As we mentioned earlier today, a poster for The Suicide Squad tweeted by director James Gunn had a message supporting comics sales, a welcome move for movie marketing that often ignores the comics films are based on.
Well, it seems there is ANOTHER Suicide Squad Easter Egg in that poster — besides the Starro shapes falling from the sky, that is.
If you close in under the tagline, in the palm trees..you’ll see the word “Legends.”
And what does that refer to?
I’m no DC history expert, but my braintrust tells me it probably refers to Legends #3 from 1987 by John Ostrander, Len Wein, John Byrne and Karl Kesel — an issue which marks the first appearance of the modern-day version of…The Suicide Squad!
Legends was a crossover miniseries that tied in with the rest of the DC in a sprawling storyline that saw DC’s heroes fighting Darkseid and his minions across the pages of their books. (Overly simple, I know.) In the third issue, plotted by Ostrander and scripted by Wein, we meet The Suicide Squad, who are convened as a Black Ops team to help fight Glorious Godfrey, Darkseid’s minion. Amanda Waller calls in Rick Flag to lead Blockbuster, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and Enchantress as Task Force X before they get their formal name. This group would later be spun off in their own title, leading to the modern day Suicide Squad we know and love.
In the August film, returning cast members include Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang. Deadshot and Enchantress appeared in 2017’s Suicide Squad (which we really need a new name for).
Issue #3 of Legends is available in various collections — and about $20 on eBay — but you can also read it on the DC Universe Infinite digital comics platform. You see how that all tied in?
So putting this all together, we have a movie poster promoting reading comics via Easter Eggs and secret references. This is modern, sophisticated stuff! I love it!
The biggest mystery now remaining is…who came up with the idea for this Suicide Squad Easter Egg? As I opined this morning, maybe DC/WB’s branding arms are finally getting together to “cross-promote” their “verticals.” I’m told only that “theatrical” is involved, which seems like a very healthy thing going forward.
We just need to get David Zaslav on board and we might just have ourselves some synergy.
