Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad.
Naturally, Guardians of the Galaxy, given the director link, it's fair to say The Suicide Squad is unlike anything the MCU would ever make.
James Gunn has something of a reputation for hiding Easter eggs, with the missing Guardians of the Galaxy Easter egg still perplexing the most seasoned of hunters, and The Suicide Squad has a fair few to spot. It's not quite on the level of his MCU releases on first look, but there are hidden DC comics cameos, at least one MCU cameo, and some clever nods back to the comics that will have hardcore DC fans in delight. It's clear that Gunn knows where his characters come from, and what's even more clear is that he's had a lot of fun taking them on their respective journeys.
With so much breathless action and the invitation to invest in Gunn's signature character moments, there's an awful lot of content in the movie to keep track of, without even getting into the hidden details. But it's the kind of movie that warrants several rewatches to fully appreciate it. Here's every DC Easter egg, reference, and secret moment in The Suicide Squad.
30. The Opening Song Reference
The song that plays over the opening credits as DCEU fans are once more invited within the walls of Belle Reve prison is Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues". Written by Cash after he watched a film on the notorious California institution, the song was famously performed inside the prison for a true Suicide Squad parallel.
29. Weasel's Strange Comics Origin
As confirmed by James Gunn, the strange design of Sean Gunn's Weasel is based on Bill the Cat, a disheveled cartoon cat created by Berkeley Breathed, for the comic strip Bloom County. He was the illegitimate offspring of Garfield and lends his limited vocabulary and protruding eyes to The Suicide Squad's weirdest character.
28. The References That Confirm The Suicide Squad IS A Sequel
In the bloody opening sequence, Jai Courtney's Boomerang greets both Rick Flag and Harley Quinn as at the very least familiar former colleagues. In Harley Quinn's case, it's confirmed that Flag and Boomer were legitimately her friends. The backstory hint of their kinship all but confirms that The Suicide Squad follows on from Suicide Squad 2016. It's not explicit anywhere else really, but this is enough.
27. Savant Is The Weak Link
While Gunn chose to use Savant as the de facto main character of the opening beach assault, the pay off also sees him confirmed as a coward (perhaps understandably) and thus the weak link in Amanda Waller's plan. That weak link status fits with Savant's post-New 52 reimagining, which saw him also confirmed as the weak link in a torture experiment to find out Task Force X's liabilities.
26. Amanda Waller's Belle Reve Team
Each of the Task Force X are all either ported straight from the comics or posed as reinventions of comics characters (in the case of Ratcatcher 2), and so too are Amanda Waller's less notable team. Steve Agee's John Economos,
Tinashe Kajese's Flo Crawley, Jennifer Holland's Emilia Harcourt, and Stephen Blackehart's Briscoe are all characters taken from the Suicide Squad comics. As in the comics, Briscoe is the Task Force X helicopter pilot.
25. John Ostrander's Belle Reve Cameo
The creator of The Suicide Squad himself, John Ostrander, appears briefly in the opening sequence as Dr. Fitzgibbon who works with A.R.G.U.S. at Belle Reve. He's the doctor who isters the brain bomb to Savant with vaguely menacing pleasure.
24. Corto Maltese
Situated off the coast of South America, Corto Maltese was created for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and is the site of a rebel uprising aided by the USSR. In the comics, the US backs the government, which fits with The Suicide Squad's revelation of the US government using the island to hide Project Starfish. The DC Comics version of the island was named in honor of the adventurer character created by Hugo Pratt. The island - and a revolution - was also mentioned as a background event in 1989's Batman.
23. Superman's Kryptonite Bullet
As confirmed as early as the trailers, Bloodsport is in Belle Reve for having shot Superman with a Kryptonite bullet and putting the Man of Steel in the ICU. It's a story taken straight from the pages of DC comics, as Lex Luthor identified Dubois as his means to kill Superman. The weapon of choice was a gun that fired Kryptonite needles, which Bloodsport used to shoot Superman after drawing him out by killing over twenty-five innocent civilians. Superman was also shot with a Kryptonite bullet in DC animated film Justice League: Doom.
22. Crazy Quilt
A couple of notable DC comics villains appear in the background of Belle Reve prison, including a new take on Crazy Quilt, another low level Batman adversary. In the comics, Crazy Quilt is a noted artist and master criminal who is blinded by a gunshot and who can only see bright colors as a result of an experimental treatment. In Gunn's adaptation, Crazy Quilt appears to have her skin transformed into the patchwork design of the original villain's comics outfit.
21. Sean Gunn's Other Cameo - Calendar Man
As this is a James Gunn movie, his brother Sean Gunn pulls double duty, standing in for Weasel on-set (giving him the auspicious honor of playing understudy to both a weasel and a raccoon in comic book movies) and also playing a live-action human character. In Belle Reve, he plays notorious DC villain Calendar Man who appears very briefly to goad Polka-Dot Man. He comes complete with the comic book villain's bald head and cranial tattoo of the months of the year.
