Harley Quinn - Suicide Wardrobe

Alright, so I've had a few comments about my hate for the new 52 Hardly Quinn - her outfit in particular - the people want to know why. Well you know, apart from the obvious.

It's not the fact that she's changed, things change, it's the nature of the world. I've already been through my problem with Harley Quinn being changed for every single new medium she's in so I'm not going to elaborate on this point any further for the time being.

                                              

Fans of the classic Harley Quinn and her awesome yet appropriate costume will remember the official introduction of Harley to the mainstream DCU by way of Batman: Harley Quinn (Mad Love).
The now iconic painting of the romantic yet deadly tango of Harley and her beau the Joker sums up the story in one page, but if you keep reading you'll witness Harley Quinn trying out costumes on her way to rescue the Joker.

                                   



To one, she says 'ick!' To another, 'too derivative . Then 'Hello, gorgeous!' to her (from that point on) trademark outfit. You know what they were? A traditional clown outfit and a Jokeresque knock off.
She chose her own outfit, she became Harley Quinn.

                                    
With the new 52, that choice was taken away from her as you see when the Joker returns and chains her up in a room full of corpses all wearing the same costume she is (albeit most are less revealing unless bones are your thang).

So it's the Joker's outfit FOR her. Just like HIS back story is now HER origin story as well. What good luck that the vat of stupid chemicals she was pushed into changed her hair into the EXACT RIGHT COLOURS or that would have thrown the Joker's plan into a tail spin. Imagine strolling into your old hideout, filled with transvestite/midget/conjoined twin copies of you and you weren't even in the right colours. Sheeesh.

'All this planning - for naught!!'

                                           

The colours... I have no idea why her colours keep changing. Nearly all of the DC new 52-niverse is turning red and black, and the one character who had a damn good reason to use these colours has now  lost her deck of cards look for either red/blue or red/purple, whatever mess people think looks edgy and new.

A common complaint is that a character that was enjoyable to read because she wasn't a complete sexpot like Catwoman or Poison Ivy, and often made disparaging remarks about her own body but was comfortable enough with herself to romp around in a skin tight suit and play dress ups has now been totally sexed up. Well, sexed up in comics just means she's wearing much less clothes and what clothes she IS wearing don't make much sense - not that she's actually 'sexy'.





Seriously, a corset like that will restrict her movements rather than let her perform one of her talents - being a freaking Olympic level gymnast. I don't often watch the Olympics but I'm pretty sure the competitors prefer to wear leotards, and that's why they tend to win medals instead of fall out of their costumes and hurt things that shouldn't be hurt.

Why she has a little cape, I will never understand. Why she has a gun holster belt with thousands of bullets when you never see her shooting a gun of her own (I saw her steal a gun once, but never shoot with her own) Why does she have little dagger things in her stupid corset with her pasty gross boobs when she never uses them? It's like they sent an actual maniac into costuming and told her to dress the most effective way for combat and this is what they came up with.

A warlord's costume warped to appeal to the worst stereotype of fan boys while being useless because the only reason she's in this damn comic is because DC knew that no one would read the idiotic comic that they scrapped the actually good Secret Six for unless they had a character that A) had a massive fan base B) was well know enough and C) knew a shit storm about making her a slut would grant them more air time.

PICTURED: How to make a super villain comic

                                     


It's not just the costume though.. everything about her is now dirty and sexed up. Every issue has either some reference to something being kinky, wedgies being pulled, toe sucking fetishes or hell, attempting to bone Deadshot! Again, it's all done in a way that doesn't match her character, like it's just thrown in to be edgy and because she's the main female character in this 'comic'.

Great, now you're 'sexy', everyone thinks you're a bimbo too. 

Now as well as that, the new costume - brand new, as in just been created - isn't even canon! As in, no body draws it the same way. As in, the capes in, no, it's out. The butt diamonds are in, oh no, they're out. Tasteful eye makeup? Here today, gone for the other 364. Even the little 'V' shape of her shirt keeps changing colours and sides and size, it's ridiculous. That, and mirroring the video games that inspired her wardrobe wackiness... she gets a FUNERAL CORSET. 

I'm so sad - I used my day pass to  visit Hot Topic!'

Although, as we've seen from the games.... it could have been worse....

          

Fashion police!!

This outfit below is from the Batman Arena Spectacular - again, red and blue and kind of weird but it's a one off. This outfit is understandable because it's set in a freaking circus and needs to be colourful to grab attention from the backdrops. Here she is wearing a puffy skirt, but it appears to come off (or get added on) at some stage (heh heh, the Theatre..) because there are other shots where she is kinda wearing red and blue hotpants under there. 

I ran away with the circus and all I got was a fashion clashin'!

                                         

Again, this has the influence of Jim Lee... as does..... Huntress from Hush!

Personally, I think this outfit is cute but know deep in my heart that it's impractical

and exposes a sensitive area up to foes. Namely her stomach, which famously got shot in No Man's Land - not that you'd ever see it here. It was a defining moment for Huntress and Batman but can't be shown because teh womens must have teh hot bodies. 

   

At least this outfit - which also has hotpants and dangly belt things - is shown to be useful to Huntress who fights crime and kicks it's ass in delightfully awesome ways. Her boots and gauntlets - even her mask can be seen as more than just clothing - it's also armour. She has a cape, because she is part of the Bat-Family and it freaking makes sense for her to have a decent size cape. Hey, she's also carrying a weapon that she uses! I'm sure Harley does too. It's probably that massive mallet hidden in her clown car of a vagina. 

I saw a picture that someone drew of Harley imitating Deadpool, and I think that this is kind of what they were going for when they redesigned Harley. 

                                                    

It does look incredibly impractical and weapons heavy - also a touch on the Wildstorm 90's side if I can be honest - but at least it actually looks like Harley Quinn!

It's impossible not to touch on Harley's relationship with Joker - and how it can be either love hate or completely abusive (varies writer to writer, much like Harley's intelligence and value) but for an outsider looking in, they're going to see Harley as someone who is in an abusive relationship and also as someone who is dressed as a hooker. 

Is that necessary? Really? Sexualising something like that? Who cares about her mental state, sex sells man! 

 

Above: Harley being fun sexy and Huntress wearing something sexy but being strong, beautiful and awe inspiring instead of trashy.

 Harley Quinn is one of the newest characters to DC, I honestly don't believe that her outfit needed updating this badly. I believe I've previously mentioned DC blatantly giving fans the finger several times over?

'Nuff said.