Summary
Minor story spoilers forSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueahead.
InSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Harley Quinn has completely shed her undying obsession with Joker and almost any trace of her identity in theArkhamgames, minus her being constantly witty, excitable, and criminally inclined. The likeliest reason for this is due tothe more popular take on Harley Quinn of latebeing that she is an independent woman who resents Joker rather than worships him and finds empowerment in that stance, as seen in theHarley Quinnanimated series and theBirds of Preymovie.
This would be fine, too, if it was a development for Harley’s character that was precipitated or made sense in the Arkhamverse’s canon, but it isn’t and doesn’t. Because Harley’s apparent change of heart would’ve needed to happen in the five-year gap betweenArkham KnightandSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueand players didn’t get to see it at all, it’s only natural that her sudden ideology shift is alarming and creates a continuity error in her character development.
Harley wasn’t left to question her love for Joker or wonder if she’d be better off without him. Rather, she was mourning his death fromArkham City’s Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC to the end ofArkham Knight. Then, the next time players see her, she’s joyful, shrugging away the idea of wearing her old uniform and behaving like Joker meant nothing to her. This would be valid ifSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguehad an explanation as to how Harley came to this newfound resolve, but Rocksteady has always had a habit of obscuring important beats, perhaps in an effort to gloss over them strategically.
Every Bat Family companion’s recruitment takes place between games, for example, withJason Todd’s existence in the franchise being dubious at best untilArkham Knight. Harley definitely deserves to be more than the sum of her parts and Joker certainly held her back as a character—even Joker admits to that inArkhamKnightwhile plaguing Bruce Wayne as an incorporeal manifestation—but her change is too dramatic and unfathomable to have occurred off-screen and for players to simply need to accept it thereafter.
Even Harley dismissing herArkham Knightoutfit for something more modern could’ve been acceptable if her suddenly and instantly dyeing her hair and wearing new clothes made any logical sense, but she is out of frame for less than a minute before she comes back made over in herdefaultSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguegear. This wholly and ironically mirrors the idea that she’s been able to unrealistically become a new person, and it impacts how tremendous and empowering her development could have been otherwise.
Then,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguemakes the absurd choice of offering that sameArkham Knightoutfit and hairstyle as skins for Harley, which grossly undermines the character development it claims to have given her. Sure, it’s a nice throwback celebratingArkham Knight, but for her to explicitly scoff at it and refuse to wear it in the story only for players to be able to dress her in it anyway is comically contradictory and tone-deaf.
It’s nice not having to hear Harley whine about Joker anymore, but since that was literally her entire personality it’s a tough pill to swallow that she’s now moved on from him as if he wasn’t her will to live for the last decade and a half. Maybe Arkham Asylum’s rehabilitation centers have higher budgets than they did back in the Arkhamverse’s early days. Regardless, Harley’s dynamic withthe Elseworld Joker fromSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueshould be interesting since it’s sure to exhume those deep-seated feelings.
Indeed, every timeHarley comments on her past inSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leagueit is through resentment, regret, or spite, and those feelings couldn’t have emerged without a degree of self-reflection that would’ve been profoundly important to see or hear about in the game, but it’s not.
The post-launch Elseworld Joker isn’t the one fromtheArkhamuniverseafter all, and maybe his personality will be so different as to make her see a new side of him, but having her fall for another Joker would undoubtedly be another backstep for her character if she’s meant to be her own woman now. If this Joker happens to be chivalrous and more oriented toward compassion or heroism than the Joker Harley knew—assuming those are personality traits she finds endearing now—it would tarnish all the independent development she had somehow accumulated if she immediately swooned over another.
In fact, seeing them in the same room together gives Harley a true opportunity to show how much she has grown sinceArkham Knight. Otherwise, all the alleged development that happened for her between games may instantly unravel and show that she is still as one-dimensional as she was throughout theArkhamgames, which wouldn’t necessarily be horrible for her character since her dynamic withthe Elseworld Joker may still have some engaging and emotional beatsin store despite it treading a familiar narrative path.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
WHERE TO PLAY
Play as the Suicide Squad to take down the World’s Greatest DC Super Heroes, The Justice League. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is a genre-defying, action-adventure third-person shooter from Rocksteady Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series.
