Warning: Spoilers for Suicide Squad: Blaze #1!
The Suicide Squad — both in comics and film — consists of some of the wildest and most dangerous characters DC Comics has to offer, and now a new addition to the team has made Nathan Fillion’s movie character, TDK, even worse. TDK detaching his arms at will is one thing, but having no visible arms at all? That’s a far more horrific thought entirely.
Seen in the first issue of DC Black Label’s newest series titled Suicide Squad: Blaze, by Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell, this premiere issue gives fans a new version of Task Force X who are on a mission to stop a threat that the world-famous Justice League is even worried about. Tasked by Amanda Waller to take down a new and mysterious superpowered villain that prefers human flesh over a well-rounded breakfast, this book’s version of the team has a lot to contend with before their story even fully begins.
Led by Suicide Squad alums such as Harley Quinn, King Shark, Captain Boomerang, and the now movie-famous Peacemaker, the team also adds five prisoners into the mix, all of which have been exposed to the titular Blaze procedure that has given each of them their own unique superpowers. Narrated by a prisoner named Michael Van Zandt as he undergoes the Blaze procedure, this issue shows just how much worse off Michael is compared to TDK after he comes out the other side looking a little different than when he entered.
Injected with a special serum that bestows him with his new power (and also cuts his life expectancy off at the knees), Michael is left near speechless as his power is revealed to be that of having invisible arms. Unlike TDK, Michael is unable to use his powers at will, so not only is this new Squad member horrified by the roll of the superpowered dice but until more of his colleagues die and their power is split between the remaining survivors, he’s stuck in a way that’s far more terrifying than what TDK has to contend with.
Used in The Suicide Squad by writer/director James Gunn as a sort of gag character in the opening scene of the film, TDK, or The Detachable Kid, was originally based on DC’s obscure Arms-Fall-Off-Boy, a character that this book's creative team distilled Michael from. Furthermore, by mixing this connection between Michael and TDK with the idea that Michael’s detriment of not being able to point things out or do much of anything with his invisible arms (while slowly dying due to his new powers in the process), and this issue places Michael in a much more horrifying predicament than TDK ever was by a long shot.
So while TDK still has some disgustingly horrific powers being able to pop his limbs off of his body whenever he so chooses, Michael’s invisible arms power takes this idea to the next terrifying level. The Suicide Squad still has a ways to go before the end of this limited series, so Nathan Fillion’s TDK stand-in better hope he gets a more competent boost in his abilities sooner rather than later.