Suicide Squad vs Guardians of the Galaxy: Who Would Win?
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Comparing groups is not always an easy task, but it is always very, very entertaining. We at Fiction Horizon have already done such comparisons and in wake of James Gunn’s new movie, we have decided to do a series of comparisons focused on the Suicide Squad. In this article, we are going to do an intercompany crossover event as we are going to do an analysis to determine whether the Suicide Squad could defeat the Guardians of the Galaxy. Enjoy!
Despite them being villains, the members of the Suicide Squad are exceptionally powerful characters that could, ultimately, defeat the Guardians of the Galaxy. It seems that the Squad has a more varied and powerful roster than the Guardians, who couldn’t really put forward anyone that could be able to defeat the Squad with relative ease.
Our comparison is going to be divided into two sections. The first is going to bring an overview of the two groups, after which we are going to bring you a detailed analysis of the two groups to determine which one would win in a direct clash. This is a bit different than our individual character comparisons, as it would take up too much time to compare each member, even if we only choose the most famous iterations, which is why we are going to do a collective analysis here.
The Suicide Squad and its members
The Suicide Squad is the name of a fictional team of supervillains that appears in comics published by DC Comics. The first version of the Suicide Squad debuted in The Brave and the Bold #25 (1959) and the second modern version, created by John Ostrander, debuted in Legends #3 (1987). The modern incarnation of the Suicide Squad is Task Force X, a team of incarcerated supervillains who go on secret missions in exchange for reduced prison terms. The Suicide Squad’s name alludes to the dangerous nature of its missions. The team is based at Belle Reve Penitentiary under the direction of Amanda Waller.
The Suicide Squad is a group of supervillains hired by the government to carry out missions that were classified as suicide because of their complexity. They were frequently paired with the government agency Checkmate, culminating in the Janus Directive crossover. These villains agreed to take on missions for the Suicide Squad, in exchange for commuting their sentences.
Although the team was successful in most of its missions, there were often failures or the death of one or more members. Non-inmate members such as Nemesis and Nocturna participate in the team as part of individual agreements. To prevent members from escaping into the camp, the prisoners were equipped with an explosive bracelet that detonated at a certain distance from the camp leader, who was typically Rick Flag who carried a remote control to detonate or deactivate the bracelets if desired.
The martial artist named Bronze Tiger acts as a disciplinary measure and later, following the death of Rick Flag, as the team’s field leader. The group is run by Amanda Waller, although she sometimes goes undercover, especially after the Suicide Squad’s existence became public. Eventually, the Suicide Squad breaks away from government control and becomes an independent organization.
The Suicide Squad’s first mission was against their recurring enemies, Jihad. They infiltrate their headquarters and proceed to kill most of the members. This event revealed the death of Mindboggler, the cowardly and treacherous nature of Captain Boomerang, Nocturna’s attraction to Rick Flag Jr., a rivalry between Rustam and Rick, and the defeat of Ravan at the hands of Bronze Tiger.
On Derek Tolliver’s orders, the Suicide Squad is sent to Moscow in order to free the captive Zoya Trigorin, a revolutionary writer. They come face to face with the “People’s Heroes”, a Russian group of metahumans. In the conflict, Trigorin dies and Nemesis (Tom Tresser) is captured. Nemesis eventually escapes thanks to a collaboration between the Suicide Squad and the Justice League International, although the two teams fight each other initially.
This conflict is primarily the result of Batman’s investigation into the Suicide Squad and his confrontation. with Waller. Later, Rick Flag Jr goes after Senator Cray in order to assassinate him. Previously, Senator Cray had blackmailed Amanda Waller; in order to secure his re-election, Cray threatened to expose the Suicide Squad to the public, potentially dangerous to the Squad’s existence and Waller’s career.
In order to stop him, the squad sends Deadshot to confront Flag shortly before he can shoot Cray, but he is too late to prevent the assassination and Tolliver is killed. Rather than disarm or kill Flag, Deadshot opts to kill Cray. In his understanding, he maintains the mission statement: to prevent the murder of Cray at the hands of Flag.
Against Flag Jr.’s intentions, the Suicide Squad exposes itself to the public. As a result of the exposure, Amanda Waller is replaced by a man named Jack Kale, in fact an actor, working as a cover so Waller can continue to coordinate the squad. Later, though, Waller disbands the Suicide Squad. However, Waller reunites the Squad again at a later point. It is made up of Bolt, Sledge, Killer Frost and Copperhead who are on a mission to South America. The superheroes Falcon and Paloma (Sasha Martens and Wolverman Wiley) face a new Suicide Squad.
Later, Lex Luthor, organizes another Suicide Squad during his tenure as President of the United States10 so that they can free Doomsday and confront Imperiex. This version of the team was led by Black Manchester, under Steel’s supervision. Doomsday apparently kills most of the Brigade after freeing him. Then Colonel Computron defected from the team and tried to contact Checkmate. He was murdered by Amanda Waller’s agents shortly after.
The Guardians of the Galaxy and their powers
The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional space superhero team that appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning formed the team of existing and previously unrelated characters created by a variety of writers and artists, with an initial roster of Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Quasar, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, and Groot.
In the wake of the Phalanx Invasion of the Kree, Star-Lord decides to form a team of interstellar heroes who are proactive in protecting the galaxy, rather than reacting to crises as they occur. To this end, he recruits Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla-Vell (the new Quasar), Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, with Mantis for support.
On the recommendation of his ally, Nova, the group establishes a base of operations on the Knowhere space station, which has a teleportation system with a near-universal range. An intelligent telepathic dog named Cosmo the Space Dog is Knowhere’s head of security, working closely with the new team.
After a confrontation with the Universal Church of Truth, the team meets a semi-amnesic man who is identified as Vance Astro (Major Victory), a member of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. Astro’s statement inspires the team to adopt the name “Guardians of the Galaxy” for themselves.
When the team learns that Star-Lord directed Mantis to telepathically force the heroes to join the team, they disband. Rocket Raccoon decided to continue Star-Lord’s mission and begins the search for the missing members. His new team includes Bug, Mantis, Major Victory, and Groot, and is completely revamped.
Meanwhile, Star-Lord was banished to the Negative Zone by Ronan the Accuser, due to his actions during the Phalanx’s attempted conquest of the Kree Empire. There, he finds himself in the middle of King Blastaar’s fight to enter 42nd and use his portal to invade Earth. Star-Lord teams up with Jack Flag to defend the prison and contact the other Guardians.
Rocket’s new team succeeds in bringing them back, and Flag becomes a Guardian. Elsewhere, Drax and Phyla begin searching for Cammi, but in their search, they speak to a seer who tells them that a war is coming. Phyla was able to awaken Moondragon from the dead, but she lost her Quantum Bands in the process. The consequence for Phyla is that she is now the new avatar of death.
They returned to Knowhere, without continuing the search for Cammi.
Who would win: the Suicide Squad or the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Out of all the group comparisons we’ve done involving the Suicide Squad, this one was the most interesting to us. Namely, despite being from different fictional universes and on different sides of the “law”, the Suicide Squad and the Guardians of the Galaxy are more or less on the same level of power. Their rosters have changed, although the Suicide Squad has gone through more substantial changes over the years. Still, when looking at their histories, we don’t think that that matters much.
Namely, we’re considering the strongest and best-known iterations of both of these groups. In that aspect, we’re going to discuss a Suicide Squad composed of characters such as Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, King Shark, Killer Frost, Black Manta, and Bane. The best-known iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy would include Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket the Racoon, Drax the Destroyer, and Gamora, as was depicted in the MCU.
We’re not really going to count Adam Warlock here, as he is too overpowered and he isn’t really known for being a Guardian of the Galaxy as much as he is for his other exploits.
In terms of sheer physical power and combat, the Squad seems to have a slight advantage. Sure, the Guardians do have Drax and Groot, two powerhouses, and Gamora, who is an excellent fighter, but the former two would certainly find a match in Bane and King Shark, while Bronze Tiger is undoubtedly a better fighter than Gamora.
Star-Lord and Rocket are known as great marksmen, but neither of them is better than Deadshot, and with Harley Quinn’s help, Lawton could easily deal with the two. The situation is already clear, and we haven’t even mentioned Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, or Black Manta, and all of them would certainly give additional firepower to the Suicide Squad.
Our conclusion here would be that the Suicide Squad could defeat the Guardians of the Galaxy in direct combat. Although they are villains and have often been underestimated, the Squad members are extremely powerful characters and the Guardians just don’t seem to have that much firepower with them.
And that’s it for today. We hope you had fun reading this and that we have given you all the information you were looking for. See you next time and don’t forget to follow us!
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