The Suicide Squad has embraced the sheer ridiculousness of superhero stories more than any other film in recent memory. The movie follows a group of villains called Task Force X (AKA, the Suicide Squad) who earn reduced prison sentences by doing dangerous work for the U.S. government, but who are also considered completely expendable by their government handlers.

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Since these characters are considered expendable, they can be killed at any moment. Director James Gunn made the brilliant creative choice to highlight some of the weirder minor villains of DC Comics. This celebrated the sheer over-the-top fun of the genre while also giving a real sense of depth and humanity to characters who might otherwise be written off as jokes. That said, even if they are taken seriously, many of these characters are so ridiculous it's impossible not to point it out.

10 Polka-Dot Man Throws Polka-Dots…That Are An Interdimensional Virus

Polka Dot Man The Suicide Squad

One of the major characters in the film is Polka-Dot Man, who actually manages to get some character depth. He is clearly insane, having been experimented on by his mother, who tried to turn him and his siblings into superheroes by infecting them with an interdimensional virus. Bright-colored Polka-dot welts rise like blisters from his skin and he has to shed them twice a day. He can throw these disco-colored viral polka-dots at his enemies, and the bright spots eat through people like acid.

9 Weasel Appears To Just Be An Oversized Weasel

The Weasel The Suicide Squad Trailer

In the comics, there have been a number of villains to use the name Weasel, but the one who joined the Suicide Squad, John Monroe, was just some guy in a weaselly fursuit. In The Suicide Squad, he’s an actual giant six-foot-tall weasel who eats children, though it's worth noting that he's smart enough to follow basic spoken commands.

He and his teammates jump out of a moving airplane into the ocean early in the film, at which point it is revealed that he cannot swim. He drowns, but fans who wait to the end of the movie get to see one final appearance of the baby-eating mammal.

8 Starro The Conqueror Is An Alien Starfish With Mind Control Powers

Starro emerges from Jotunheim.

Space is a big place, and whatever life is out there could take almost any shape imaginable. While images of little green men are probably the most prevalent depiction of aliens in the popular consciousness, there are many hypothetical designs based on invertebrates.

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Whatever form intelligent life takes out among the stars, it seems doubtful that first contact will involve a cosmic starfish with mind control powers. But that is just what Starro is—an alien starfish whose armpits excrete tinier starfish that latch onto people’s faces and assimilate their minds and bodies into itself.

7 Javelin Just Throws A Javelin

javelin

There are a lot of heroes and villains with weird gimmicks in the DC Universe. Mirror Master; Polka-Dot Man. Even thinking too hard about Batman raises some serious questions. But Javelin seems gimmicky and uninspired even by these standards. His entire premise is that he has a javelin. That’s it. Let’s just hope he never runs into Superman…or any ordinary soldier, guard, or cop wearing rudimentary tactical armor.

6 Captain Boomerang Just Throws Boomerangs

Captain Boomerang

If Javelin is a ridiculous character, then Captain Boomerang is twice as ridiculous. He’s called “Captain” for no particular reason (as compared to Captain Marvel and Captain America who actually served in the military), and his weapon of choice is absurd.

He throws a boomerang—a weapon poorly designed for modern warfare. And while he doesn’t do so in the movie, other DCEU films show him throwing them indoors, where they lose their tactical advantage.

5 Rat Catcher II Is The Second Criminal To Control Rats

Ratcatcher in The Suicide Squad

Ratcatcher’s powers are pretty straightforward. He is also one of those semi-obscure villains who was in a lot of classic DC stories in the comics for a while before fading away. He makes appearances now and again, but most C-list Batman villains look down on him.

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His daughter, Ratcatcher II, is a wonderful character who is passionate, caring, brave, and in need of more sleep than she's apparently getting. But it's still a wonder that superhero media now has characters like Ratcatcher II.

4 Peacemaker’s Costume And Ideology Are Both Ridiculous

John Cena as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad

Both Bloodsport and Peacekeeper were trained from childhood to be professional killers. They have very similar skillsets, but very different outlooks on life, intelligence levels, and costumes. In one scene, Bloodsport says that Peacemaker’s helmet looks like a toilet seat. And it’s hard to deny that Peacemaker does look like he has a hospital bedpan on his face.

More ridiculous is Peacemaker’s worldview. He is a nationalist who summarized his attitude with this line: “I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women and children I have to kill to get it.” Yikes.

3 Mongal Is An Over-Buff Alien Warrior Woman

Mongal

Mongal has very little actual screen time in The Suicide Squad. She is a background character for the most part, barely even being given a speaking role in the film. Comics fans will know her as the daughter of the alien tyrant Mongul, a character designed to be even stronger than Superman.

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However, Mongal is basically just a grunting angry warrior woman who screams, tries to show off what a badass she is, and then dies. It's also very much worth noting that the name "Mongul" is a less-than-sensitive appropriation that invoked stereotypes about Mongolian people being excessively violent due to the actions of the Mongol Empire six centuries ago. Making a pun of that, "Mon-gal," is not much better.

2 King Shark Is A Humanoid Shark Being

The Suicide Squad's King Shark Sinks His Teeth Into Hot Toys

Nanaue (AKA King Shark) is a giant anthropomorphic shark person. Supposedly, he is descended from a shark god, though Amanda Waller scoffs at this notion when introducing him.

Actual sharks are probably more intelligent than him, but his appetite is nearly insatiable. He seems to want three things: to be viewed as smart, to have friends, and to eat--and his victims are usually alive and awake. One of the many examples of how The Suicide Squad is brilliantly written and directed is that the film makes audiences sympathize with King Shark, where a lesser movie would merely treat him as a menace or a punchline.

1 T.D.K. Stands For “The Detachable Kid”

TDK

T.D.K. (AKA, the Detachable Kid) is a minor character in both the comics and the film. His arms can come off and move independently, sluggishly floating through the air.

The film character is technically original to the DCEU, but is based on a character from the comics, Arm-Fall-Off-Boy, whose name is somehow even more ridiculous than "the Detachable Kid." While having arms that can pop off like an action figure’s and then fly through the air is definitely a unique superpower, it’s not exactly one that most people would want.

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