Hey Joe.
I wanted to talk about Suicide Squad a little bit,
and Harley in particular.
This is the Harley Quinn I remember. I saw B:TAS when it came out and I knew she was created for the cartoon. She struck me as a new interpretation of the thugs from Adam West's 1966 Batman - that is: the "lackey" that follows the main villain (Joker in this case) around and does what they're told. But here, the thug is female. And instead of a black shirt with "THUG" written on it, she's wearing a harlequin costume...and her name is Harley Quinn. Not much of a stretch.
But over time, the cartoon (and comics) gave her the beginnings of the backstory we know.
All well and good. But then I saw Margot Robbie's look in the trailers and started to worry. I get that Harley's outfit is different from the animated series. I know why that decision was made...
...'cause, really, that wouldn't work.
My worry was that I wasn't sure how my wife and daughter would respond to the live-action version. I expected Adorkette to want to see the film with her boyfriend. But when Mrs. Adorkification said she wanted to see it, I was surprised to say the least.
As I mentioned Monday, we saw the film over the weekend.
I knew she'd like Deadshot. It's Will Smith. She likes Will Smith. EVERYBODY likes Will Smith. But how would she react to Harley?
Turns out she was Mrs. Adorkification's favorite.
W...T...F...?
On the drive home, I talked about how she differed from her original look. She talked about Harley's character. We agreed that it was clear Joker ruined her life. Messed her up completely. But I thought he really loved her (the only way Joker could love anyone) and I saw their relationship as a twisted DC version of a gangster and his moll. Joker found her, affected/infected her, and turned her into a lovesick fan.
Get it?
Mrs. Adorkification saw the relationship as extremely abusive. Messed with her head (during the sessions), and messed with her body (the shock treatments) and even talked her into suicide...until he decided to save her. She described Harley as "broken'. Joker broke Harley.
Since then, I've seen and read some reviews which brought a specific thing I noticed in the film back to mind:
which made NO damn sense at the time.
It seems that the idea of Harley having Joker's baby isn't new. It was brought up in an issue of Injustice, an alternate DCU based on the video game. In that issue, Harley confesses to Black Canary that she got pregnant, left to deliver her child (a girl, to be raised by Harley's sister) and came back to Joker...who didn't even notice she was gone: a classic example of an abusive relationship.
W...T...F...?
Reading that made me think of another thing I remember reading a while back...
...which featured a character named Joker's Daughter.
No. I'm not making that up.
That wasn't even the first Joker's Daughter to appear in DC Comics. But I always thought that the KC character was either an adopted daughter or just a fan that wanted to follow in Joker's footsteps.
Get it?
So now I'm not only accepting Joker being a father (which is a whole other blog), I'm accepting the fact that a) Joker's Daughter must have had a mother, and b) Harley was that mother.
W...T...F...?
Getting back to the movie, if you remember the scene I'm talking about (where Joker's lying in that circle of blades) you may have noticed two sets of infant clothes. Twins. Now flash-forward to the end of the film, when Enchantress shows everyone their heart's desire, and she's with Joe Kerr raising twins. Holy S#!t.
So where are the twins?
My guess? Harley miscarried. A result of Joker's physical abuse. Which finally 'broke' her. I also think she never told Joker...which is a callback to the Injustice comic.
Kinda gives some extra meaning to Harley's clothing choices, doesn't it?
