There are certain things to expect when you sit down to watch a James Gunn film. There are perfectly placed needle drops. There’s a sense of humor that swings from wildly juvenile to genuinely clever. There’s a CGI and/or animal character that the audience will fall in love with. And you can almost always expect Nathan Fillion, Jennifer Holland, Sean Gunn and Michael Rooker to show up in some capacity. But the trope that best defines Gunn’s filmography is that of “found family” – where a group of characters who couldn’t have less in common band together for a common cause, forming a familial bond along the way. This trope has previously appeared in all three Guardians of the Galaxy films. The Suicide Squad takes a new approach to this, exploring the fractured or toxic relationships between each member of Task Force X and their families and how the bonds they form with each other help them deal with their respective traumas.
What are some books or comics that remind you of a James Gunn movie?
Books that have dark humor, emotional moments, action, and a ton of heart. Akin to what he’s done with the Guardians of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad, Brightburn, Peacemaker, and which will no doubt be in his upcoming Creature Commandos and Superman projects for James Gunn. But also movies like Scooby Doo, Slither, The Belko Experiment, and Super.
I am interested to know what type of books have that feel. Whether it’s a superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, war, action. Let me know in the comments below.
by New_Faithlessness980
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***We3 by Grant Morrison***
It’s basically *Terminator* meets *Homeward Bound*. The story follows three animals who have been transformed into cybernetic weapons of war against their will. There’s 1 (Bandit, a dog), 2 (Tinker, a cat), and 3 (Pirate, a bunny rabbit). When a senator visits the illicit research facility and orders that the trio be “decommissioned,” they escape in an attempt to find a home where they can be safe, all with the military hunting them down.
*We3*’s influence is all over *Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3*. That’s not a surprise, given that Gunn has never been shy about his love for the comic, which was published by Vertigo, a now-shuttered arm of DC Comics, Gunn’s new employer.
The fact Gunn would fall so hard for We3 makes sense. The comic is agonizingly emotional to the point of being almost manipulative, not unlike some of Gunn’s emotional and earnest climaxes, including in the *Guardians* films (see: Groot’s self-sacrifice and Yondu’s funeral). It is also, thanks to Quitely’s stellar art, extremely violent — the opening scene is a graphic close-up of bullets exploding through an assassination target’s skull. Many of Gunn’s movies share a taste for violence, too. You see it in *Slither*, *Super*, and especially in his early Troma work, but there are glimpses of it in Vol. 3, too, with its body horror and an entire base made out of … flesh, similar to *The Suicide Squad* and *Peacemaker*. This combination of heart-wrenching and heart-splattering is foundational to Gunn’s filmmaking.
If you’re a fan of James Gunn, HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SCI-FI MASTERPIECE