Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn Costume is for Her Puddin'

By Shrey Sankalp

Ah, Harley. We all know how she loves her Mr. J, so is it really surprising that when he creates controversy over his costume, she would too?

Before we dive deep into the Suicide Squad's Harley Quinn costume analysis pool, a brief history on Harley Quinn:

Unlike most characters who originate in a comic book and then move on to other media, Harley first appeared in the classic Batman: The Animated Series and was original creation of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. While most people would have dismissed her as nothing more than an elaborately costumed sidekick to the Joker, Harley proved a formidable character who held her own and had the right mix of over the top and craziness to join the elite tier of comic book characters and stay there in the subsequent years, classic jester costume or not (and she did go a few costume changes, believe me).

As for her origin, it’s fairly straightforward – she used to be a psychiatrist (Dr. Harleen Quinzel, M.D.) at Arkham Asylum who got fascinated (if that’s what you want to call it) with the Joker, helped him escape, donned the jester costume and went on to be with him and stuff.

The New 52 continuity revamped this origin into Harley helping Joker escape, being thrown into a vat of acid by him, and then surviving like he did, but going insane and ending up with bleached skin and colored hair like he did.

As far as we can infer from the trailers and other promotional material, Suicide Squad is going with the New 52 origin story.

What the film isn’t going with, is the classic costume, and is very proudly following the DC tradition of eschewing classic costumes for new, “edgy” ones.

Gone is the jester costume, and its place has been taken by blingy jewelry, a tight t-shirt and laughably short sparkly shorts. 

Oh, and tattoos.

As with the Joker costume, the opinions have been split (although it’s more 50-50 here than the Joker’s negative tilt 85-15) with one contingent feeling the updated costume is great, and the other thinking it’s  just to glamorize Margot Robbie.

I guess both sides have a strong argument here. The director David Ayer has defended the costume change by saying it’s in line with the character and in some ways, it is – if there’s anyone who’s going into battle wearing a t-shirt and short shorts, it’s Harley.

But again, the only reason the new “costume” is as revealing as it is, is because they have a naturally gorgeous actress playing her, and they didn’t want to cover her up in a head-to-toe costume.

I’m okay with the design changes, but I can’t understand why they couldn’t have tried to keep the original red and black color scheme. Most fans would have liked that, and the Arkham games more or less got away with the changes because of that.

As for the tattoos, I’d say they are more acceptable here than in case of the Joker. The tattoos or Harley’s arms and legs are well done, to a point where they even classify as a nice touch.

Again, the ‘rotten’ on the cheek and the ‘lucky you’ on the stomach are two tattoos too many, but at least it’s more believable than the Joker’s manic tattoo spree.

Photo: Warner Bros

All in all, I’d say they have done an okay job with the new Harley Quinn costume, because even though it eschews comic book accuracy, it never borders on laughably ridiculous (looking at the Joker here), just flirts with objectification.

Truth be told, the jester costume may not have translated well on screen (because let’s face it, unless you’re Spider-Man or Deadpool, it won’t – Psylocke is an exception, but there’s a whole another can of worms there that I’m not opening) and in that sense, it’s okay they changed the costume, I just wished they had kept the original color scheme in some form.

But hey, at least Margot Robbie looks and seems great as Harley Quinn so far, so costume or no costume, there’s always that.

And when you really think about it, isn’t that what matters the most?