Suicide Squad Isekai Is the Best and Worst Thing That Could Happen To DC's Most Controversial Team

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Suicide Squad Isekai episode 3!!

So far, the outcome that Wit Studio has achieved with Suicide Squad Isekai by temporarily bringing DC‘s villainous team into the anime industry’s most oversaturated genre has been both the best and worst thing that could ever happen to the infamous characters. The things that work include the staple “cheat skills” or godlike abilities that the protagonists usually receive once they get transported into another world. What detracts from the whole experience, ironically, is how the Suicide Squad’s forced relocation has displaced what makes them special.

Whether viewers are streaming the show on Hulu or Max, the first three episodes of Suicide Squad Isekai reveal that the titular team have experienced a boost in powers, like most isekai heroes. While a major aspect of the genre, the difference is that not only did these characters have powers before, but viewers have unprecedented knowledge of who they were before the isekai part of the story began, which adds more context and likability to their situation.

As such, the power boosts have simultaneously received the anime treatment in that they complement their original abilities. It’s also assumed that those who aren’t meta-human will have received powers that serve as an extension of their personality.

Harley Quinn’s Superpower Is Still Unexplained, But The Rest Are Amazing

Suicide Squad Isekai is produced by Wit Studio and is streaming on Hulu and Max

So far, only two of these upgrades have been explored in some detail. For Clayface, the restriction that limited him to only being able to manipulate his own clay now extends to clay that he doesn’t produce, transforming him into a far more powerful character, and in a way that makes sense. Ratcatcher, although a member of an earlier Suicide Squad, can now control werewolves in addition to rats. Ratcatcher’s power boost is especially exciting since it allows him to fulfill his current status as the Suicide Squad’s first boss, while explaining the influence he has managed to garner over Harley and company’s first wave of minions.

Meanwhile, the most important power-up, which is partly because of its association with the highly popular Harley Quinn, has yet to be explained. Her abilities look like a normal physical enhancement, a problem that the anime will hopefully rectify by making it much more complex and intertwined with her character, like the best types of anime powers. In that same vein, the other downside of Suicide Squad Isekai that has yet to be justified is how the bombs in the group’s necks have been affected.

There Are Still Neck Bombs, But They’re Not As Exciting

While the series keeps a common Suicide Squad trope, it feels underwhelming despite the anime’s other eccentricities

The most defining aspect of Suicide Squad has always been the control that Amanda Waller exerts through these explosive devices, which she tracks 24/7. In Suicide Squad Isekai, she has partly lost that hold over them. In effect, what remains is a ticking time bomb. Harley and company are out of range of a tracker that, should they fail to return in 60 hours, will cause the bombs in their necks to detonate.

While there is still the threat of getting their heads blown off their shoulders, it’s a more diluted and less exciting version of being constantly surveilled and feeling like they must always be in compliance. Luckily, this twist does feel natural, since the act of being physically transported to a different world would logically separate them from where they need to be – and their main appeal – but that immediacy is now gone.

The irony is that Harley and company are still acting as though the bombs in their necks could explode at any moment. In addition to the 60-hour timer, the anime has partly justified this with the additional threat of Waller’s Rick Flag being in danger. However, it would have made more sense if the Suicide Squad broke up as a result of this, since they have more than two days of freedom and would have done anything to be free. Incidentally, this turn of events would also have increased the anticipation of the 60-hour deadline, since it’s naturally more difficult to fulfill a mission in another world with fewer team members.

What About the Speed Force?

Where exactly is this “new world” the characters have landed in in conjunction with the greater DC multiverse?

Of course, this can and hopefully still will happen. However, it should have already taken place by now, and the longer it doesn’t, the less convincing and urgent the situation feels. Suicide Squad Isekai has gifted viewers with an epic scene of Harley and company taking advantage of a prison they overthrow after being temporarily incarcerated there.

Similarly, Suicide Squad Isekai will hopefully reveal that the world Harley and company were transported to is still within the DC multiverse because of Clayface’s augmented powers. Although DC changes constantly, it is always a given that every iteration of the multiverse has a Speed Force, which serves as the basis of every meta-human’s powers.

It is generally understood that if a DC hero leaves the multiverse, they will no longer have any powers. So, if Clayface’s powers are still in effect, though augmented, that must mean that he and his colleagues are still within the DC universe, as opposed to a completely new world, as is the case with most isekai. Hopefully, Wit Studio’s Suicide Squad Isekai will explain this, just like all the other problems with this still very entertaining series.