This weekend was a big one for comic book lovers everywhere. The release of The Suicide Squad movie was something that most of us have been waiting, for what feels like a lifetime for. When hype first started for the movie, we could still get together with friends, not wear masks, have as many drinks as we wanted and stay out until the early hours of the morning. But as I said, that was a lifetime ago.
I recently wrote about the comics that I read to get myself hyped for The Suicide Squad here. In that post, I also spoke about the love/hate relationship I have with DC and that I hoped The Suicide Squad movie would be on the love side of the relationship for me. It wasn’t. It was most definitely on the hate side of things.
The Suicide Squad Characters
But while The Suicide Squad movie wasn’t for me, it was nice to see DC give some of their lesser-known characters a chance to shine and create a great jumping-off point for those wanting to pick up a few comics for the first time. So without further ado, here is a little explanation of who some of their more obscure characters actually are:
Anthony Miller A.K.A. Rick Flag A.K.A. Captain Rick Flag Jr. A.K.A. Richard Rogers Flag
– First appearance: The Brave and the Bold #25
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad; Task Force X; Forgotten Heroes
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Master at armed and unarmed combat; Master military tactician and strategist
Rick Flag is the shared name of three generations, father, son and grandson. Before joining Task Force X, Richard Montgomery Flag or Rick Flag Sr. led a division known as the Suicide Squadron during World War 2.
Richard Rogers Flag, or Rick Flag Jr. (the adult son of Rick Flag Sr.), would replace his father in the Suicide Squadron. While Rick was away with the Squadron, his girlfriend, Karin Grace, would secretly have his child and place the child with an adoptive family without Rick ever knowing.
Later, Rick Flag joins the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller, a role he assumes with a lot of reluctance. Rick hates working with criminals and ends up showing signs of instability.
Rick Flag III is the son of Rick Flag Jr. and Karin Grace. Rick Flag III ends up getting kidnapped by a member of the Jihad, Koschei the Deathless, before getting rescued by the Suicide Squad.
King Shark A.K.A Trixie A.K.A. Nanaue
– First appearance: Superboy #0
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad; Secret Six; Secret Society of Super-Villains
– Species: Humanoid Shark
– Powers and Abilities: Resistance to telepathy; Regenerative healing; Enhanced senses and sonar capabilities; Superhuman strength, stamina and invulnerability
King Shark was definitely one of my favourite characters to in The Suicide Squad. Born in Hawaii as the only child to “The King of All Sharks” or “Shark God”, Nanaue takes on the name of King Shark. As King Shark, Nanaue is responsible for a large number of people going missing in Hawaii. He is also responsible for biting his mom’s arm off so that he could feed.
When King Shark murders a few of the Order of the Thorny Crown priests and ends up fighting Oden, it comes out that King Shark was only obeying his father’s orders. However, there was an old prophecy concerning the Order, the belief was that if the Order vanishes, it would trigger the prophecy and would birth great power in the process.
However, King Shark ends up being defeated by Aquaman before he can complete his father’s request, and imprisoned by the remaining priests of the Thorny Crown.
Abner Krill A.K.A. Polka-Dot Man A.K.A. Mister Polka-Dot
– First appearance: Detective Comics #300
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Turns the polka-dots on his costume into various devices
Once Batman started to really gain renown in Gotham City, he had a kind of cult following. Costumed rogues began committing crimes in the hopes that Batman would show up and they could battle, with the hopes that they would be the ones to beast the legendary vigilantly. One of these costumed rogues was Abner Krill.
Going as Mister Polka-Dot, Abner launched a crime wave through Gotham City, resulting in a battle with Batman and Robin. Abner wore a costume covered in what looked to be Polka-Dots but was actually a variety of electronic devices that, once removed off the costume, could be used as multiple weird and wonderful weapons. As Mister Polka-Dot, Abner was able to capture Robin before being defeated by Batman.
John Monroe A.K.A. Weasel
– First appearance: The Fury of Firestorm
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Very agile; Skilled at hand-to-hand combat
John Monroe starts off as a typical lonely university student in the 1960s. There is nothing remarkable about John, and most people rarely even notice him at all. When he gets attention, students would describe him using words like “Weasel”. The constant social isolation mixed with the derogatory comments ends up making John bitter towards most people and serves as a catalyst to the murderer he would become.
Upon graduating, John starts working as a lecturer at Vandemeer University. A few of his fellow classmates are also employed there. John considers three of these old classmates to be threats to his career and proceeds to stalk and brutally kill them while wearing a weasel costume with sharp claws.
Later, when Martin Stein (Firestorm) shows up to start working as a physics professor, John tries to kill him too, but Firestorm ends up overpowering him, unmasking him and sending him to jail.
While in jail, Weasel joins the Suicide Squad on an ill-fated mission to rescue Hawk. Weasel once again puts on his costume and tries to slit the Thinker’s throat with his claws but is inevitably killed himself.
Starro A.K.A. Mother Starro A.K.A. Starro the Conqueror A.K.A. It
– First appearance: Brave and the Bold #28
– Affiliations: Sinestro Corps; Secret Society of Super Villains
– Partnerships: Joker; Poison Ivy; Catwoman; Batman; Bud and Lou
– Species: Star Conqueror
– Powers and Abilities: Mind control; Regeneration; Color shifting; Energy absorption & projection; Size-alteration
Starro is an intelligent alien lifeform, a Star Conqueror, to be more exact, that resembles a giant starfish. Starro visited Earth and empowered three other starfish who, together with Starro, would wreak havoc on Earth. Their escapades included exploding an atom bomb, placing people under their mental control and kidnapping scientists. This went on until they were eventually stopped by Aquaman. However, a piece of Starro survived and would slowly regenerate into a complete Starfish once again.
When Starro reappeared, it started to reproduce and create millions of miniature versions of itself. These little Starros would attach themselves to the faces of all who live in New York and render them Starros meat puppets. Starro would use these miniature versions of himself to take control of several members of the Juice League as well.
It was eventually revealed that Starro is part of a race of parasites that use “motherstars” to conquer planets by birthing as many little Starfish as possible and then taking control of entire populations.
Christopher Smith A.K.A. Mitchell Black A.K.A. Peacemaker
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad; Checkmate; Shadow Fighters; L.A.W; League-Busters
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Peak physical condition; Body armour; Communications helmet; Advanced military Weapons
Christopher Smith’s version of The Peacemaker made his screen debut with The Suicide Squad and gets his own show later this year. The Peacemaker is essentially someone who is so committed to bringing peace and being a pacifist that he is willing to use whatever force necessary to further this cause and ends up becoming a vicious vigilante who kills at the slightest inconvenience.
Later in life, The Peacemaker learns that his “peace at any cost” way of life results from a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of who his father was, a Nazi death camp commander. The Peacemaker believes that his father’s spirit haunts him and the ghosts of all those he killed. He believes that his helmet traps all souls, constantly criticizing him or giving advice.
The Peacemaker also served as an agent in the U.S. government for a while, under the special-forces unit Checkmate, until his behaviour becomes too extreme and leads to his untimely death.
Brian Durlin A.K.A. Savant
– First appearance: Birds of Prey #56
– Affiliations: Birds of Prey; Suicide Squad
– Partnerships: Creote
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Has a chemical imbalance that causes forgetfulness; Genius; Master martial artist; Multilinguist
Savant, or Brian Durlin, starts off as a spoiled heir to an enormous fortune. Savant ends up moving to Gotham City with the goal of becoming a vigilante. However, Batman ends up discouraging Savant from pursuing this. Batman says that Savant can’t be a vigilante because he lacks the ability to properly care for and protect others.
Now feeling rejected by Batman, Savant decides to turn his formidable computer skills into a profitable blackmailing business in Gotham. He is soon joined by ex KGB agent, Creote.
Savant would later kidnap Black Canary to get Batman’s real identity out of Oracle before being defeated by her team. Instead of killing Savant, Oracle decides to rehabilitate him – she doesn’t do this for his benefit. Instead, she does this to ensure that the data he has on all the super-villains don’t see the light of day.
Alexander Trent A.K.A. Robert DuBois A.K.A. Bloodsport
– First appearance: Superman Vol. 2 #4
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Skilled in firearms; knives; explosives and hand-to-hand combat; Access to high tech weapons by using a teleportation device
Bloodsport is an alias used by several different characters. The U.S. Armed Force drafts Robert DuBois’s Bloodsport, but upon receiving his draft notice, DuBois fled to Canada. DuBois later learns that his younger brother, Michael, pretending to be DuBois, took his place in Vietnam and ended up losing both his arms and legs. The guilt from this leads DuBois to break down and going insane from guilt.
Later on, Lex Luthor contacts the insane DuBois to be a pawn and assassinate Superman. DuBois, equipped with an arsenal of powerful weapons, including a gun that fires Kryptonite, is sent to Metropolis to hunt Superman and starts calling himself Bloodsport. However, once he is let loose in Metropolis, he kills pretty much everyone in his sight before being captured by Lex Luther working with Superman.
Then we have Alex Trent’s Bloodsport. Alex is a fanatical racist who is a member of a white supremacist group known as the Brotherhood. He somewhat ironically starts using the name Bloodsport, which was previously used by Robert DuBois, an African American.
Trent has a teleporter grafted into his body which allows him to summon weapons. After getting captured by Superman and thrown into the same prison as DuBois, there is a boxing match between the two Bloodsports. Trent cheats and uses his teleporter to bring in weapons during the fight, resulting in a prison riot. During this riot, DuBois tries to escape. However, he is killed by guards. Trent is later found burned to death by the Brotherhood for showing weakness in front of DuBois.
George “Digger” Harkness A.K.A. Mirror Master II A.K.A. Captain Boomerang
– First appearance: The Flash #117
– Affiliations: Suicide Squad; Secret Society of Super-Villains; Rogues
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Utilizes various trick and weaponized boomerangs; Expert marksman and combatant
George “Digger” Harkness is the illegitimate child of an American soldier and an Australian woman. Harkness grew up in a small Australian town in absolute poverty. During this time, Harkness would develop a talent for making boomerangs that he would use as weapons.
Just out of his teens, Harkness ends up working as a performer and boomerang promoter for a toy company that was actually owned by his father, unbeknownst to Harkness. Also, during this time in his life, Harkness would develop his Captain Boomerang persona and start using his boomerangs for crime.
After a failed attempt at killing the Flash with one of his boomerangs, Harkness ends up behind bars and later joins the Suicide Squad in exchange for being pardoned.
As a member of the Suicide Squad, Captain Boomerang was a source of friction to his teammate’s thanks to his blatant racism and generally grating personality. His team considered him to be cowardly and dangerous, which would eventually lead to the group breaking up.
Clifford DeVoe A.K.A. Cliff Carmichael A.K.A. Desmond Connor A.K.A. Gaius Grieves A.K.A White King’s Bishop A.K.A The Thinker
– Affiliations: Injustice Society; Suicide Squad; Secret Society of Super Villains; Checkmate; Legion of Zoom
– Partnerships: Joker; Poison Ivy; Catwoman; Batman; Bud and Lou
– Species: Human
– Powers and Abilities: Technologically derived telekinesis and mind control; Telepathy; Fear projection; Binary intelligence capable of integrating into and controlling computers and electronic systems
There are five versions of “The Thinker”, with the first version, Clifford DeVoe being featured in The Flash TV Show and a new version, Gaius Grieves, created specifically for The Suicide Squad movie and loosely based on the unnamed New 52 Thinker.
Although there isn’t any information about Gaius Grieves outside of The Suicide Squad movie we can talk about the origins of the first and most well known version of The Thinker, Clifford DeVoe. Originally, DeVoe was a failed lawyer. When his career in law ended, he came to realize that many of the criminals he had encountered had the skills, but they didn’t have the brains needed to rule Gotham. DeVoe then decided to start a new career. He would be the brainpower behind numerous small-time villains, now going as “The Thinker”.
As The Thinker, DeVoe would always be on the search for new scientific devices to use, his favourite being the “Thinking Cap”, a metal hat that projects mental force. This cap would later end up giving him cancer and ultimately lead to his death. In The New 52, the unnamed version of The Thinker’s brain comes at a cost, and that cost is his life. Every time he uses his brain it drains energy from the rest of his body and prematurely ages him.
If this list has you feeling nostalgic for characters you remember from your childhood or if you just want to dive more into the stories of characters you’ve just learnt about, then make sure you head over to Critters and Comics and see what you can pick up.
Have you watched The Suicide Squad yet? If you have, then let us know what you think about it down below. Otherwise, this trailer is for you: