The Many Faces of the Harlequin

While Robin the Boy Wonder had his fair share of colorful crooked adversaries, such as Crazy Quilt, his most persistent opponent was never an actual villain. She only played them, or rather, their fictional children. This is the strange story of Duela Dent… and her mirror image on a parallel planet… Molly Maynne. Or, as they are more famously (infamously?) known, the Harlequin!

Duela Dent of Earth-One began her legacy as Joker Daughter, mimicking the gas and gag gadgets of the Crown Prince of Crime. Following this, she next adopted the alias of Catgirl, this time proclaiming herself the child of Catwoman while using her own cat-of-nine-tails and catarangs. After this, she next appeared as the second generation Scarecrow known as Scarecrone, utilizing a version of fear gas. Still later as Riddler’s Daughter and finally Penguin’s Daughter, she wielded a riddle-gun and a helicopter umbrella, respectively. Once her “crime  spree” was over and she proved her resourcefulness to Robin by both outwitting him and guessing his secret identity as Dick Grayson, her end goal was realized. What was that?

Molly Maynne of Earth-Two stuck with her Harlequin alias throughout her criminal capers, although thanks to her illusion-generating spectacles she was able to alter the perceptions of her arch-foe and secret crush, the Green Lantern as well as other onlookers. These glasses coupled with her mandolin weapon and stylized Harlequin-car led to her being recruited into the Injustice Society, although she used her membership with them to betray them to the Lantern and his Justice Society allies. What became of her?

Robin sponsored Duela's membership into the Teen Titans as the Harlequin. She would serve with this team on several cases before they disbanded, then aid Robin as the red-haired Card Queen in defeating the criminal organization known as M.A.Z.E. before finally retiring. She's reunite with Robin and the Titans later during Donna "Wonder Girl" Troy's wedding.

Molly later joined the F.B.I. as the Harlequin, secretly working alongside her one-time foe on select cases such as assisting "Mr. and Mrs. Superman", Lois Lane and her husband Clark Kent's alter ego. Decades later, she reunited with and soon after married Green Lantern's alter ego Alan Scott.

The inventive resourcefulness coupled with the athletic prowess of Duela Dent and Molly Maynne was unmatched by most of their peers, and led to their recruitment into teams of superhuman individuals. This led to their brief yet impactful costumed careers as the Harlequin*.

* While Maynne never adopted other aliases as had Dent, other women on Molly's Earth filled similar roles to those of Duela's other alter egos. For example, Dianne Greyton as the Spider Widow was similar in appearance and modus operandi to Joker's Daughter and the Scarecrone.