Suicide Squad Gets Empire Magazine Covers

In case you didn’t know, DC Comics is looking to start up their own shared universe of films and characters to rival that of Marvel studios.  So far this shared universe experiment has been pretty abysmal as the sole entry so far is the terrible Man of Steel and the pretty bad looking upcoming film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.  However, DC has one other flick waiting in the wings to make a splash in the DC shared universe pool and that flick is Suicide Squad.  Scheduled for release late next summer with David Ayer directing Suicide Squad is an adaptation of the DC universe team of the same name, a government developed squad of villains designed to be sent out on high risks missions with the thinking being that because all the squad members are villains they’re powerful but also expendable. 

The trailer for that film leaked earlier this summer to a lot of praise though none of it was from me because I actually don’t think Suicide Squad looks very good but we’ll get more into that later.  Anyway, DC seems decidedly desperate to remind everyone this shared universe experiment is going to happen so they’ve started actively promoting Suicide Squad with a series of snazzy Empire Magazine covers featuring tactical team leader Deadshot, played by Will Smith, team wildcard the Joker, played by Jared Leto, Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, and, for some reason, Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne. 

So far Will Smith’s Deadshot looks like the best part of the film by a wide margin.  Even though his version of the character may not have the iconic face mask that Deadshot usually sports it’s an artistic change I can pretty easily accept; you don’t hire Will Smith to cover his face.  Smith hasn’t really had the best 2010s, only recently returning to the world of blockbuster films after the very damaging failure of his film Seven Pounds and his recent endeavors haven’t really found the audience he might’ve hoped for.  Given how much he’s been talking up sequels and franchise appearances it’s good to see him taking part in something new for him and actively playing against type with Deadshot. 

Deadshot, a once obscure Batman villain who was reimagined from scented dandy into tactical assassin, has elements of Smith’s trademark charm but it’s blended with a serious death wish and a gruffer personality that, while not outside Smith’s range, will certainly force him to put in a considerable amount of effort for the performance.  He sort of occupies a strange place for the team overall as Deadshot isn’t really the Suicide Squad’s leader so much as he’s their deadly rogue but the film is probably changing this up.  I’m not sure how much I like that, given it’s relegating characters like Rick Flag to the role of superfluous hangers on but by the same token Will Smith is a movie star for a reason so if they need to change things around to get him in center stage and wearing a super villain costume that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to live with. 

I don’t know what I was expecting when I heard Killer Croc was going to be in Suicide Squad but it was certainly more than this.  I don’t necessarily hate this version of Killer Croc as it’s not that different from the visual design used in the early seasons of Batman the animated series but it still looks incredibly dopey to me whenever it’s taken as a still image.  I think what’s so off-putting about his design is his mouth and the way the make-up ends up making his lips look weirdly pursed, as if he’s pouting.  This is one of those cases where using practical effects was most likely a mistake, had this character been achieved using CGI he’d have an infinitely freer range of motion to say nothing of a more intimidating visage instead of this comically ugly mug. 

A big part of this is just that Killer Croc’s visual design has only ever been done for illustrations and, much like the Thing from the Fantastic Four, that design was never meant to be translated beyond the 2 dimensional realms.  Given that, CGI really would’ve done a better job animating the character, especially given how cumbersome these make-up effects look to be.  It’s possible this design will look more impressive when in motion but as for right now this visual does not instill me with confidence for the film, quite the opposite.  It honestly feels like this is a weird, hold over design from some earlier draft of the film that had a larger insistence on realism as part of the proceedings.  I can’t be sure if that was ever the case given the core members of the team include a literal witch and a guy who kills people with boomerangs but this certainly seems like the “Christopher Nolan” version of Killer Croc, which is just industry shorthand for saying “a bland stripped down” version of the character that will most likely be less interesting than the one from the comics. 

Enchantress’ redesign here makes exactly no sense to me.  Her pointy hat/witch costume may be a little dopey but it’s also the costume she wore for 40 years in the comics and fits her entire mystic persona as a literalized version of the classic broom riding, pointy hat wearing witch you’d see on most Halloweens.  Given that, and the fact the character has always been about the iconography of classic “spooky” witches, I don’t see the reasoning behind transforming her into a scantily clad dirt woman.  It’s changes like this that make me so opposed to the tone and aesthetics Suicide Squad has chosen to hitch its wagon to. 

It strikes me that the thinking behind this kind of change is being made because the creators feel the original is too dopey an idea to stick with and that’s the kind of thinking that seems to permeate this project.  This is also the ethos that’s infected infinitely too much of DC’s output over the past 4 years, the same kind of idea that gave us things like Superman brutally murdering a child in Injustice: Gods Among Us or Wonder Woman torturing a man she put in the hospital in her 2011 TV show.  All of these decisions spring from the thought process that anything that isn’t dark and violent is un-cool and it’s a real shame to see it pop up here, especially since it’s accompanied by Enchantress going from an actually pretty modest costume to underwear.  That kind of gross, immature sexualization and pandering is another hallmark of DC’s 4 years of bad decisions as seen in things like turning Starfire into a sex prop in Red Hood and the Outlaws or featuring a graphic sex scene in Catwoman.     

My verdict is still out on Suicide Squad’s handling of Harley Quinn.  On the one hand Margot Robbie is a good actor and her costume is a decent approximation of everything that always defined Harley Quinn as a character, mainly her unhinged manic sexuality and tendency towards unconsidered violence.  However, Harley Quinn’s developed a really uncomfortable position in recent years as the “ideal geek fantasy woman” and so far I get the uncomfortable sense that’s the role she’ll have in Suicide Squad. 

After all the years of seeing Harley pop up in cheesecake artwork and sexy costumes it’s easy to forget that she’s supposed to have a PhD in psychiatry and actually be a highly intelligent and career centered woman who was emotionally manipulated into changing every aspect of her personality by a partner who was verbally and physically abusive to her.  Obviously Suicide Squad is going to be a dark and R-rated superhero film but I have a hard time believing all of that will make it into the final product, especially given how much accepting those facts tends to “ruin” the fantasy of Harley Quinn for most geek guys. 

However, this still does give me hope that Harley is going to amount to more than a ditzy cheesecake cast addition and we might actually get to see her origin recreated in live action.  One of the bizarre elements that Suicide Squad is apparently going to be dealing with is the kind of shaky history of the Joker and superheroes in this new, cinematic continuity.  We already know from the Batman v. Superman trailer that Batman and the Squad members were all active for a time before scurrying into the shadows only to summoned back to the light by the appearance of Superman.  We also know that Joker and Batman have established history in this world, with Joker’s murder of Batman’s sidekick Jason Todd seeming to be what triggered Batman’s temporary retirement.  I’ll get more into this when I talk about the Joker’s character but it seems like a sizable chunk of Suicide Squad will be covering the Joker’s time in prison and then Arkham Asylum during the years post murder but pre-Superman so hopefully Harley Quinn will get the time and understanding her story deserves during that part of the film. 

And so we come to the Joker’s redesign, hands down the most ridiculous part of Suicide Squad and the DC entertainment universe as a whole.  Cards on the table I loath this redesign and I kind of doubt I’m the only one given twitters reaction when the first image of our new Joker broke online.  The biggest things that everyone latches onto with this design are the tattoos, which are probably the worst part of the character design as they are the perfect embodiment of Suicide Squad’s complete lack of confidence in the source material.  The idea of a bare chested Joker was already pretty dopey but they go one step beyond with this Joker being so insecure about his own cool, dark, edginess that he has to literally cover himself in Joker paraphernalia.  He’s so insecure that you’ll take him seriously he’s basically doodled his logo all over himself. 

It’s such a blatant and ham fisted stab at dark seriousness it pulls a 180 and goes in the other direction, it comes off as patently untrue and decidedly non-threatening.  He looks like he’s terrified you won’t take him seriously so he drew Joker stuff all over himself to make sure you did.  The real cherry on the insecurity sundae is the cursive ‘Damaged’ on his forehead.  That’s the tattoo that pushes them from just kind of laughably incompetent to honestly a little sad.  It’s still got that “trying so hard it can’t possibly be true” vibe that afflicts the rest of his design only with the added benefit of making it seem like he must be kind of a boring guy in real life.  He might as well have written “complex and 3 dimensional” on his forehead because it’d have the exact same impact. 

However, with that rather lengthy diatribe out of the way I do think there is some good to Suicide Squad’s adaptation, mainly in everything else about the visual design.  I absolutely love the bright shiny purple coat his wearing and the purple cane he’s got to go with it looks absolutely great.  Of all the squad members we’ve seen so far Joker is the one with the best wardrobe by far, mainly because his costumes seem to actually involve colors beyond the dirt spectrum.  The fact that the creators were so willing to embrace the bright and flamboyant aspects of this character is incredibly positive and a good move for the production.  At this point the Joker has more or less morphed from an actual villain with an identity into pretty much just the worst atrocities you can fit into a humanoid character so I like that Leto’s Joker seems to have some Joker aspects defined in a way other than just being an inhuman monster.   

Obviously we’ve still got quite a ways to go before Suicide Squad’s release so it’s possible that as more details filter through I’ll become more optimistic about the film but right now I’m still thoroughly ambivalent bordering on pessimistic.  Aside from all the issues I’ve already raised about the designs and what they say about the creator’s approach to the source material this biggest thing holding me back is the continuing ethos of DC comics.  Over the past 4 years DC has committed mistake after mistake, sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of shock value decisions, shallow violence and sexualization, complete irreverence for the source material bordering on pop culture vandalism, and a marketing strategy that seems to be aggressively and exclusively targeted at white 13 year old boys.  So while it’s certainly possible that Suicide Squad will be an amazing master piece after the New 52, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Wonder Woman’s 2011 show, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises, Green Lantern, Constantine, Infinite Crisis, Arkham Origins, Beware the Batman, Batman Eternal, and Arkham Knight DC has not earned that benefit of the doubt.  

Suicide Squad is scheduled for release on August 5^th, 2015.


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