In the comic book world, the House Of Ideas were originally struggling to keep up with their Distinguished Competition - after all, theyd had a good thirty years head start in ingratiating readers to Batman, Superman and the like. In the movies, though, Marvel appear to have long since left DC in their dust, with Warner Bros desperate to recreate the success of that other famous Cinematic Universe. With desperate being the operative word. The speed with which a Justice League film was being set up to compete with Avengers seemed like a bad idea, and the degree to which the DC Cinematic Universe was being constructed made it look like it wasn't structurally sound. And that it would just be a pale imitation of what Marvel had managed to do. Suicide Squad shows that DC are prepared to do something different, to take some chances, and develop a different tone. Man Of Steel and Batman v Superman look sorta "gritty", but Suicide Squad looks genuinely darker, more mature and interesting than any superhero film audiences have seen so far. Lets just hope they dont muck it up.
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/
