Corto Maltese
Corto Maltese, a fictional island nation created in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, is one of a handful of “stand-in” countries in the DC Universe, filling in story roles without alienating anybody who comes from a real country that they otherwise might have used in the role.
It isn’t a major setting; it’s mostly referenced more than seen, and that has been true in the Arrowverse, too.
Corto Maltese is named for an Italian comics character created by Hugo Pratt.
Jotunheim
In the comics, Jotunheim is in Qurac, another of DC’s fictional countries (and one that gets name-dropped in the episode as the place where Rick Flag and Bloodsport served together). As in the movie, it was built by the Germans during World War II, and got wrapped up in a Suicide Squad mission that involved a local coup.
The name “Jotunheim” is a reference to the “Land of the Giants” in Norse mythology, and they claimed only a race of giants could have built it.
John Economos
Originally created by legendary Suicide Squad scribe John Ostrander along with artist Luke McDonnell, John Economos (Steve Agee’s bearded ARGUS agent in the control room) is the warden of Belle Reve in the comics, and so ends up working with Waller there, too.
Calendar Man
There were a few villains in the background of Belle Reve who were recognizable enough to be worth calling out here. One of them was Calendar Man, the villain of Batman: The Long Halloween (the second half of which will be available as an animated movie on Tuesday starring Jensen Ackles as Batman and The Suicide Squad‘s David Dastmalchian as Calendar Man.
If you missed him, he was played by James Gunn’s brother and Gilmore Girls star Sean Gunn.
Double Down
Double Down, a relatively obscure villain from the DC pantheon, is a disfigured villain whose body was fused with a deck of magical cards. You might remember him from the Arrowverse, where he was played by Josie and the Pussycats veteran JR Bourne.
Jared Leland Gore, the actor who plays Double Down in The Suicide Squad, apparently also had a role as a stand-in for one of the actors on Black Adam.
Crazy Quilt
The last of the background villains that stuck out at us was a woman with mutlicolored skin. We don’t know who the actress is, but if the pattern is to be believed, it appears this is the DC Films version of Crazy Quilt, a name that has a long history.
The version of Crazy Quilt who was a woman, was part of Alexander Luthor’s Secret Society of Super-Villains and later worked with the Secret Six around the same time as King Shark.
John Ostrander
The aforementioned Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander, who helped shape the property and originated the Jotunheim mission story, is actually the sadistic doctor who can be seen placing the bomb in the base of Savant’s neck.
GBS News
This is from the war room, where there’s a news broadcast on in the background from GBS.
As previously seen in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, GBS News is a Metropolis-based news network which has ties to the Daily Planet. It is also the place where Cat Grant and Jimmy Olsen worked in the ’80s, making it kind of the proto-version of CatCo in Supergirl.
Senator Cray
Senator Joseph Cray, the man Amanda Waller is plannng to play golf with, was a recurring character from Suicide Squad #11-22 in the ’80s. He was implicated in a scandal that involved selling state secrets.
His death was particularly Suicide Squad-worthy. Having been tasked with preventing an enraged Rick Flag from killing Cray by any means necessary, Deadshot killed Cray himself rather than killing Flag, reasoning that he had certainly managed to prevent Flag from doing it.
Mafalda
Milton (who?) drives a van that helps get the Squad from place to place in a few scenes (and is even featured on one poster). On his keychain is a small plastic cartoon character who, if you were an American, you might mistake for the character of Nancy.
Instead, this is Mafalda, an Argentinian comic about a six-year-old girl who loves the Beatles, hates soup, and represents the middle class and progressive youth. It was created by beloved cartoonist Quino, who sadly passed away in October.
Pom Klementieff
Pom Klementieff, who played Mantis in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, appears briefly as a dancer in the gentlemen’s club where Task Force X first meet The Thinker.
Fernet
Peacemaker’s drink order actually makes a lot of sense for a South American mission.
Fernet is an Italian type of amaro, a bitter, aromatic spirit that includes herbs and spices with a base of distilled grape spirits.
(We admit freely that we’re getting all of this from Wikipedia.)
Per its Wikipedia entry, “Fernet is usually served as a digestif after a meal but may also be served with coffee and espresso or mixed into coffee and espresso drinks. It typically contains 45% alcohol by volume. It may be served at room temperature or with ice.
“The Italian liqueur has a cult following in the international bartending community and is immensely popular in Argentina. The South American country consumes more than 75% of all Fernet produced globally and because of its popularity, it has Fratelli Branca’s only distillery outside of Italy. As it is traditionally mixed with Coke, Fernet has also contributed in making Argentina one of the biggest consumers of Coca-Cola in the world. Fernet and Coke (Spanish: fernet con coca) is so ubiquitous in Argentina that it has been described as ‘the country’s unofficial drink.'”
Lloyd Kaufman
After a few drinks, as the Squad starts to loosen up, you can see Lloyd Kaufman, legendary schlockmeister behind Troma Films and the first studio executive to give James Gunn a job, making a cameo appearance, dancing slowly with a woman near the bar. You can see him in the photo above, just behind John Cena’s Peacemaker.
Crisp Ratt
And last but not least: Crisp Ratt!
That’s right — one of the two practical trained rats who were used in the movie to play Sebastian, Ratcatcher’s favorite friend, is named Crisp Ratt, after Chris Pratt, star of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
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