BW Media Spotlight

Well this dropped right on time for this article.

Originally appearing in The Brave & The Bold #25, created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, then revitalized in Legends #3 by John Ostrander, the “Suicide Squad” is the nickname for the US government group Task Force X, in the DC Universe. The idea is that supervillains can have their sentences reduced if they agree to have a bomb put in them and do certain dirty jobs for the government. If they don’t agree or try to run, their heads go boom.

Let’s be honest, though. Suicide Squad is just an excuse to cull the herd of supervillains because having them reform or just stay out of the way of superheroes apparently isn’t an option, much like how nowadays they love killing off lesser known heroes for shock value. Back when sympathizing with the villains was just an occasional story plot rather than the current “villains aren’t evil unless they don’t agree 100% with my ideology” mentality where they have to be “complex” in a way that makes them less effective as villains, there was some merit to the idea. They tended to stay in their own bubble rather than actually going after superheroes because Task Force X lead Amanda Waller has a combination paranoia/superiority complex and an ego trip. It used to be something that I, as someone who really doesn’t care about the villains, could ignore and move on with.

Now we have two live-action movies, one of which failed, an animated movie, the above anime from Warner Brothers Japan, a video game that suffered from killing the heroes combined with terrible game play, and it doesn’t stop there. Marvel Studios, continuing to not care about the source material while still adapting it wants to turn the Thunderbolts, a comic that started out about villains pretending to be heroes only to have most of them want to go straight, and becoming a team for villains seeking redemption, is now being treated as a form of Suicide Squad or maybe Secret Six. Since Gunn worked on the actually liked Suicide Squad movie and the comedy(?) spinoff with Peacemaker, signs are pointing to him trying to keep them in his DC movieverse whether it makes sense or not. After all, his wife is part of the cast.

DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers are becoming obsessed with the Suicide Squad and making them a household name, when  you can’t even say “Unalive Squad” properly on the internet without some content warning popping up on some sites or a video being demonetized. Part of me wants to know why, and part of me just doesn’t care. Can we end this?

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