The Suicide Squad is DC Comics’ Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad has everything we loved about Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Suicide Squad has debuted and has been received better than a lot of the previous DC Comics movies. It has definitely received more love than the original Suicide Squad film. Right from the jump, the movie let everyone know that this wasn’t going to be like any of the previous movies. We also found out that James Gunn wasn’t bluffing when he said everyone was expendable, which is a good thing. All of this added to the suspense of the project.

The more this writer watched this movie, the more he started to notice something. The Suicide Squad is DC Comics’ answer to the Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s not to say it was a ripoff. It was it’s own movie. Nonetheless, you can see a lot of the similarities in the formula James Gunn used – something that more comic book projects should use more often.

The Suicide Squad’s characters

This was the first thing that should be noted. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn used a plethora of unknown characters. The GotG don’t have a lot of A-list heroes in their ranks. Iron Man and Captain Marvel have been members in the comics, but they aren’t their primary teammates. To be frank, the majority of comic book fans didn’t care about anyone in the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, here we are years later and Star-Lord, Rocket, and Groot are household names.

With the exception of Harley Quinn and King Shark (the latter due to Harley Quinn’s DC Universe show), the Suicide Squad (or Task Force X) doesn’t have many members that the general public knows about. In fact, looking at them, why should they? There’s a guy on the team that shoots destructive polkadots, a woman who controls rats, and someone whose primary weapons are trick boomerangs. On paper, this shouldn’t work. It doubly should have failed after the original Suicide Squad. James Gunn proved that with the right cast and script, however, you can have unknown characters fighting a giant starfish and totally make it work.

When you have unknown heroes, villains, and whatever this team is, you have freedom. There’s an opportunity to mess around with their personalities. It’s not so easy with the Supermans, Batmans, and Wonder Women of the DC Comics universe. But, Bloodsport and Peacemaker? Those are two people that can be molded however you want depending on the story you’re trying to tell with them.

Not taking itself too seriously

The best thing about the movie may have been the comedy. It wasn’t so funny that things couldn’t get serious, but it was there. However, when you have a humanoid shark that’s possibly a god and a woman who talks to rats, you can’t take yourself too seriously. You have to acknowledge the silliness of what’s going on. Otherwise, what’s the point? There was a giant cross eyed Weasel and a cuddly but violent giant shark going on deadly missions. How is that not hilarious?

There are some clear parallels with Guardians of the Galaxy. Instead of Vin Diesel voicing Groot, Sylvester Stallone voices King Shark. Instead of giving them these deep and powerful dialogue-heavy moments, they were used as giant beings that speak in ridiculous ways. In this case, King Shark was goofier. At least Groot wasn’t trying to eat his teammates and had deep moments.

Coming together despite their differences

Lastly, we have the coming together moment. A lot of movies have a scene like this. One in which the protagonists are arguing only to put their differences aside in the end. In this case, there’s one part in The Suicide Squad that clearly resembles the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Their team building consisted of a party in a bar.

The Guardians of the Galaxy had their first moment on Knowhere in a shady bar. The Suicide Squad had their’s in a shady bar in Corto Maltese. The Guardians of the Galaxy were interrupted by villains in the middle of their fun and the very same thing happened to Task Force X. Granted, the real bonding moment for the GotG happened on a spaceship before their big fight. Task Force X had their moment right before the big showdown as well. Except, their’s didn’t have a deep speech by their leader.

You could look at other things in the movie and see similarities to Guardians of the Galaxy, like how Peacemaker seemed to take everything literally. Not on the same level, but there were certainly moments where they seemed similar. King Shark making a C4 replica of Peacemaker is a good example. It obviously looked nothing like him, but he had to verbalize it for his own sanity.

There are other moments like this to prove the point. The ones above are just the most obvious. The entire vibe and feel of The Suicide Squad evoked reminders of Guardians of the Galaxy. Since the recipe worked for Marvel Studios, it only makes sense to try it here. Thankfully, The Suicide Squad was in James Gunn’s hands. Hopefully, it will continue to be. The DCEU needs more fun going forward.

What do you think? Are the two movies similar or is this writer off? Let us know in the comments below.