The most exciting thing about Suicide Squad besides David Ayer directing, and that cast, and the prospect of Oprah Winfrey appearing in a superhero film is that it promises to be a very different sort of comic book adaptation than we're so far used to. Great though the Marvel films are, and it remains to be seen what Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice ends up like, they do tend to follow a very familiar, set path. They're also films that star heroes exclusively, with the villains given very rote roles for the most part. Suicide Squad will not only be effectively a different genre of superhero film, but it's all about the bad guys, baby. It shows how committed Warner Bros are to diversifying things a little, creating what is effectively a big-budget thriller that happens to take place in the DC Cinematic Universe. It shows how seriously they're taking the film, what with the millions that are clearly going to be spent on paying all of those actors. It shows they're willing to take risks whilst also finding the right people for the job, with such a left-field premise and David Ayer helming it. It's also taking a totally different approach to world-building. The DC movies aren't going to be origin stories, from the looks of it. The world already exists. All these supervillains are not only active, but have been caught. Batman's already old. Superman exists. The rest of the Justice League might already be operational. Audiences are going to be diving in head-first. And that's pretty darn exciting.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
