The best Suicide Squad stories in movies, TV, and comics
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice LeagueRocksteady Games’ cooperative open-world looter shooter and the latest installment in the Batman: Arkham series was released earlier this month to an almost unanimously lukewarm reception.
After nearly eight years of development, several delays, and a storm of controversy over the game’s story and live-service elements, audiences seem to be lukewarm about playing as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark as they fight about a Brainiac-occupied Metropolis to kill the mind-controlled members of Earth’s greatest heroes. A shame, because the basic concept behind the Suicide Squad is still a lot of fun!
Whether you play or not Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, there are plenty of other stories to enjoy if you’re a fan of ARGUS’s secret team of super-powered convicts. Whether it’s movies, television, animation, or comics, we’ve put together a list of the best Suicide Squad stories to date for you to enjoy right now.
Best Suicide Squad Movies
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Image: Warner Bros.
Director: James Gunn
Form: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena
Where to watch: Max, Netflix
This recommendation feels like a no-brainer. When it comes to live-action Suicide Squad films, there’s James Gunn’s action-packed 2021 film and… well, there’s the other An. The suicide squad taps into the irreverent weirdness at the heart of the team’s premise, something sorely lacking in the self-serious tonal diversion of David Ayer’s 2016 film, while introducing several previously unadapted comic book villains like King Shark , Peacekeeper and the Polka-Punt man. It’s a damn fine film, whose commercial and critical success is directly responsible for Gunn taking the reins at DC Studios and being entrusted with the next incarnation of the company’s cinematic universe. —Toussaint Egan
Batman: Attack on Arkham (2014)
Image: Warner Bros. Animation
Directors: Jay Oliva, Ethan Spaulding
Form: Kevin Conroy, Neal McDonough, Hynden Walch
Where to watch: Max
This animated film is especially interesting because of its tangential relationship with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. During WB Games Montréal’s development Batman: Arkham Originsapproached Warner Bros. Animation writer Heath Corson to develop the script for a Suicide Squad story set in the Batman: Arkham universe, several years prior to Rocksteady’s own attempt at the concept.
The result was that of 2014 Batman: Attack on Arkham, an animated film in which a group of super-powered criminals (including Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark) are recruited by ARGUS commander Amanda Waller to infiltrate Arkham Asylum and kidnap the Riddler. It’s essentially an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist thriller about a team of bickering supervillains who are forced to take on the Dark Knight. If you are sour about the impact of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League about the Arkham-verse, you might enjoy this entertaining “What If” scenario of a movie. -AT
Best Suicide Squad Television Episodes
Justice League Unlimited, “Task Force X” (2005)
Image: Warner Bros. Animation
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos
Form: Adam Baldwin, CCH Pounder, Michael Rosenbaum
Where to watch: Max, Netflix
Justice League Unlimited is one of the best superhero shows ever to air on TV. It’s no surprise then that the capstone of the DC Animated Universe could offer one of the best Suicide Squad animated stories yet. “Task Force
It’s at once an excellent introduction to the basic concept of the Suicide Squad and an exemplary episode in its own right, with plenty of shocking twists and explosive action along the way. How do you sneak into a space station full of superheroes, steal an enchanted indestructible suit of armor and escape safely? Watching this gang of criminals figure it out in real time is what makes this episode work. Joaquim Dos Santos, who directed the episode along with 19 others for the series, would go on to work on several other successful shows, such as Avatar: The last airbender, Voltron: Legendary DefenderAnd Invincibleand he even co-directed 2023 Spider-Man: About the Spider-Verse. -AT
My Adventures with Superman, “Zero Day: Part One & Two” (2023)
Image: Warner Bros. Animation/DC Entertainment
Director: Diana Hey
Form: Jack Quaid, Alice Lee, Ishmel Sahid
Where to watch: Max
It’s not every day you get a story where Task Force X catches Superman.
The penultimate two-part episode of the first season of My adventures with Superman sees the Man of Steel exhausted and stretched thin. After spending most of Zero Day: Part One racing through Metropolis trying to help everyone he can, Clark is ambushed by a new version of Task Force Wave, Mist, Siobhan McDougal and Slade Wilson.
The team not only manages to overpower Superman, but also successfully subdues and captures him on behalf of General Sam Lane and Amanda Waller. It’s a shame that this version of Task Force X managed to break free from Waller’s clutches. Who knows what other spectacular illegal feats they could have accomplished? -AT
Pijl, “Suicide Squad” (2014)
Image: DC Entertainment/Warner Bros. Television
Director: Larry Teng
Form: David Ramsey, Michael Jai White, Cynthia Addai-Robinson
Where to watch: Netflix
The CWs Arrow has adapted much of the DC universe over the course of its eight seasons. The show introduced the first live-action incarnations of several prominent characters from DC Comics, including the Suicide Squad. In the 16th episode of the second season, Oliver Queen’s partner John Diggle is recruited by ARGUS commander Amanda Waller to track down a chemical nerve agent. To complete the operation, Diggle must lead an undercover team including Deadshot, Bronze Tiger and Shrapnel.
It’s an excellent B-plot for Queen’s ongoing battle against his nemesis Slade Wilson throughout the season, and a fun Suicide Squad story in its own right. We see (well, hear) Shrapnel’s head explode! Deadshot does spy stuff! Bronze Tiger is played by Michael Jai White! We even get a quick sneak peek of Harley Quinn, who would be playing a much larger role in the series, DC executives had not intervened. That’s life. -AT
Best Suicide Squad Comics
Image: Howard Chaykin/DC Comics
Suicide Squad (1987)
Author: John Ostrander
Artist: Luke McDonnell
It’s not the case for every long-running superhero team that you can confidently encourage people to read the original book. But John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell had already tried out the idea of “Dirty Dozen with supervillains” in a miniseries or two, and with Suicide squad, they went into the ground running. Readers expecting the same tone as the Gunn or Ayers films may be disappointed, but if you’re open to it, Ostrander and McDonnell deliver a tight pulp spy series full of compellingly conflicted characters.
You’ll learn to hate Captain Boomerang and hate how much you love Deadshot – and you’ll see how the two creators quickly establish Amanda Waller, one of the most singular characters in superhero comics, as an indelible pillar of DC’s setting. —Susana Polo
Secret Six (2005)
Image: DC Comics
Author: Gail Simone
Artist: Dale Eaglesham, Brad Walker, Nicola Scott
There are many great Suicide Squad comics to choose from. But what if, and stick with me here, one of the best Suicide Squad comics wasn’t even technically a Suicide Squad comic? I’m talking, of course, about The Secret Six, a team of Silver Age spies later reinvented by writer Gail Simone as a group of supervillains led by a mysterious overseer known as “Mockingbird.” From Susana’s article about the comic:
The Suicide Squad is only held together by the iron will of Amanda Waller and her numerous surgically implanted bombs. Otherwise, it’s a team where pretty much every member hates the guts of every other member. But the Secret Six are a group of equally amoral criminal loners, held together by nothing more than the slow realization that there is no one else in the DC Universe who understands their unique place in it as well as their teammates.