New Characters Join DC’s “The Suicide Squad”

Director James Gunn is reprising “The Suicide Squad” in the film based on the DC comic book series Friday.

Gunn’s movie follows David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad” from 2016, but isn’t necessarily a sequel or reboot of that movie.

In “The Suicide Squad”, the team is a group of convicts tasked with accomplishing very difficult missions in exchange for a pardon or reduced sentence.

The concept was born in the pages of DC Comics, following the reshuffle of the DC Comics universe in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. DC was realigning its continuity and style to be more in tune with the 1980s – which meant the characters introduced in the 1960s might not be in sync with this darker new way of telling comic book stories.

Wicked gadgets, the mainstay of comics for much of the Silver and Bronze Ages of comics in the 1960s and 1970s, were at best reinterpreted and forgotten at worst. What writer John Ostrander did in “Suicide Squad” was take these characters, put them in a “Dirty Dozen” type of situation, and develop them beyond their gadget.

“I really loved it [the writer] The take on John Ostrander, who was taking these Z-level villains and throwing them into black-op situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldn’t come out alive, ”Gunn told The New York Times. “I loved ‘The Dirty Dozen’ when I was a kid. It’s the same concept, mixed in with a DC comic.

In the film, the government sends the world’s most dangerous supervillains – Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Harley Quinn and others – to the remote island of Corto Maltese on a search and search mission. destruction, led by Colonel Rick Flag.

Several comic book characters appear in the film; the following are comedic backgrounds for some of the notable characters.

Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie in the film, was originally developed for “Batman: The Animated Series”, first appearing in the 1992 episode “Joker’s Favor”, created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm . The following year, she appeared in the cartoon-based comics, in “The Batman Adventures” # 12. Robbie’s Harley Quinn appeared in the first “Suicide Squad” as well as in “Birds of Prey”.

Peacemaker, played by John Cena, was originally a character from Charlton Comics who inspired the comedian in “Watchmen”. The character was created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette in “Fightin ‘5” # 40 in 1966. He moved into his own series in 1967. Cena is expected to star in an HBO Max series on the character.

Bloodsport is played by Idris Elba. Bloodsport, a Superman antagonist, was created by writer and artist John Byrne in Superman vol. 2, # 4 in 1987.

King Shark, aka Nanaue, is voiced by Sylvester Stallone and was created by Karl Kesel, making his first full appearance in “Superboy” # 9 from 1994.

Polka-Dot Man, played by David Dastmalchian, first appeared in “Detective Comics” # 300 in 1962, written by Bill Finger and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff.

These are just a few of the DC characters defined for the film: Weasel, the Thinker, Ratcatcher, and BlackGuard, among others, also appear. Suicide Squad director Amanda Waller and Special Forces officer Rick Flag return from Ayer’s film.

Matthew Price, [email protected], has been writing about the comic book industry for over two decades. He is a co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.