La Ron S. Readus
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DC Comics' Corto Maltese EXPLAINED! (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-08-09 20:01:01 +0000 UTCReaders, I apologize if this video isn’t as analytical as my other ones.
Usually when a new movie comes out that I show interest in, I have a thought about it that spirals into analogy, allegory, and aptitude.
Either that, or my theory brain decides to start working if I’m watching a movie or a television show that’s part of a larger franchise that I follow.
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, because of its loose affiliation with the DCEU and me knowing how character driven his work can be from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, had the potential for all of that.
But when I watched The Suicide Squad. And while I ABSOLUTELY loved the movie, I am either pleased or regret to inform you -- I’m personally leaning more toward the former because it's been a minute since I’ve been able to enjoy a movie just for what it is -- that this movie did not cause me to compare its themes and plot beats to modern-day problems
Now is that to say I don’t have any critiques about the film? Absolutely not.
As much as I loved Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, there were moments where I felt like his character was originally conceived to be Will Smith’s Deadshot but they couldn’t get him because of scheduling. Thus making his development arc outside of his relationship with Ratcatcher 2 a tad bit lackluster.
To avoid spoilers, I feel that certain things that happened to Rick Flagg SHOULDN’T have happened to Rick Flagg and that the events that resulted in certain decision-making processes of his should’ve been shown on camera and be more fleshed out.
And, both surprisingly and UNSURPRISINGLY, there was VERY little for me to theorize regarding the stance of The Suicide Squad in the current state of the DCEU.
Surprisingly because there’s CLEARLY a connection between this film and the Frankenstein cut we saw of David Ayer’s original movie in 2016. There’s returning characters played by the same performers, character relationships and dynamics that survived between the films, and knowledge of events in other films that’ve happened in the DCEU timeline SINCE the first movie that play a role in certain characters’ development. (Bloodsport shot Superman with a Kryptonite bullet).
On the other hand, it’s also unsurprising, because Warner Brothers and more specifically DC Films has stated that they’re keeping the continuity of their films pretty loose if they’re not direct sequels from Aquaman onward. And you could definitely see that in how they handled Wonder Woman 1984. Despite your opinions about the movie.
However, despite The Suicide Squad following the same protocols, there was one thing I noticed about the movie that I’ve been consciously aware of thanks to its overall presence in a lot of DC related media since the 80’s
And that’s the very location of Task Force X’s main objective; Corto Maltese.
Now I’m not gonna lie; I thought there was a hidden meaning or theory that was foreshadowing future events happening in the DCEU because of the fact that this location is so prominent in the history of DC Comics.
But as I continued to watch the movie, I realized that there’s no other function Corto Maltese serves outside of just being the location Task Force X has to go to in order to deal with Project Starfish and how its civil war may impact them accomplishing their mission.
And I realized that if I thought there was more to Corto Maltese, then it’s absolutely possible that OTHER people might think there’s more to Corto Maltese.
So here is the history -- and as a result, DC Comics’ general PURPOSE -- of Corto Maltese
So Corto Maltese was a creation originally concocted by Frank Miller in his famous story Batman: The Dark Knight Returns; one of two of the ONLY Batman books he wrote that are actually worth reading.
Named after a comic book character created by Hugo Pratt, Corto Maltese is originally depicted in The Dark Knight Returns as a South American nation allied with the United States at war with itself.
/In The Dark Knight Returns, it's used as a backdrop to show off how Superman has chosen to ally himself with the US government in order to set up his conflict with Batman later on in the book, because Frank Miller hates Superman./
Now because this story was written in the mid-80’s the conflict the Maltesians are in involve the Soviet Union, who send off a nuclear warhead to deal with Superman.
/Which, if you’ve seen the animated movie based on the book, is why it takes a field of Sunflowers for Superman to recover from the hit. And, being a fan of the book, Zack Snyder paid homage to this imagery in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, when he suffered the effects of the nuke the US Government launched in Superman’s attempt to get Doomsday off-world./
But despite the constant references to the book in modern-day, the Dark Knight Returns doesn’t take place on Earth One; the main earth that the majority of DC’s canonical stories take place on. The island of Corto Maltese wasn’t made canon in actual Earth One DC lore until 1990 in issue 4 of Time Masters, with the next time it was referenced being 4 years later in issue 31 of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.
But as all of us Millennials and those who’ve seen the Burton films know, we’ve seen Corto Maltese in a DC production a year sooner than it was made canon in DC’s mainline comic stories.
Taking elements from The Dark Knight Returns to place in the narrative thanks to its popularity, Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 is how a LOT of us know about the significance of Corto Maltese if they never read Frank Miller’s book.
/In the movie, famed photojournalist and AVID screamer Vicki Vale took pictures of the revolution that happened on the island nation of Corto Maltese and having them displayed in an issue of Time Magazine, only to arrive to Gotham in order to try and gain even MORE notoriety by being the first to snap pictures of Batman./ (That’s a lot tamer than Corto Maltese, isn’t it?)
Ever since then, We’ve seen Corto Maltese come up in plenty of DC properties; comics AND film.
It was referenced in a Superman one-shot published in 1994 called Superman: Under A Yellow Sun
Was a location in the Smallville webcomic called Justice & Doom
And it was constantly in the Rebirth issues of The Flash starting with the second half of the Rogues Reloaded arc
/It even showed up in the CWverse -- specifically the third episode of Arrow Season 3 -- when Oliver finds out that his sister isn’t in Italy like he originally assumed, but in Corto Maltese/(What’s with your family and islands?)
The thing about it is that every time Corto Maltese is depicted in either film or comics featuring DC characters, the nation is always in the midst of a civil war with its currently elected officials. More than likely so that they won’t have to upset ACTUAL nations that may either be recuperating from or are currently going through one themselves.
However, The Suicide Squad takes advantage of that little-to-obviously known fact about DC’s use of the fictional nation.
It pulls an Avengers: Age of Ultron by having the constant conflict of the government and its rebelling forces be the perfect cover for the underlying yet extremely dangerous and terrifying threat that Project Starfish ends up becoming, threatening the lives of everyone that lives there.
Basically, it’s like I tweeted out the day of The Suicide Suad’s release: /Corto Maltese is to DC Films as Sokovia is to Marvel Studios/
So thanks to Frank Miller, whenever DC needs a nondescript nation at war with itself -- whether it’s a Civil War or a display of enemy power -- Corto Maltese will more than likely be there to pick up the slack.
And thankfully, we had James Gunn to make the location not only work, but make logical sense.
Once again, I’m sorry if you expected me to think up a philosophical analysis of The Suicide Squad
This is just one of those movies where whatever meaning that IS present in it, is blatantly obvious and is otherwise just a fun watch
And I’m not gonna lie; it feels nice to finally know what that feels like. However, I’m glad that I was at least able to teach those of you who didn’t know this aspect of DC lore a thing or two
So with that being said Readers, YOUR homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what you thought of The Suicide Squad if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class if there’s any real life allegory or analogy you can associate with the movie that I clearly missed because I was enjoying Harley Quinn’s gun fight scene too much.
God, I love Post-Joker Harley; she’s so great!
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts
