A new trailer for The Suicide Squad has confirmed a long-running fan theory about the superpower possessed by Nathan Fillion's character TDK; he can detach his arms from his body. The trailer doesn't specify what the abbreviation TDK stands for, but rumors say it's The Detachable Kid, and his powers tie him to the legacy of one of DC Comics' strangest characters.
Billed as being from "the horribly beautiful mind of James Gunn," little has been revealed about the storyline of The Suicide Squad. It has been said to be truer to the spirit of the original comic series written by John Ostrander and Kim Yale than the 2016 Suicide Squad movie was, bringing in a host of C-List Supervillains like Savant, Polka-Dot Man, and Javelin. At the same time, Gunn has created some original characters unique to the DCEU that are based on preexisting comic book characters, such as Daniela Melchior's Ratcatcher and Nathan Fillion's TDK.
The second trailer for The Suicide Squad included a scene of TDK in action, standing before a burning field as smoke billowed behind him. In the midst of this, TDK spread his arms and they detached from his body, leaving him looking like a disassembled action figure, as his limbs continued to hang in mid-air, apparently still operating under his control. This seems to have confirmed a theory, based on the emblem of two crossed arms under a skull TDK wears on his chest, that he is a villainous adaptation of the superhero Arm-Fall-Off-Boy.
First appearing in Secret Origins (Vol. 2) #46 in December 1989, Arm-Fall-Off-Boy was one of the first applicants to the Legion of Super-Heroes. A native of the alien world of Lallor, Floyd Belkin possessed the unlikely ability to rip off his own arm and wield it as a club; a power that failed to earn him a place among the Legionnaires. Later stories reintroduced Arm-Fall-Off-Boy at different points in the Legion chronology, with his efforts to join the team always being undone by some bit of poor fortune. In once instance, Floyd was denied membership because his powers left him unable to safely equip the Legion Flight Ring that served as the team uniform. Years later, having adopted the codename Splitter, Floyd placed among the top five competitors for an open spot in the Legion, only to panic during the final exam and literally go to pieces.
Based on the trailer for The Suicide Squad, TDK has one advantage over Floyd Belkin in that his arms levitate once detached from his body and can apparently still function independently. This makes them somewhat more useful than Arm-Fall-Off-Boy's apparent inability to do anything with his arm other than it as a club. Despite this, it would still be a stretch to say TDK's power is in any way useful, although he is easily the most disarming member of The Suicide Squad.
