Suicide Squad vs Justice League: Who Would Win?

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 staying within the boundaries of the DC Universe, as we are going to see whether the Suicide Squad could defeat the Justice League. Enjoy!

In the majority of cases, the Justice League would be able to defeat the Suicide Squad easily, as it has already happened in the comics. Still, if the Justice League would arrive with a weaker roster, with members who have more pronounced weaknesses and are less powerful, the Squad’s best line-up would be able to defeat them.

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 Justice League and its members

The Justice League (also known, at times, as the Justice League of America) is a fictional superhero group appearing in stories published by DC Comics. It is the best-known superhero group from DC’s stories. The group debuted in 1960, in the comic book The Brave and the Bold #28, with author Gardner Fox being credited as its official creator.

The Justice League’s origins have varied throughout the years and there is no fixed origin story we could use. What is always the same is that they are a group of Earth-based superheroes from different locations who have decided to unite their powers to protect the Earth from different threats, both local and cosmic.

Membership in the group has also varied throughout the years, with the original roster consisting of Superman (Clark Kent), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Wonder Woman (Diana Prince), The Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Aquaman (Arthur Curry) and Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz). Later on, various other superheroes have been members of the group, including, but not limited to The Atom (Ray Palmer), Big Barda (Barda Free), Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce), Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson), Cyborg (Victor Stone), Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny), The Flash (Wally West), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), Green Lantern (John Stewart), Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders), Hawkman (Carter Hall), Metamorpho (Rex Mason), Orion, Plastic Man (Eel O’Brian), Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Power Girl (Kara Zor-L), Red Tornado, Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore), and Zatanna. In The New 52 reboot, Cyborg replaced the Martian Manhunter as one of the seven founding members.

As for their enemies, the Justice League has fought a plethora of different villains, with their most notable enemy being Darkseid, the ruthless ruler of Apokolips. Other recurring enemies are Brainiac, Lex Luthor and other members of the Legion of Doom, Reverse Flash, etc.

The Justice League has been present in a variety of different media, including animated TV shows, video games, and a recent live-action movie, set within the DCEU.

Suicide Squad vs Justice League – Who would win?

Much like our comparison with the Avengers, the Suicide Squad’s chances against the Justice League depend on the teams’ rosters. Namely, both these teams have had various rosters throughout its history. Some of these rosters have been weaker, while others were stronger. That is why it is quite difficult to pick a proper roster for this comparison, but luckily for us, it doesn’t really matter in the end, as we can easily use a combined roster in this situation.

The strongest and most famous iteration of the Justice League includes the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash, among others. As we have established, just Superman is enough to fully defeat the Suicide Squad, but with Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash, the Squad doesn’t really stand a chance in any form or iteration. These four characters are just too powerful and too invincible for the likes of the Suicide Squad, and while it is likely that they would do some damage to them, they wouldn’t really be able to defeat them. This is why the Justice League would win in the majority of cases.

On the other hand, there have been weaker iterations of the Justice League and would one such iteration arrive to face the strongest iteration of the Suicide Squad, then the Squad would be able to win. For example, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Plastic Man and the likes could certainly lose in a fight against Deadshot, Bane, Bronze Tiger, Harley Quinn and Killer Frost. Of course, the heroes have a natural advantage, but the Suicide Squad is depicted as being in between heroism and villainism.

Therefore, our conclusion is that the Justice League would win in most scenarios since its members are simply much stronger. On the other hand, the Suicide Squad certainly has a window of opportunity against a weaker line-up of the League.

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!