Harley Quinn: New and Improved? Not So Much...

I realize this specific topic has been run into the ground… be it both the positive and the negative responses to DC's new reboot of Harley Quinn, everyone's favorite crazy-in-love villainess; however, now that I have the platform to do so I am going to throw in my two-cents on the topic. Harley isn't exactly my favorite character, but she is the best friend of Poison Ivy aka Red who IS my favorite and therefore I pay attention to her more often than the other Gotham heroines/villainesses. She’s often shown as an energetic and fun-loving, neurotic, yet driven, and ambitious individual. Her deep love of the Joker is often a defining quality of hers, but she has also worked to get herself out of his shadow (see Gotham City Sirens). While yes there are times she can be annoyingly ditzy, deep down she’s just as twisted a criminal mastermind as her former would-be-boyfriend, The Clown Prince of Crime. The beginning of her rather extreme costume change from Bruce Timm's original design for her which is the now iconic red & black jester suit came with the release of the Arkham Asylum video game. Her "nurse" outfit didn't fit the image of Joker's honey in the slightest in my opinion and looked more like something someone would see at EDC (or any other rave for that matter)… maybe a bit more coverage… but none the less. Red & Purple!? What the hell were they thinking? I eventually diffused about this particular change in costume when I realized that it was only for the game and her comic version was left intact. That is until DC announced they were rebooting their universe (again)… they said repeatedly the new looks would be “making characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old” but when the first edition of Suicide Squad was released, I lost it. I was furious, disappointed and disgusted. I literally ranted for a good hour to my best friend who essentially embodies Harley the way I do Ivy. Everything about her new look infuriated me. Here's a summary of what I said originally:

• her hair… Red & PURPLE?! Where'd the blonde go.
• Why does she have a giant dagger & what looks like a hammer Thor would wield, as opposed to her giant mallet and gun that shoots out a joke flag?
• a cape… o.O
• that "corset"… we won't be seeing her do ANY acrobatics in that scrap of clothing.
• or those "shorts" for that matter.
• thigh high hooker boots...
• her face looks triangular, evil and morose. Where is the cute, bubbly madly in love girl we know and love?