Mythology Gag / Birds of Prey (2020)

"My fault...I didn't get this joke..."

• Every other protagonist in the DCEU has had their childhoods told through flashbacks. Harley Quinn gets the same treatment, but instead of seeing her childhood play out in live-action, we see it as an animated segment. Harley Quinn debuted in a cartoon before moving into the comics.
• (pictured) The last shot in the animated opening features Harley tearfully falling from the sky, resembling the shot in Mad Love in which the Joker throws Harley out a window.
• When the animated sequence shows Harley's exes, the woman glimpsed in the shot is on a green background while lit in red and with voluminous long hair, loosely resembling Poison Ivy, who's dated Harley in the comics.
• Two cops in the film are named Timm and Dini, after Harley's creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini.
• In the comics, Cassandra Cain was mute when she first appeared, and only gradually acquired the ability to speak. In Cassandra's first scene in the police station, it seems at first that the movie version might also be mute, but then she coughs to clear her throat and speaks normally for the rest of the film.
• Harley's disguise when she enters the police station is based on an outfit she wore in Injustice.
• Black Canary appears in a nightclub dress with a fishnet design. In the comics, Black Canary's classic superhero outfit involves fishnet stockings.
• Once she uses her powers, Jurnee Smollett said her posture is based on Dinah's Canary Cry in Injustice 2.
• Black Carnary's fighting style, particularly in her first fight scene, is based on Chuck Dixon's Birds of Prey run.
• Victor Zsasz working for Roman is inspired by the "Hush Money" Streets of Gotham arc, where Black Mask took Zsasz under his patronage and funded his gladiatoral slaughterhouse in exchange for helping save Mask's life from Firefly. Their relationship in the comics, however, was much more mercenary — Zsasz only helped Mask for a chance at a favor, and Mask took a cut of the establishment's betting — and Black Mask at the time was Jeremiah Arkham.
• When Roman is interrogating Harley at his club, he threatens to have her face cut off and pickled... something that the Joker actually did have happen to him (at his own request) at the beginning of the New 52 era of the Batman comics.
• When The Birds officially form, Dinah and Helena are wearing outfits much like their comic book counterparts with Dinah in leather and fishnets and Helena wearing a purple ensemble, complete with a mask.
  • Helena's Huntress mask has retractable lenses similar to Selina Kyle's in The Dark Knight Rises.
• Harley hides out at one of the Joker's old hangouts, an abandoned amusement park.
• Dinah mistakenly refers to Helena's crossbow as a bow and arrow. Need we remind you who her boyfriend is in the comics?
• Look closely during the scene in Renee's apartment and you'll catch Days of Our Lives playing on her TV, specifically the scene where Arleen Sorkin (the original Harley Quinn) dresses up like a jester in a fantasy sequence. This is the very scene that inspired Paul Dini to create the character.
• When Cassandra asks Harley who the Joker is, the latter refers to him by his three most well-known nicknames: the "Clown Prince of Crime", the "Harlequin of Hate", and the "Jester of Genocide".
• Harley keeps a battered-up stuffed beaver that she "talks to", just like in her self-titled comics.
• Also from her comics, Harley joins a roller derby team and enjoys beating the crap out of every member of the other team.
• And in the comics, Harley also had to deal with a string of both professional and amateur killers after her (to collect a bounty on her there), and one gets fed to Harley's pets (consisting there of several dozen assorted dogs and cats, instead of one hyena).
• Harley being a Big Eater is a Running Gag in her solo comics.
• Another woman hits Harley in a certain place, and it's not the first time.
• Harley's typical way of operating unfamiliar equipment is to push every button and/or just bash at it with a blunt object.