OH HELLO Suicide Squad scans.
Reblogged from maddiemoo92 February 28, 2012 by clownyprincess
Under the cut to avoid spoilers.
Plus of the issue?
Joker’s damn hot.Ranty-time:
Okay, so I’m just…ugh….I hate the way Harleen is written here, I really do. I despise that they made her this tough-as-nails “I’m a strong, empowered woman and I can threaten to kick The Joker in the balls because I’m so tough! GURL POWER!” Please…Harleen was a young, impressionable, and in many ways, naive new doctor. I’m not saying she wasn’t intelligent or a bit conniving herself but she simply was NOT ready to handle the Joker as a patient. That’s why Joker thought it would be so funny to completely unravel her and destroy her life. She was NORMAL! He saw how completely out of her league she was and thought it would be hilarious to screw with her mind. Her naivete and gullibility are what drew him to her! I have a feeling if she had acted all tough and strong, she’d have been dead within a week. That’s what makes her character so interesting and even somewhat relate-able. This was a normal young woman. Someone career-oriented and professional, but still had that yearning for something more exciting and fun. We all have that at some point or another. It was awesome seeing this normal woman become a deranged, lovesick psychopath. That’s why her character is so beloved. But the way she’s written in Suicide Squad just kinda sucks. Here is this totally badass doctor who’s, like, totally not even afraid of the Joker! And then she like, becomes this badass Juggalette and makes out with Deadshot! Give me a break. Sorry but I still haven’t been impressed with the new Harley Quinn. Maybe they should bring in a new writer who actually has respect for the character and her history.
Rant over.
Yeah, I largely agree with all this too!
Copying and pasting what I wrote in a facebook group to add my two cents to the tumblr convo:
So what rings false, firstly, is Harley walking in with the theory of Joker being a liar. First of all: as if they haven’t already figured that out. Second of all: I can buy Harley developing that theory further (it’s established in Casefile, after all) but walking straight in with it? Why is it out of character and why does it remind me of Kesel? Because both writers feel the need to make Harley “smarter” than she was originally established as being, thereby implying she isn’t good enough as she is. They think a poor student who screwed her way to her grades isn’t a ‘complex’ enough storyline so they feel the need to ‘elaborate’ on it. This is problematic on many levels, but for me it rankles because I don’t think they’re being imaginative enough with the unqualified intern scenario. I think it’s slut-shaming and classist at its core. And I think it could actually be really cool to examine someone navigating a high pressure environment when they’re not qualified, only had the opportunity to get their degree through scholarship (and remember it’s been estalished Harley’s family is very working class) and have a bunch of complex motives for aiming so high regardless. So super tough Harley walking in being all ‘ha, you’re a liar’? Well, that seems WAY more Wonder Woman and Catwoman to me, quite frankly, than underqualified intern who nonetheless has a natural knack for interpreting people wandering into something she’s wholly unprepared for because she wants to make something more of her life. The nuts-kicking line - didn’t sound like Harley. Just didn’t. It’s not that I don’t think she can’t tough-talk - but that? C’mon! I think we DID see enough of Harleen in Mad Love to get a grasp of her. With Joan she’s posturing, all too oviously talking tough - but in a really refined, composed sort of way - she’s trying to give off the impression she’s this sophisticated, seen-it-all doctor. It comes across way more as JD in Scrubs than anything else. The Clarice Starling comparison rings true, but is identified wrongly - Clarice didn’t swear and threaten Lecter. She was as polite as she could be, putting on a tough front sure - but SO polite. Because if she’d been rude, Lecter would’ve had nothing to do with her. Obviously Joker needs someone to pique his interest, but by threatening to kick him in the balls? Oh come on, how many people would already have done that? The Joker is surrounded by violence. He is rarely ever touched except in violence. He would need something WAY more interesting. Harley piques his interest in Mad Love by responding to his wink and then not telling on him when he leaves the rose. And then there’s endless stuff you can imagine happening to pull that out. I mean, you can argue that the threat was impressive because it came from a little female intern but I think that only works if you imagine the Joker as sexist, and I don’t - he’s gone up against heaps of tough women, he doesn’t discriminate. By the time he’s met Harley, he’s already been up against a much younger Batgirl, even. Threats are nothing to him. Violence is a language he understands but it doesn’t mean he’s going to consider someone worthy of his attention because of it. Think of all the super heros he dismisses as being all brawn and no brains, unworthy of consideration. I think part of the appeal of Harley to him is precisely because HE underestimates her at first, thinks she’s this dipshit little intern and then, through their sessions, learns she’s way, way more… their sessions give him as much opportunity to learn about her as they do for her. But yeah, the Harleen we saw in Mad Love is posturing, trying to come off as cocky and confident, who got her degree immorally, but the second her heart strings are tugged, that facade tumbles. And while Mad Love is a simplified and condensed version of the tale, I think that’s ample to go on.
What I really dislike about these narratives that seek to rewrite Harley as way more clued in and tough than she really is, again, is that they suggest she was never good enough as she was to begin with for the Joker. And I think that’s missing a whole lot of elements.
There’s a few other things, but this is way long enough for now.
