in which we'll determine the next month's content.
We do know that Dynamic Duel is gonna go full on Halloween mode for the entire month of October.
So we're thinking maybe your next episode is gonna be like vampire characters or demon type
characters, something Halloween-ish. Yeah, I'm excited for Halloween this year. It's gonna
be awesome. So look forward to next week's episode. That does it for this episode though, we want
to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Strausky, Zachary Hepburn,
Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathengian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Nick Ibbonto,
Austin Wasilewski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, and Adam Spies for helping make this podcast
possible. We'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.