With the roster for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad stacked with wildly disparate and relatively unknown DC Comics villains, we thought it would be great to get to know each of them in 400 words or less. Don’t get too attached after reading though, because there’s a good bet most of them won’t be around for the sequel. It’s time to meet and greet the members of Task Force X!
A wealthy genius whose memories become tangled in time, Savant first appeared in 2003’s Birds of Prey #56. Initially a Gotham City vigilante whose run in with Batman forced him into a career move, Brian Durlin decided to use his skills behind the keyboard to dig up information and become a big time blackmailer who set his sights on the big prize: the true identity of the Batman! Savant’s plan to uncover the name of the man behind the cowl saw him tangle with the Birds of Prey, holding Black Canary hostage in hopes that Barbara Gordan would spill the beans. Instead, she spilled some of his blood but rather than throw him away, Babs saw a pathway to redemption for Durlin and brought him on board the team in hopes that his impressive tech skills would help them out.
Savant’s inability to totally divorce himself from his criminal ways found him going back and forth between two worlds and his behavior at the intersection of those two worlds led to him being dismissed from the BoP more than once. Having developed feelings for Barbara, however, he kept coming back in hopes of making it work. That never worked out for him and he never quite got along with Batman either, but Savant never seemed to be a truly evil character. When DC rebooted their universe in 2011, Savant was part of Amanda Waller’s new Task Force X whose job was to hunt down Suicide Squad mainstay, Harley Quinn.
Savant will be brought to life on the big screen by James Gunn’s BFF for life, the great Michael Rooker. Rooker, like Dastmalchian, is no stranger to superhero or comic book fare having starred as Yondu in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Gunn’s dark superhero comedy, Super, and The Walking Dead. Rooker has also been in pretty much everything Gunn has ever made.
Murphy’s Multiverse Dead Pool Predictions
Predicted Chances of Survival: if negative numbers worked in percentages, I’d go lower than 0.
Predicted Manner of Death: something incredibly horrific. Given Gunn’s relationship with Rooker, I’m guessing this death will be the most absurd of them all. Let’s go with a particularly bad case of being cut in half.
RIP Savant
