In Harley Quinn, Gotham City’s newest villain, Keepsake, just debuted, and they already have their sights set on the Suicide Squad star.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from Harley Quinn #5, on sale now from DC Comics.
Harley Quinn may just have defeated Hugo Strange in a battle of fists and wits, but she failed to notice another hand working behind the scenes. Strange seems to secretly be working with, a more likely for, a new villain who named Keepsake. The name isn’t a coincidence, Keepsake seems to have an arsenal from various Gotham City villains and has unknown machinations on the city that will undoubtedly put him and Harley on a collision course.
Although he only appeared in Stephanie Phillips, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Pascencia and Andworld’s Design’s Harley Quinn #5, a lot can be gleamed about this mysterious villain.
While Harley embarked on the second phase of her raid through Strange’s facility, the professor himself spoke with a mysterious figure in the shadows. This was Keepsake, who started berating Strange for letting Harley escape and stating that Hugo had ruined everything Keepsake had paid him to do. That dynamic reveals that Keepsake is Strange’s benefactor, who’s been funding and possibly funding Strange’s transactions.
Indeed, Hugo seems to be hesitant and even fearful in Keepsake’s presence. It isn’t hard to see why, since Keepsake is a walking arsenal of some of the most dangerous weapons in the city. The most prominent of these is an umbrella reminiscent of the Penguin’s umbrellas. In addition, he possesses a gasmask that appears to be from the Scarecrow, an assault rifle courtesy of Two-Face.
But his name also hints that he is something of a collector, which tracks when considering that he has the money to hire and fund Hugo. It’s conceivable that he was a fan of Gotham’s villains and merely collected their memorabilia was not enough — he wanted to use them. This doesn’t explain what he wants right now, only that he hired Hugo to secure certain “assets” for his future plans. But there is one last bit of information that might shed light on the true identity of this new villain.
During their conversation after Harley’s successful breakout, Keepsake once again berated Hugo, taunting that he’d heard Harley kicked Strange’s butt. At that point, Hugo referred to Keepsake as “Eli” before being corrected by Keepsake to use his codename. Hugo Strange has worked once before with someone named Eli, a young man who believed Hugo was his father. Eli Strange was introduced in Detective Comics #5 by Tony S. Daniel and worked with Strange for a brief time.
It’s possible that this Eli and Keepsake be one and the same, since the way he spoke to Strange was more in the vein of someone younger than him. Could Eli have come into some money and decided to reinvent himself as the inheritor of more than just Strange’s legacy? Only time will tell, but it’s clear that Keepsake is manipulating things behind the scenes and whatever he intends to do will bring him face-to-face with Harley soon enough.
About The Author
