This is Not Your Childhood: Harley Quinn

[balloonhat]

I'm late to the party, but I'm seeing some agitation over "the new Harley Quinn" and I was like, wait, what? New Harley Quinn? I've seen the new Supergirl outfit and I know DC Comics is launching, relaunching or rebooting (and, of course, slashing) all sorts of titles, but it didn't even occur to me that they would touch other costumes besides

Comments

[gandolforf]

Wow. That is a massive change.

[balloonhat]

The only thing that's the same is the dual high ponytails. :(

[darkspirited1]

I like to think the Past and Future have jointly decided to assassinate her.

hahaha. It does. If you ask me, her old outfit is the best out of all of these. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even know her really and thus has no bias. Well, other than the "why must all women wear frilly-barely there costumes to fight crime?!" bias.

[balloonhat]

She's a villain, but yeah. :( They've actually covered up (sort of) some of the female heroes, but not in sensible ways (still skin tight and emphasizing butt and breasts). One character is Black Canary, who used to wear fishnets over her legs. In her redesign, for some reason she's still wearing fishnets! ...over tights/leggings. It's just weird.

[hwango]

Yearg, that really is awful. I see that they left a couple of token diamonds on the arms so she still has some vague playing card/jester association. But really, a nod that pathetic may as well not even be there. And her harlequin mask is, what, eye makeup that doesn't even look like a harlequin mask? Um...what? I don't like the whole skimpy outfit/corset thing at all, but if they were going to do that, they should AT LEAST have left us some clues on that outfit of who the heck she's supposed to be. This outfit fails on every level.

The thing in the back seems to have a sort of hammerhead shark head and a fin on its back...I'm now really worried about who that's supposed to be. = P

[balloonhat]

I totally didn't even see it as a shark; for some reason it struck me as more saurian than anything. The only shark-related person I can think of is Great White. Who do you think it is?

To me, if they didn't want her to wear a domino mask anymore, they should've just... not bothered to try to mimic it with eye makeup. She looks like her makeup's been running, or that she slept with heavy makeup on and woke up with raccoon eyes.

I'm not even sure what she's doing. Is she supposed to be about to stab someone from that angle? Why do artists drawn women who constantly cock/sway their hips like that? Or is she resting the handle of her hammer on her hips?

[hwango]

The only shark-related person I can think of is Great White. Who do you think it is?

See, that's the problem - I can't think of anyone. For all I know, this is the new Killer Croc, or Black Manta, or something. Harley's new look is so changed, it could be anyone. It could be freaking Aquaman for all I know. = P

As for pose...it looks like she's posing. Seriously, I don't think that's the position her body would be in for stabbing. With her upper body rotated that much she should already be swinging the knife downards - her upper arm shouldn't still be totally vertical. She's certainly not about to use the hammer for anything, holding it like that. It looks like they said "Hey, Harley - pose for this cover. Try to position your arms so our eyes only pay attention to your body. Hang on, we'll get a telekinetic character to hold your ponytails up in the air for a second."

[sinetimore]

This...is pretty desperate

[balloonhat]

Did you see how the Teen Titans and Black Canary look now? Awful. I'm not even sure what's going on with Wonder Girl. Perhaps they're not as much of a visual disaster as Harley Quinn, but it's still very bad.

And no, you're not the only one wondering about her top. I can't imagine this Harley Quinn doing any gymnastics. Then again, this Harley Quinn looks like she'll just shoot you in the face and then stab fifty times for good measure, so she probably wouldn't want to do gymnastics anyway.

The person who designed this has issues about women to unpack in a therapist's office.

Covering up (well, sort of) the female heroes but tearing clothing off the female villains... DC Comics is leading me towards some very uncomfortable conclusions.

[hwango]

I forgot to mention - flaming nightmare My Little Pony icon is awesome and hilarious.