Warning: Spoilers for Batman '89: Echoes #5!Jack Nicholson Clown may be jealous Harley Quinn new excavations. Harley Quinn became one of the latest additions to the Burtonverse, as the scrapped concept for a 1989 sequel Batman featuring Madonna in the role was repurposed for Batman '89: Echoesa series of comics that continues Tim Burton's films.
In Batman '89: Echoes #5 by Sam Hamm, Joe Quinones, Stacey Lee, Paolo Rivera, Leonardo Ito and Carlos M. Mangual, Harley Quinn implements the last step of her plan. While a Jeff Goldblum-style Scarecrow plunges Gotham into chaos with his fear juice, Harley creates a hostage situation at news station ACN.
Much of the story saw her dressed as a jester, but for this hostage crisis, she arrives in style with an all-new costume reminiscent of the Joker played by Nicholson since the first Burton Batman film.
Madonna's Harley Quinn re-enters Tim Burton's Canon with a new Joker-like costume
Definitely borrows elements from Jack Nicholson's Joker
In this universe, before becoming Harley Quinn, Dr. Harleen Quinzel brings her skills as a psychiatrist to ACN as a frequent television guest on City Beat. “Dr. Q” is openly a fanatic and sympathizer of the late Joker. Feeling slighted by her TV producer, Chuck Lantz, over failed promises of a primetime TV hosting gig is enough to finally get under her skin. With a flood of Arkham Asylum inmates helping her after her therapy sessions, Dr. Q arrives at ACN in a suit similar to the one the Joker wears Batmanalthough with inverted colors, taking Lantz hostage.
Harley Quinn wears a similar wide-brimmed hat, gloves, plaid pants, and even white face paint to match her fallen idol. The biggest difference is in the choice of color. The dominant color in Harley's ensemble is red instead of purple. His gloves are white instead of purple. However, she swaps the Joker's green vest for a purple one, as well as his orange shirt for a red and black one. It adds an additional touch to the tie, as the Joker has a straight green tie, contrasting with the purple tie with white polka dots. His pants are white with black stripes.
What This New Joker “Costume” Says About Burtonverse’s Harley Quinn
This is a character-based representation of the original Joker Sidekick
This costume set goes a long way toward showing exactly how much Harley Quinn idolizes the late Jack Napier. By proxy, he paints this version of Harley similar to her original iteration of her canon origins, just with a twist. Before gaining her independence, Harley was steadfastly loyal and blindly devoted to Mr. J. In this world, Harleen never knows the Clown before her death, but she clearly admired him from afar and studied him enough to duplicate his wardrobe in a t-shirt, albeit with a Harley Quinn touch.
Batman '89: Echoes #5 is now available from DC Comics.