DC and Warner Bros may not have caught up with Marvel on the movie front, but they’re slowly making strides with their cinematic universe. In addition to the superhero fare they’ll be offering with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Shazam and Justice League, they’re also looking to bad guys for silver screen entertainment. Suicide Squad is their upcoming antagonist feature, and today it was reported that the team will consist of Blockbuster, Multiplex, Jaculi, Mindboggler, Harkness, Vixen and Deadshot.
Latino Review reported the film’s lineup, which has been a mystery since Warner Bros. announced last month that Fury director David Ayer was recruited for the project. The Suicide Squad is a group of supervillain prisoners that perform black-ops missions for the U.S. government in exchange for reduced sentences. A few of these characters are frequent members in the comics, but others are characters so obscure that even diehard comic book fans might not be familiar with them. Here’s a quick rundown on them: Blockbuster is a super-strong, aggressive Batman villain, Multiplex can make copies of himself, Jaculi is a speedster, Mindboggler is a telepath, Harkness (better known in the comics as Captain Boomerang) specializes in throwing weapons, Vixen has animal abilities and Deadshot, the team leader, is an expert marksman.
The three leads for the film will be Deadshot, Harkness and Vixen, so don’t be surprised if the others bite the dust at some point, possibly at the hands of a fellow member. They’re super-villains; teamwork isn’t their area of expertise.
Harkness and Deadshot have been recurring members over the years, and although Vixen is a superhero who has appeared on shows like Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, she was briefly a member in the comics after she was overcome by her animal instincts and killed a drug kingpin. The film may approach her in a similar way. Unlike the other members, who have stolen and killed for money and pleasure, Vixen is the outsider. She was a superhero until she made a mistake, and now she’s truly working towards redemption rather than just trying to reduce her sentence.
Unlike Sony’s Sinister Six, which is attempting to create a coherent story about a group of super-villains whose only goal is to kill Spider-Man, the Suicide Squad doesn't need superheroes for entertaining stories. They have many series over the years, and the New 52 is currently publishing New Suicide Squad, a relaunch of the previous book.
This movie wouldn’t be the first live-action iteration of the team. The Squad briefly appeared on Smallville, and were featured last season on Arrow, with Deadshot, Shrapnel and Bronze Tiger as the main members. Since the DC movies and TV shows aren’t connected, TV Deadshot won’t be the movie’s Deadshot. However, since DC is well-known for its multiverse stories, perhaps the two teams could cross over. The only problem is that they’d get nothing accomplished, and half the characters would kill the other half regardless of affiliation.
