Warning: Contains Spoilers for DC Pride 2022!
Antihero Harley Quinn's iconic jester outfit has officially made a return, and it's shown just how far she's come since she left the Joker. When Harley Quinn first debuted in Batman: The Animated Series, she donned a costume that has since become one of the most iconic outfits in DC history. With a full bodysuit referencing her Harlequin roots, the black and red outfit instantly made her recognizable as the Joker's ally and later his girlfriend. However, after years of dealing with Joker's abuse, she finally dumped him in the comics and left the outfit behind. The history of Harley Quinn's costumes is complex, but reveal a great deal about her.
Since her departure, Harley Quinn's outfits featured a free-spirited version of the character. While the color scheme of red and black would stay the same for her, she would find herself wearing various different costumes while also letting the one feature that was never shown before fly free: her hair. The most notable changes to Quinn have been the way she's been styling her hair to go with her new outfits. From pigtails to hair dye, she's found multiple ways to change it up to make no two encounters with her the same. On top of this, the change in outfit also saw a change of personality as she went from a villain to an antihero, especially after Harley began having a romantic relationship with Poison Ivy.
In the stunning DC Pride 2022 story "The Hunt" by Dani Fernandez and Zoe Thorogood, Harley and Ivy find themselves on a unique date in an isolated area where they play Prey vs. Predator. Essentially, one of them needs to find the other and capture them to win. However, there's a point where the two get separated...but they don't know it. Something is in the woods, and it takes their forms. While Harley deals with her impostor, Ivy comes face-to-face with a fake Harley that's wearing her old jester outfit. Trying to wear Ivy down, the impostor Harley tells her things that catch her off-guard like that she'll never be loved, even by her. In the end though, the love between the two overcomes all as the two find each other and destroy the mimics.
What's interesting about the return of Quinn's classic jester costume is that it's juxtaposed perfectly with Harley's look paralleling Ivy's experience. The real Harley is the one readers have come to know now. She's more fun-loving, free, and has more flexibility in her fashion sense. There's no constriction when it comes to her personality like when she was with Joker. The jester Harley, however, is more how she was beforehand. She's colder, brasher, and wants to cut down her connections with others. To her back in the day, Joker was all that mattered.
In a way, the jester outfit's return is a brilliant way of confirming Harley's interesting progress since leaving the Joker. She used to be so isolated and controlled as evidenced by the way it enveloped her whole body in a bodysuit, her whole personality revolving around Joker. Once she left and shed the suit though, her personality became freer. Her ability to just be herself with Ivy is reflected by the new outfits she has that let her be able to express herself. The parts that made Harley who she is have room to breathe. While the return of her jester outfit was an interesting look down memory lane, it also showed just how different Harley Quinn is now and the changes her character has gone through before and after Joker to become the beloved DC icon she is today.
DC Pride 2022 is available in stores now!