8 Things DC Want You To Forget About Harley Quinn

3. Bud And Lou

Harley Quinn Bud And Lou
Warner Bros.

Fans of Batman: The Animated Series will no doubt be aware of Bud and Lou, Harley's voracious pet Hyenas who, more often than not, got the chance to chow down on the Dark Knight on plenty of occasions.

Harley really does love her pets, even if they are more exotic than your average Alsatian, but that hasn't stopped DC and others from doing their best to harm the poor critters. Rocksteady famously killed the pair of them off in between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, with Penguin having stuffed and placed them on display in his City museum.

Not the nicest Easter Eggs, then, for a character already dealing with the Joker's impending demise. Worse yet, however, was Bud and Lou's treatment in the Death of the Family - a seminal Bat series that, while undoubtedly impressive, really had it in for Harleen. In it, a galvanised and fully sadistic Joker turns the hyenas against their owner, and Harley - faced with no other option - is forced to kill them.

It's a sad moment, and while some fans might find the gimmick of two pet Hyenas jarring in certain respects, Harley really was fond of them.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.