Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn: An In-Depth Analysis

Now that we've seen the first official look at the Suicide Squad, it seems like we can get down to [...]

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Now that we've seen the first official look at the Suicide Squad, it seems like we can get down to the business of making some observations about Harley Quinn's long-awaited first look.

We took a look at most of the Squad earlier, but there's a lot to say about Deadshot and Harley Quinn -- and they're wildly popular characters -- so we kind of glanced over them and figured that we would give them their own space to stretch out and be discussed, rather than trying to cram it all into an already-crowded article.

We're getting a variation on the current, roller derby-inspired look for Harley Quinn, so hat-tip to Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, for sure. The footwear in particular feels at home in that version of the character.

Palmiotti himself expressed enthusiasm for the look already.

There's a lot going on here, and Harley is very clearly inspired by the Arkham Asylum game franchise --which in turn influenced the New 52.

There's also a just-leaked set photo that I'll be using to analyze her look, since it features some things in a little clearer detail:

Screenshot 2015-05-03 184050

The thick collar is very New 52. While the Arkhamverse Harley does have a choker, it's fairly plain, whereas the one in the comics has bells on it, furthering the harlequin look. Here, we get a choker with "PUDDIN" on it, what she calls Joker in basically every iteration of her existence.

Playing on her original costume, which alternated blocks of blue and red, she's got hair coloring (in the ponytails) and eye shadow that do the same in these shots. Her shorts and jacket do the same, and given the fact that we see her nails are painted, it wouldn't be surprising to see them do it too.

Like the images we've seen of the Suicide Squad Joker, she's got a number of tattoos, including another "Puddin" and what looks like some playing cards -- or at least the suits from a deck of cards. There's also a number of scores on her leg, not unlike what you might expect to see on Mr. Zsasz. What they could be keeping track of -- who knows?

She's also got tattoos on her lower belly, near the belt line. It's impossible to see in too much detail, but one of them says "______ you," where the empty space isn't me censoring a profanity but simply not being able to read.

The tattoo to the left of the "you" looks from here like a dophin with sunglasses on. That's almost certainly very, very wrong but I have no better guess.

She's also (in the set photo) brandishing a baseball bat, her signature weapon from the Arkham Asylum games. The notion of a tattooed Harley, as well as the four diamonds on her upper leg, both seem to have originated there, and so did the "sexed-up" Harley with the halter top and such, her original comics and cartoon appearances being in essentially a jumpsuit with a frilly neck.

The shirt, which you can't read in the official image, says "Daddy's Monster" when you look at it in the set photo. It appears to have been created for the film and isn't one that's widely available, like The Mandarin's infamous t-shirt from Iron Man 3.

Harley's gun has a Joker logo on it, which appears to be from a playing card and is reminiscent of the one often seen in the Batcave or even the one seen on the card at the end of Batman Begins. Of course, that could be reading way too much into it, since we can see very little detail here; only that it looks like a Jerry Robinson-style Joker face and he seems to have the jester's cap on that Harley commonly wore in the Pre-New 52 comics.

I'm not totally sure what to make of the handcuffs, other than to say there seem to be some things in this photo (like the backdrop itself) that are there just for fun...

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