Again in 2021, The Suicide Squad was launched as DC’s lone film of that yr, taking part in in theaters and being obtainable to stream with an HBO Max subscription concurrently. Though there are just a few scenes I’ve rewatched within the years since, it wasn’t till just lately that I lastly rewatched The Suicide Squad in its entirety, and it was alongside somebody who’d by no means seen the film in any respect. Now that this full sequence of occasions is recent in my thoughts once more, I’m hoping that one of many characters killed off within the James Gunn-written and directed function will likely be reimagined within the DC Universe franchise.
I’m speaking about Peter Capaldi’s Gaius Grieves, a.okay.a. The Thinker, the scientist who spent 30 years experimenting on Starro and was promptly ripped in two by the big alien starfish as soon as it was free of captivity in Jötunheim. Capaldi performed an unique tackle Thinker relatively than an adaptation one of many characters who’ve passed by that supervillain moniker from the comics. Frankly, there wasn’t something in The Suicide Squad to differentiate Grieves as superintelligent relatively than only a gifted scientist different the electronics in his head, which made him resemble the New 52 model of The Thinker.
Earlier than going additional, I ought to remind everybody that The Suicide Squad is technically set within the now-defunct DC Prolonged Universe. So whereas sure occasions from the film are additionally canon to the DC Universe, like Peacemaker killing Rick Flag Jr., the film as an entire is just not thought-about to be a part of the DCU. Because of this features of the occasions in The Suicide Squad may be tweaked to suit throughout the DCU lore. So I’m envisioning an alternate model of that film the place a distinct super-smart character, and even simply any generic scientist, is substituted in for Thinker, and Gaius Grieves not concerned within the story in any respect.
Clifford DeVoe, the unique incarnation of The Thinker, is one among DC Comics’ oldest supervillains, having debuted in 1943’s All-Flash #12. The Flash TV present featured DeVoe as the principle antagonist of its fourth season, the place he was performed by Neil Sandilands, and I’d prefer to see the DCU put its personal spin on him. Particularly, I’d prefer to see him depicted as a supervillain who was energetic a long time earlier than the present-day DCU occasions, harkening again to when he was a serious antagonist to the Jay Garrick Flash throughout the Golden Age of Comics.
Metahumans have been recognized to the world for 300 years, when Superman begins, and Golden Age heroes like Sandman (the Wesley Dodds model), Max Mercury, Bulletman, Bulletgirl and Zatara are confirmed to have existed within the DCU due to the mural within the Justice Gang’s headquarters. Even when Jay Garrick is doubtlessly off limits from getting used within the DCU with the intention to keep away from confusion when the extra acquainted model of The Flash, be it Barry Allen or Wally West, ultimately seems, that doesn’t imply Thinker couldn’t have nonetheless been an adversary to one among these different heroes throughout the Nineteen Forties. It’d be nice to see him as a villain in some type of Justice Society undertaking.
None of that is meant to disrespect Peter Capaldi’s efficiency in The Suicide Squad; I simply don’t assume Gaius Grieves added a lot to the story. I don’t need his loss of life to stop a extra trustworthy model of The Thinker from being utilized sometime, as he’s approach too good a villain to maintain on the proverbial shelf.