Although discussing every instance of this visual motif in Breaking Glass is beyond the scope of this post, I want to discuss three ways Pugh makes use of eyes that are particularly indicative of Harley’s learning journey.Īccording to Marni Stanley, the teen girls in Tamaki’s books are frequently depicted as watchful in order to underscore their adolescence, i.e., they watch the older teens and adults around them to try to gather information about the world and to observe how to behave in certain situations (2017). One of the more compelling ways Pugh demonstrates Harley’s process of self-discovery in relation to her growing awareness of intersectional injustice is through a focus on eyes and eye-related imagery.

As such, Harley cannot solve the problems she or her loved ones face simply by blowing stuff up, however much she would love to do just that. Despite the superhero genre’s tendencies to imply that villainy is aberrant to the societies superheroes swoop in to save, Tamaki and Pugh reimagine Gotham as a society much like our own, riddled with the everyday inequities that come from the intersections of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and heterornormativity. As she begins to find her place in the world and discover more about who she wants to be, Harley learns valuable lessons about fighting for what’s right amidst profound structural injustice.

Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh’s graphic novel Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (2019) reintroduces the DC comics antiheroine Harley Quinn as a teenage girl who arrives in Gotham after a childhood full of poverty, familial strife, and an already long rap sheet. The Eyes Have It in Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass

Harley quinn mariko tamaki