The Joker Graphic Novel by Azzarello and Bermejo Influenced Look of Suicide Squad

Joker’s look is mixture of drug cartel leader and Yves Saint Laurent in Suicide Squad, but that doesn’t mean that the comics were entirely out of play while costume designer Kate Hawley was designing the character’s look with director David Ayer and star Jared Leto.

Specifically, the fashion-conscious, gritty, and sometimes grotesque look of the film drew some inspiration from Joker by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.

The graphic novel, from the creators of Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, examined the villain in depth and has been one of DC’s most consistently best-selling graphic novels since its release.

“They’re all wearing Versace and Balmain and all of that,” Hawley told us during a set visit. “David wanted that world. When we go into this club scene that is his and Harley’s world, they’re not the only freaks in there. There’s this high-end, almost like a Studio 54 thing. It’s like everyone’s fucked up in this world and there’s a normality to it. There’s that beautiful book which actually I based some of the jester stuff we were playing around with.”

When asked whether it was Bermejo’s Joker, she confirmed it, saying, “That, I’d say, has the closest visual quality to possibly what David is trying to get to.”

It feels good to be bad…Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?

Suicide Squad hits theaters August 5, 2016.