James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad': Who Are All These DC Comics Characters?

DC FanDome finally brought us a first look at James Gunn's The Suicide Squad. The DC Comics movie continues the adventures of a few characters from 2016's Suicide Squad, but thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy director stepping behind the camera, the movie has a completely new style and it seems to have a much more vibrant look that draws from the colorful side of DC Comics. Along with that, there's a huge new roster of characters, many of them from the more obscure pages of John Ostrander's run on the comic book series. Since people probably don't know a lot about them, here are The Suicide Squad characters explained.

Amanda Waller is responsible for the creation of the Suicide Squad, under the code name of Task Force X. Waller thought she could manipulate some bad guys into doing some good. The team's first foray didn't exactly go very well, and in an act of desperation, she sought the protection of Bruce Wayne, seemingly knowing that he as Batman. Her protection came at the price of some information on a couple of certain super-powered individuals: Barry Allen and Arthur Curry, aka The Flash and Aquaman. But this didn't make Waller a buddy of Batman's. After their agreement, Wayne told Waller she should shut down Task Force X, or else he and his friends would do it for her.

Rick Flag is Amanda Waller's right-hand man. He's a colonel who was hired to keep an eye on June Moone, the woman who becomes possessed by the ancient goddess Enchantress. Flag fell in love with June, which Waller used to her advantage in the first movie, giving him no choice but to go with the Suicide Squad into Midway City and keep them on mission. Though Enchantress used June's body to carry out her plan (which is a bad one), she ended up surviving their final confrontation, and Flag and an unpossessed June were reunited. However, it would seem that June maybe isn't around anymore in The Suicide Squad.

Harley Quinn has been through the wringer, especially after the events of Birds of Prey. Now that she's free from The Joker's control, she can do whatever the hell she wants with whoever the hell she wants. We're not exactly sure what her motivation is for teaming up with the Suicide Squad again, but clearly she's having a good time, and she has plenty of new weapons at her disposal.

Captain Boomerang, or George "Digger" Harkness, probably doesn't have anything better to do than work with Suicide Squad again. At the end of the first movie, he was the only one who was extremely visibly angry about being taken back to prison. Not even his love for pink unicorns could bring him any calm, and the last time we saw him, he was screaming in his prison cell as the guard closed the window to his cell door on him.

During the DC FanDome panel for The Suicide Squad, it was revealed that Bloodsport has been imprisoned for trying to shoot Superman with a Kryptonite bullet. That rings true with the character's DC Comics history. Since his inception in 1987, Bloodsport (aka Robert DuBois) has famously used Kryptonite bullets in an effort take down Superman. In his first appearance, he was recruited by one of Lex Luthor's agents and was convinced Superman was an enemy to be dealt with.

Much of Bloodsport's driving force for violence in the comics comes from his anger over the Vietnam War. That's because he was too scared to be a soldier, and his brother Michael ("Micky"), stepped up to go in his place, which resulted in him becoming a quadruple amputee. We're not sure if that part of Bloodsport's origin will be referenced here.

Known as Mr. Polka-Dot in the comics, his real name is Abner Krill, and he's responsible for creating a polka-dot covered suit where the dots can be removed from the costume and turned into a variety of useful weapons and items – not to mention a getaway vehicle that looks a lot like a flying saucer. In the comics, Polka Dot Man once captured Robin, though was inevitably defeated by Batman. Will that be part of his big screen history, too?

In the featurette revealed during DC FanDome, John Cena referred to Peacemaker as "a douchey Captain America." Gunn added that the character believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill in order to achieve it. Peacemaker is usually depicted as a good guy in the comics, and he doesn't appear to have a history with the Suicide Squad. But it's been said that he's the newest member of the team in the movie, so maybe it will be a short-lived affair.

In the comics, Peacemaker used to be a peaceful diplomat known as Christopher Smith. The violence he began to rely on for peace was a result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father. As his vigilante streak continued, he came to believe that the ghosts of the people he killed were collected inside his helmet, offering him advice and commentary. Oh, how I hope James Gunn uses that detail in the movie.

Savant, aka Brian Durlin, is the spoiled her to an enormous fortune, which he hoped to use to become a vigilante in Gotham City like Batman. But Batman discouraged his heroics because Savant didn't seem to care much about protecting others. So instead, he used his genius computer skills to create a blackmailing business, which became quite successful. Savant is also great at hand-to-hand combat, but due to a chemical imbalance, he's hindered by a terrible short-term memory. Surely that's something James Gunn will have some fun with in the movie.

A former Olympic athlete turned criminal, Javelin is known for using weapons inspired by the very spears he would throw in competition. After a battle with Green Lantern, in which he surprisingly got the upper-hand before inevitably being captured, he agrees to join Suicide Squad in order to be acquitted of his crimes. That's his comic book origin, but with such an obscure character, there are bound to be some changes. In fact, since a lot of this iteration of the team is probably going to die, we might not even learn that much about him.

Ratcatcher, a former exterminator turned criminal, has the special ability to communicate with and train rats to do his bidding. Since he's so tight with rats in Gotham City, he's also very knowledgeable about Gotham's sewer system, making it easy for him to smuggle items in an out of prison. He also has a gas gun. However, Daniel Melchior is playing a character called Ratcatcher 2, so either this is a protégé who has taken on the mantle, or maybe she's the original Ratcatcher's daughter. We may have to ask the rats.

One of the original members of the Injustice Society of America, Thinker has a genius-level intellect, and when combined with a special thinking cap, he has perception that borders on clairvoyance. In the comics, he accepted a mission with Suicide Squad in exchange for a full pardon of his various crimes, but he ended up being seemingly killed by fellow team member Weasel. In actuality, he merely returned to his hometown of Keystone City to live out the rest of his life. That part with Weasel might be of interest, but we'll get to that later.

As the daughter of an alien space conqueror named Mongul the Elder, Mongal has many superhuman abilities. She and her twin brother Mongul the Younger also once battled Superman together and lived to tell the tale. However, she did almost have her throat ripped out by Krypto, the Superdog. Perhaps that could result in a few playful jabs from the rest of the Suicide Squad, if that's something they include in the movie.

In the comics, Blackguard isn't exactly the best villain. Originally recruited by the criminal organization known as The 1,000, Blackguard got his ass kicked by Booster Gold and was kicked out of the group. Beyond that, there are not a lot of details about the character other than the fact that his armor allows him to generate a mace and shield out of pure energy. However, in the brief footage we've seen of the character, it appears he's opted to use regular ol' guns. Maybe he only uses the energy weapons when he really needs them. Either way, I don't see him lasting very long.

Solsoria isn't a character found in the Suicide Squad comics. That makes us wonder if actor Alice Braga might be playing a gender-swapped version of Juan Soria, who actually is a member of Suicide Squad. After injuring his hand, Juan Soria injected nanites into his body giving him the ability to place his hand against any locked object and make it automatically unlock. He used this superpower to audition for Justice League, but was denied. So of course, he turned to a life of crime. There's also always the chance that Braga is playing Juan Soria's daughter, and maybe she's pissed about something having to do with her father.

There's no character by the name of TDK in DC Comics. However, if you look at the logo created for Nathan Fillion's character, you'll see that it looks like the characters arms are not attached to his body. That has fans thinking that this is merely a new version of Arm-Fall-Off Boy, whose name makes it pretty clear what his "powers" are. As for what TDK stands for, rumors have said that the character's name may be The Detachable Kid. We're pretty sure he'll be among the first to die.

Sean Gunn served as the on-set stand-in for Rocket Raccoon in the Guardians movies. But in The Suicide Squad, he's playing a much more grotesque animal-like character. In the comics, Weasel began as John Monroe, a law student who was mocked by his peers and called the name Weasel. But as an adult under the name of Jack, he served as a teacher at Vandemeer University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Seeing some of his fellow students as professors who posed a threat to his own tenure, he dressed up as a weasel and killed them.

However, it appears James Gunn may be taking some liberties with the character, because it appears to be a man-sized, anthropomorphic weasel, almost looking like a terrible taxidermy job come to life. Is he really a weasel, or just a man in a complex suit?

Here's King Shark, do-do-dodo-do! All right, so King Shark isn't actually playing himself, but he's the only character in the roll call video who didn't have an actor's name paired with him. However, during the panel, it was revealed that Steve Agee was the on-set version of the character, presumably in the same way that Sean Gunn played Rocket Raccoon. But that means the voice of the character is someone different, possibly Taika Waititi, whose role in the movie has yet to be revealed.

King Shark, aka Nanaue, is just a humanoid shark and son of "The King of All Sharks." Like a real shark, his skin protects him from the pressures of the deep sea and makes him resilient to physical attacks. Clearly he also has shark teeth used for deadly attacks, and he can breathe underwater and swim extremely fast. He's super strong and can regenerate his body tissue. He also likes to eat people.

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So there you have it. James Gunn has said that we shouldn't get too attached to a lot of these characters because most of them are probably going to die. They're part of the Suicide Squad after all, so it's kind of in the job description. I'm willing to bet that many of them will be comedically dispatched with, not unlike X-Force in Deadpool 2. That should make this all the more fun, which will be a nice turnaround from the 2016 edition of Suicide Squad.

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is slated to hit theaters on August 6, 2021.