The animated Harley Quinn series is back for a fourth season. In an interesting media crossover, some of what happened between seasons three and four was covered in a comic book limited series, “Legion of Bats.” But now the show is back, with, among other things, Harley and Ivy trying to find a new balance in their lives, since Harley is working with the Bat-family in Batman’s absence, and Ivy is running the Legion of Doom. Talk about a mixed marriage.

The initial scene focuses on just that, as Harley battles her way into the Legion of Doom headquarters… to bring Ivy her lunch. Clearly, they have some work to do in figuring out how to handle the new status quo. Harley also has to figure out how to handle being called things she’s really not used to, like “good guy.”

Ivy’s time settling in at the Legion of Doom isn’t going well at all. Lex, despite appointing her head of the organization, isn’t listening to her about her new ideas, and the assorted villains are certainly not giving her the respect they did Lex. You always get some difficult transitions with a new leader, but Ivy is also fighting a lot of misogyny, which isn’t going well. She’s not making it easier on herself by trying to push a big brand change for the Legion. I think “socially conscious evil” is going to be a hard sell.

Out on the street, Harley reads a magazine about “Gotham’s Hotties” (hey, we have a title) and then gets into an argument with d-list villain Professor Pyg about who made the list. In the Batcave (and I still think it’s a horrible idea to give Harley access to that), Nightwing and Robin are working on another case when Harley makes her big dramatic entrance, stealing one of the best known hero lines along the way. That line makes even less sense than usual for Harley. Batgirl, at least, is happy to see Harley. I halfway wonder if that’s an in joke, since Harley is voiced by Kaley Cuoco and Batgirl by her niece Briana Cuoco. Harley, bored, makes a lot of bad suggestions and conversational topics that just don’t fly in this crowd.

While Ivy can’t figure out how to make progress at the Legion, the Bat-clan works out and Harley more or less babbles. Apparently, Nightwing made second place on the Gotham Hotties list that was mentioned earlier, and Harley has some ridiculous suggestions about that. An alarm finally goes off, but Robin gets told he can’t go, since it’s visiting day at Blackgate Prison, where Bruce Wayne is serving time for his amazingly out of character choices last season.

As the team investigates a murder, Alfred and Damian get some surprising news about Bruce and a new employee of his. It’s another bit of ridiculousness that’s probably a fair enough commentary on “prisons” for the rich. Ivy continues to deal with problems at work, and we find out what at least one of the old gang is up to these days. At home, Harley and Ivy engage in some roleplay that gets a bit odd, even for them.

Harley is actually trying to solve the case and using detective work, more or less, so kudos to her. She tries to reach out to old contacts, but since she’s on the hero side at this point, they don’t want to talk to her. We do get to touch base with another member of their old gang.

Poison Ivy tries a tempting but horrible idea to get a handle on the Legion, and it goes spectacularly badly. I get why she was tempted, but really, she should know better. Harley comes up with a novel idea on how to trap whoever is behind the current crime spree, and it’s creative and, I have to say, would probably work. I have to give the series credit for one of their choices; Nora Fries has always sort of been more a symbol than a character. The fact that she’s a recurring presence on this is a really new spin for the Bat-mythos, and her and Ivy teaming up is going to get interesting.

In the main DC Comics universe, the singularly best known physical feature is probably Power Girl’s chest, but a very close second is Nightwing’s ass. That running joke becomes part of the plot here, so points to them for going with that bit of lore. Being a big Nightwing fan, I’m not thrilled with how they chose to do some of what follows, but hey, it’s not his show. The villain and their plan is revealed. Ivy finally asserts her authority at the Legion, and it’s fun to watch. Especially since most of these villains are weak comic parodies of themselves.

The heroes manage to win, although Harley is once again taking things to an extreme the Bat-family isn’t used to. Robin is amused, but then, this is the Damian Wayne psycho killer version, so I’m not surprised. The episode wraps with some interesting stock market news, and a mystery woman who promises to be problematic for Gotham.

What I Liked: I have to give them points for getting in on the joke about Nightwing’s ass. Poison Ivy’s struggles in her new role were comically exaggerated, but made some good points. It was good to see what some of the old crew was up to. Seeing the two leads struggle with their new relationship dynamic was a plot point it would have been easy to miss, so kudos to them for thinking of it.

What I Didn’t: As I will probably keep fussing about, I don’t like how Nightwing is portrayed on the show, but I’m honest enough to admit I’m biased. I don’t see how Nightwing and Batgirl are going to be ok working with Harley if she’s still in ultra-violence mode, which seems to be her only setting.

It was a good start to the new season. I’ll give this a 3 out of 5.