We love pin-up art as much as anyone, but there’s something weird about this newly released concept art showing the evolution of Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City. Maybe it’s just that it shows how formulaic these sorts of female characters have gotten.
You start off with some frankly gorgeous sketches of Harley’s face,
And the you get a sketch of the character, in which there are some really weird bits of feedback, like “give her an exposed bellybutton with a piercing,” and “make her wear a fuzzy handcuff on one wrist.” Not to mention the sexy/crying thing with her makeup, which is at least true to the Paul Dini conception of the character. (At the same time, Dini walked very, very close to the edge in terms of making Harley a survivor of an abusive relationship with the Joker, and seemed very conscious of what an explosive topic he was dealing with. This seems much less self-aware, and more Suicide Girl-y.)
And this is the end result of those changes, which looks sorta weird and porny-but-not-sexy:
And then, this final version, incorporating some other designs. The sexy/damaged aspect is brought to the fore here, with the unmasked picture looking a bit like she’s about to have a nervous breakdown. (Update: As several people have pointed out, the “unmasked” picture is actually from an older game, Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, which the designers were using as a reference. I promoted comments pointing that out, but probably should have added that info to this post directly. So here it is!)
Luckily, the actual version in the game is somewhat better than the concept art, with an outfit that looks more practical and has a lot more leather. And no handcuff, which I could see being a major drawback in a fight. Here are a couple of screenshots:
