Panel Vision - 5 Things to Expect from Suicide Squad 2

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Edited by Robert Beach

After three weeks in the #1 spot on the box-office charts and a comfortable spot as the 8^th highest grossing film of the year, Suicide Squad is a bona fide hit. Granted, it’s one of those hits like Godzilla (2014) or Cinderella where it makes a ton of money, but the cultural impact is a lot more questionable. Given DC’s track record, monetary success coupled with anything less than audience loathing seems to be enough to register success. With that, DC still has two open slots in their cinematic schedule; it’s probably that time where we all start speculating about what the sequel might bring. 

However, that’s going to be a little different for DC as their films don’t boast much interconnectivity, and Suicide Squad, in particular, wasn’t founded on a franchise mentality. Regardless of quality, the structure of the film was such that any sequel would be more or less free to be another “villains on a mission” movie, swapping out the villains and the mission. And yet, I believe it could do more. I’ve put together a list of 5 things to improve on the first movie in Suicide Squad 2.

Ashley Rickards cast as The Top in The Flash Season 3

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Another day, another casting announcement from CW.  Seriously, at this rate, I should really have a whole dedicated column just for reporting on new DC Comics characters coming to the cavalcade of CW superhero shows. This latest news ties to The Flash, which means it has an extra strange bit of significance to it. In case you didn’t know, The Flash’s upcoming 3^rd season is being split into very distinct halves, in a manner greater than usual. While every CW season is split in two, season 3 of The Flash will have two different story arcs; the first one is known as Flashpoint followed by a mysterious second story in the latter half. 

The Flashpoint story, in which the Flash alters time to save his mother and father and creates a bizarre alternate present, is interesting, but I suspect this major casting announcement is tied more to the mystery story of season 3B. I’ll get into how as we go on, but for now, let’s start with what the big casting news is: Ashley Rickards will be playing a woman version of the classic Flash foe The Top. 

What's Next for the Suicide Squad?

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So, Suicide Squad is now a bona fide hit.  Granted a lot of that was the result of an exceptionally weak summer season and a middling box office response for most of the blockbuster flicks of the year but money is money, as WB’s new motto goes, and this movie made enough money that they’re counting it as the first real success of the DC Entertainment Universe.  While that success and the adoption of the “it made cash, that’s a win” philosophy mean a lot of things for WB, like the revival of Man of Steel 2 on the release slate, I’m looking now at what this could mean for the individual Squad members.  

After all, the whole point of a shared universe is that you can have characters from one movie appear somewhere else, that was the whole point of Batman and the Flash being in this movie so it stands to reason the assembled villain of Suicide Squad would appear in other people’s movies as well.  So, here’s where we might next see the members of the Suicide Squad.

Cover Story - Top 15 Suicide Squad Covers

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Suicide Squad is finally upon us, and surprise, surprise, it’s pretty bad. I haven’t seen it yet, but the critical consensus has been overwhelmingly negative, to the point where Warner Bros. is already gearing up to damage control on Wonder Woman and talk up more Harry Potter spin-off movies. This move is all in the case this whole DC Entertainment Universe thing is a giant boondoggle. It’s a shame because I’m quite a fan of the Suicide Squad comics. 

Not the New 52 series, rather the late ‘80s series by Ostrander or the 2000s comic from Keith Giffen. Given that, and my pathological obsession with topicality, it’s Suicide Squad day here as we dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Suicide Squad comic covers.

Static Thoughts - Task Force X

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Edited by Robert Beach

This Friday marks the premiere of WB’s latest film entry Suicide Squad. This most recent installment in the fledgling DC Entertainment Universe has a lot riding on it after the last two films in the series, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, became universally unpopular punching bags. Early reviews are only filtering through now, and they have not been good, but many fans still hold some hope for the film. 

Personally, I’ve been critical of this movie from the word go, and I’m not surprised we hear it’s not very good. The production design looked terrible; The very inception of the team, supervillains to fight super threats, doesn’t make any sense when every character involved is so patently incapable of the task. What’s more, we’d already seen a Suicide Squad movie did to perfection on the Justice League Unlimited episode: Task Force X, let’s talk about that.

Suicide Squad Trailer 3

Edited By Robert Beach

As I write this, it’s been a little over three weeks since Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice came out, and the overall response has been different than what was expected. This was intended to be the NEW start to the DC movie universe, much like Man of Steel before it and Green Lantern before that. Obviously, that doesn’t seem to be happening.  Critics spent a week or so savaging the film while general audiences reacted with a resounding “meh?” What’s more, the movie struggled to make a major box office impact and failed to open as large as it should’ve in China. 

Finally, upon being knocked out of the #1 spot by Melissa McCarthy’s new comedy The Boss, the writing is more or less on the wall for Batman v. Superman. Obviously, this doesn’t mean the end of the entire DCEU as more films are already in various stages of production now, but it does mean DC is in damage control and course correction mode as all eyes turn to Suicide Squad, just in time for a brand new trailer.

Panel Vision - Suicide Squad Guide

So, Suicide Squad is on the way and we’re starting to get a pretty good idea of what to expect.  After the unmitigated disaster that was Batman v. Superman following up a 2 year silence in the wake of Man of Steel’s soft landing with audiences, DC/WB really need a big hit with Suicide Squad if they’re to remain a solvent business going into the tail end of this decade.  

As such, Suicide Squad seems to be trying to pull off an incredibly tricky double act of existing within/expanding the established DC cinematic universe of Man of Steel/Batman v. Superman while also trying to add serious amounts of personality and levity to one of the grimmest worlds in cinema today. 

We’ll see if it actually pulls that ambitious goal off in the end but for now I figured I’d give you a guide to the various members of this cinematic Suicide Squad, owing to how little we’ve learned about them from the trailers.  The only folks I won’t be covering are Harley Quinn and the Joker as I suspect they’ve been around long enough and visible enough for everyone to already know what their deal is. 

Suicide Squad Trailer 2

This is going to be an odd year for superhero films.  Previous years have been defined by major throwdowns like Dark Knight Rises against Avengers or attempts from smaller studios to reassert dominance like X-Men: Days of Future Past or Amazing Spider-Man 2.  This year, we’ve still got some of that, in particular this is the year Batman v. Superman will go toe-to-toe with Captain America: Civil War, but there’s way more weirdness and offbeat entries this year.  In February we’ll be seeing Fox take a chance on Internet love with Deadpool, a movie that only got made thanks to the positive response to a leaked trailer.  Then in November Marvel will throw its hat into the fantasy arena with Dr. Strange. 

And in August DC makes its first attempt to implement this whole “movie universe” approach with Suicide Squad, about a team of super villains conscripted by the government for high risk missions.  Even amongst all the other weirdness Suicide Squad has been the odd man out, mainly thanks to a very bizarre marketing campaign that followed up the first, and pretty interesting, trailer with a ton of images that made the movie look both gritty and ridiculous.  Now we’ve got a second trailer and the film looks…well it still looks gritty and ridiculous but now in the best way possible.

Panel Vision - Flash Rogues Guide

So, this latest Flash episode featured the first major super villain team-up of the show.  This is something that’s been building for Flash for a long time, mainly because in the comics Flash’s bad guys work together all the time.  Villain team-ups have always been a special event within comics but the Flash’s foes, nicknamed the Rogues, have always been unique amongst them.  Part of this comes from most of the Rogues having low level powers, compared to how indomitable Flash’s super speed powers are.  Really though, what binds the Rogues together is that they’re unique amongst comic book villains.  Most bad guys are psychotic killers like Batman fights or megalomaniacs like Superman battles, the Rogues are all just common criminals, crooks trying to get by.  Given that Flash is dedicated to slowly introducing more and more of the Rogues, I figured now would be a good time to do a Guide to the Flash’s Rogues. 

Panel Vision - Top 10 Strangest Suicide Squad Members

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With the Suicide Squad trailer dropping to mass popularity this week I figured now would be a good time to look back at some of the most ridiculous and stupid parts of the Squad’s history.  This probably won’t be the last time we look at all the dumb to be found in Suicide Squad’s near 40-year run.  For now though let’s take a look at some of the strangest, dumbest, and outright goofiest members of the Suicide Squad.