15 Best Fighters In The Suicide Squad, Ranked

Amanda Waller often claims she wants the ‘best of the worst’ for her Suicide Squad. But, sometimes, what constitutes ‘the best’ can be fairly liberal, as she employs lackluster villains like Clock King and Film Freak in her team. But there are still those who are the cream of the crop, some of the greatest fighters in the entire DC Universe.

The Suicide Squad is filled with premier combat experts who are incredibly impressive fighters. It is important to say that, for many of these characters, the difference in rank is marginal, and realistically, many of the characters featured could likely beat the person two ranks above them under the right conditions.

15 Cavalier (Hudson Pyle)

Cavalier Rivaled The Skills Of An Early Batman

While he is often dismissed as a gag villain, the Cavalier is an incredibly underappreciated fighter. Although his time as an actual Suicide Squad member was extremely brief –dying after only one issue– Cavalier’s feats outside of the team show his capabilities to be quite exceptional.

In the 1992 storyline Batman: Blades, Cavalier’s athleticism saw him capable of dodging gunshots and engaging in prolonged duels across rooftops and platforms. But most impressive was Cavalier’s ability to push Batman to the brink in a rapier duel, which saw them fighting from night until dawn. While Batman was only roughly in his second year of crime-fighting during this battle, it showed the Cavalier has a greater combative prowess than many other ‘serious’ villains. But still, it is evident that, over the years, Batman has come to dwarf Cavalier’s skills later in his career.

14 Black Siren (Dinah Lance)

Black Siren Is Theoretically On Par With Black Canary – But She Hasn’t Shown It Yet

A resident of Earth-3, Black Siren is the evil variant of the Justice Leaguer, Black Canary. As such, she is meant to be the superheroine’s perfect doppelgänger in all aspects save for morality. Black Siren has shown that she is a far greater combatant than any amateur supercriminal thanks to her battling the Hordes of Hell alongside the Suicide Squad, fighting Earth-8’s Oedipus in hand-to-hand combat for a prolonged period and being able to dodge the turret fire of Owlman’s Owlwing Jet.

However, for just as many impressive showings Black Siren has, she has not proven that she is truly as remarkable as Black Canary. In fact, in many cases, she’s shown to be just a little bit worse; this is evident throughout Robbie Thompson’s 2021 Suicide Squad run, which had Black Siren incapacitated numerous times by characters that her benevolent counterpart would have floored. With that said, Black Siren remains an impressive fighter and worth the trouble Amanda Waller had in abducting her from Earth-3.

13 Harley Quinn (Harleen Quinzel)

Harley Has Been Able To Perform Some Bizarrely Amazing Combative Feats

Trying to deduce where Harley Quinn ranks as a combative fighter is extremely difficult, given how juxtaposed her feats have been over her thirty-year history. Sometimes, she is depicted as a bumbling amateur who is little more than a nuisance to the person she’s fighting; other times, Harley has managed to best high-level opponents and perform feats of strength and agility that border on cartoonishly impossible.

When examining her feats in comic stories that are meant to be more grounded, she’s beaten characters such as the Clownhunter, Killer Croc, Rick Flagg, Catwoman, Nightwing, a venom-boosted Joker’s Daughter and –on a few occasions– Batman himself. While beating these characters doesn’t by any means make her a better fighter than them, it does go to show that Harley is still very impressive. If one were to take her feats in more cartoonish comic book storylines, such as Harley Quinn And Power Girl, Harley Quinn’s Little Black Book and Harley Screws Up The DCU, Harley could probably be ranked at the top due to the sheer bizarreness of what she could pull off in those comics.

12 Peacemaker (Christopher Smith)

Peacemaker Is A Supreme Athlete Who Can Match Most Metahumans

While his appearance within the DCEU would give some the impression that Peacemaker is an egotistical blowhard firmly placed in an amateur status compared to other characters, his comic book counterpart is anything but that. As the greatest success of Project: Peacemaker, he is capable of standing alongside Justice League-level heroes by battling legions of Shadow Demons in Crisis on Infinite Earths for possible days and assisting the third Blue Beetle, Jamie Reyes, countless times in battling the extraterrestrial Reach, with nothing but his strength –and trusty firearms– to do so.

More recently, he showed he could incapacitate the daughter of Lobo, Crush, in Tim Serhidan’s Teen Titans Academy series. He managed to physically overpower Swamp Thing for a time during Ram V’s Swamp Thing run. He also proved capable of tackling and trading blows with the Amazonians, Nubia and Faruka II during 2023’s Amazons Attack. While it’s likely that in most of these examples, the opponents would eventually be able to get the upper hand against Peacemaker if their fights were prolonged, the fact that Peacemaker, a powerless human, was capable of holding his own at all shows that he is a truly amazing combatant.

11 Black Manta (David Hyde)

Black Manta Is A Merciless Killing Machine

Black Manta is a man of incredible resilience. His high-tech power suit has provided him an edge against most of his opponents, it is only through his skill as a fighter that he has persevered to become Aquaman’s greatest foe. On his own, Black Manta has fought and bested nearly every member of the Aquaman Family, with most of them either coming from a warrior background or having been trained by premier Atlantean fighters. This on its own makes Black Manta’s ability to best them –while wearing a massive balance-impairing dome– a feat of immense martial prowess, regardless of his strength-enhancing suit.

While on the Suicide Squad, he fought Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Harley Quinn at the same time, as well as obliterated hundreds of members of the League of Assassins’ Turkish Chapter without his armor. On top of that, Black Manta has stood alongside the powerhouses of the Legion of Doom, which has put him on the front lines of some of the biggest metahuman fights ever. Yet, as one of the few powerless members of the team, he has become recognized as one of its heavy hitters.

10 Savant (Brian Durlin)

Savant Rivaled Every Martial Artist In The 2000’s Birds of Prey

While he was killed off almost immediately in his live-action debut in 2021’s The Suicide Squad, Savant’s comic book incarnation is not a man to be taken lightly. When he first appeared on the scene as a self-proclaimed Gotham City crime-fighter, he quickly gained enough of a reputation with his vigilante skills to warrant Batman’s attention. The Dark Knight wanted to stop Savant because he believed that, while he was incredibly capable, he clearly lacked care for civilian lives.

Later on, Savant became an enemy of the Birds of Prey, wherein he immediately showed himself to be a force to be reckoned with by humiliating Black Canary in a one-on-one fight and fighting Huntress to a draw. By the end of these fights, Black Canary concluded that Savant might be on par with Batman and Green Arrow. Even while bound and freshly tortured by the supervillain, Hellhound, Savant was able to knock his captor out. When he finally did join the Suicide Squad during its New 52 run, Savant was able to bludgeon Harley Quinn after she ambushed him, with the latter only surviving by tricking Savant into stepping on a carefully placed landmine so that he could not pursue her.

9 Talon (William Cobb)

Talon Is One Of The Court Of Owls Greatest Warriors

Trained from a young age by the Court of Owls in the early 20th Century, William Cobb quickly became a remorselessly efficient assassin. When he first battled with Batman one hundred years after training, the Talon pushed the Dark Knight to his limits, nearly killing the superhero. Afterward, Talon engaged in a lengthy martial artist battle with his descendant, Nightwing, wherein they were considered to be perfectly evenly matched, save for Talon’s higher constitution, which allowed him to best the former Robin.

During Arkham War, a tie-in miniseries for the 2014 Forever Evil crossover event, Talon assisted Bane in his mad quest of pacifying the numerous supercriminals in Gotham, managing not only an impressive amount of Batman’s rogue’s gallery but dozens of other Talon Assassins. When Talon joined the Suicide Squad, he fought off several dozen security guards, successfully landed blows on the speedster known as Bolt, and pierced the flesh of Earth-8’s nigh-invulnerable Behemoth. Perhaps his most impressive feat was during War For Earth-3, wherein Talon defeated Owlman (an evil alternate version of Batman from Earth-3) in a one-on-one fight. Amanda Waller intended for Talon to replace Owlman on the Crime Syndicate, believing that Talon had the skills to usurp him.

8 Black Spider (Eric Needham)

Black Spider Has The Potential To Be On Batman’s Level – But His Anger Always Stunts Him

When Black Spider first debuted in the Bronze Age of Comics, he quickly established himself as an extremely fearsome martial artist, with his first few stories having him either rival Batman as a fighter or even outright beat the Caped Crusader. On top of that, he was fast enough to avoid automated weapon fire, skilled enough to kill dozens of Basilisk mercenaries, and proved himself capable of taking on every member of the New 52’s Suicide Squad. Black Spider was so adept in his abilities that he earned the respect of Deathstroke, who gave him a position in the Secret Society of Villains and subsequently had him protected after he was forced to battle dozens of League of Shadow assassins in 2022’s Shadow War event.

However, he does have one damning weakness that prevents him from ranking higher. His emotions often impede his fighting abilities. This was true when he attempted to assassinate Amanda Waller in Adam Glass’ Suicide Squad. While this version of Amanda Waller was a highly skilled ex-Team 7 operative, Black Spider could have killed her easily if she hadn’t lured him into a false sense of security. Furthermore, in Tom King’s The Penguin, he lost to both Aiden Cobblepot and Batman because he was, in both instances, under emotional stress. Black Spider is an incredibly skilled warrior and should be one of DC Comics’ best, but he’s proven that his emotions limit him from achieving that status.

7 Red Hood (Jason Todd)

As A Member Of The Bat Family And The Outlaws, Red Hood Is One Of The Best Fighters In Gotham

The Red Hood has an extremely impressive history within the DC Universe, starting as Batman’s spirited crime-fighting sidekick, Robin, to one of the most dangerous anti-heroes in Gotham City. When he first took on the Red Hood mantle in Judd Winick’s Batman: Under the Red Hood storyline, Red Hood beat the notorious ex-assassin, Onyx Adams, before showing himself capable of beating Batman. Unlike the characters who proceed him on this list, this is a feat Red Hood has been capable of repeating many times, showing that he is much closer to Batman’s level than the others.

Other incredibly impressive feats of martial prowess include battling numerous lower-tier Talons, successfully challenging Ra’s al Ghul in a sword duel, and beating Damian Wayne to a pulp. When he became the leader of the Suicide Squad’s sub-group, Task Force Z, Red Hood was forced to become a one-man army. While working for the squad, he battled numerous zombified supervillains, Nightwing, Robin, Spoiler, Cassandra Cain, and Mister Bloom, while the villain wore a high-tech batsuit. Except for Cassandra, he was able to beat all of these threats effectively on his own.

6 Catwoman (Selina Kyle)

Catwoman Is A Gymnastics Master And The Greatest Non-Superpowered Thief In DC Comics

While Catwoman has a significantly more humble profession than the rest of the candidates, being one thief in a sea of assassins and supervillains, that shouldn’t speak to her abilities as a fighter; in fact, she is arguably one of the premier athletic combatants in all of Gotham. As a criminal, she has consistently gone up against nearly every member of the Bat Family. She has proven capable of holding her own against them, often beating or at least out-maneuvering them, even when they’re at the peak of their form.

Beyond the Bat Family, Catwoman has trained under legendary martial artists such as Wildcat and Richard Dragon, gaining their respect as they considered her a great pupil. She has also shown enough dexterity to successfully punch Flash in Tom King’s Batman run and avoid punches from Black Adam in Tini Howard’s Catwoman run. The former comic book run also had Catwoman play a pivotal part in defeating Bane alongside other notable fighters such as Cavalier, King Snake, and Copperhead. Meanwhile, the latter comic run had Catwoman beating expert-level combatants such as Scandal Savage, Valmont, Punchline, and Onyx Adams.

5 Cheetah (Barbara Minerva)

Cheetah Is The Queen Of The Hunt And One Of Wonder Woman’s Greatest Foes

While she came from a humble background as a research assistant trotting through South African jungles, Cheetah became one of the greatest fighters in the DC Universe after she was infused with the hunting characteristics of a cheetah by the god Urzkartaga. With her enhanced dexterity and reflexes, Cheetah is fast enough to consistently keep up with Superman and The Flash and prove capable enough of fighting and beating Batman and Wonder Woman in hand-to-hand combat. The latter of whom Cheetah has had numerous instances of beating through martial prowess alone. However, the former has only been depicted losing once during 2012’s Justice League: The Secrets of The Cheetah.

Beyond her encounters with Justice Leaguers, she has successfully killed the Amazonian Warrior Queen, Anahid of Bana-Mighdall, and severely wounded the legendary Amazonian Stratagos, Philippus of Themyscira. She has also butchered scores of assassins from the elite Fist of Cain group. However, in some inconsistent showings, she has been shown being overwhelmed in one-to-one fights with Rose Tattoo and Steve Trevor during the New 52; however, given the immense nature of her more consistent feats, these losses are more outliers in the face of an overall prodigious career as a warrior, making her one of the best fighters the Suicide Squad have had in their roster.

4 Bane

Bane May Be Bulky, But He Can Just About Kill Every Member of the Bat Family

Bane has made a significant reputation within the DC Universe for his fighting prowess. In Batman: Knightfall, he famously broke Batman’s back, yet this feat is arguably one of his lesser showings of strength, as he was amped with Venom, and Batman was extremely fatigued then. But Bane has repeatedly proven that this fight was no fluke, as he has pushed Batman beyond his physical limit countless times, both with and without Venom. Throughout Tom King’s Batman run, he humiliated Batman in tests of physical strength, often forcing him to call for backup to bring down the behemoth or employ excessive gadgetry to hold his own.

Bane’s proficiency as a warrior was so great that he became Ra’s al Ghul’s bodyguard and effectively the second-in-command of the League of Assassins during Batman: Legacy. Bane has shown that he can outright bulldoze almost every other member of the Bat Family, such as the genetically enhanced Azrael in Azrael: Angel and the Bane, or Nightwing, Red Hood, and Damian Wayne in Batman: I Am Bane. He has also successfully defeated most members of the Secret Six, physically overpowered Killer Croc without Venom, killed dozens of Talons and League of Assassin-trained Man-Bats, and, in the Arkham War miniseries, he almost single-handedly pacified every major supervillain in Gotham City while masquerading as Batman.

3 Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro)

Katana’s Skills As A Warrior Are Without Question

Katana’s skills as a warrior are quite simply incredible. She has successfully defeated top-tier fighters and metahumans, such as Rustam, Geo-Force, Looker, Wylde, Major Victory, Battleaxe and Red Hood, as well as numerous O.M.A.C androids, League of Assassin members and Demon Warriors. On top of that, she faced the demon, Beelzebub, in Judd Winick’s Outsiders. She successfully evaded and countered the demon lord to force him to use mind control to take over Katana’s body instead of just using his powers to kill her. Katana also caught Deathstroke off-guard with her dexterity and engaged in a brief clash wherein the two fought on an even footing. Had the fight continued, Deathstroke likely would have gained an upper hand, but simply being able to fight on par with Deathstroke, just for a moment, is a rare feat in the DC Universe.

In storylines such as ‘Memory Lane’ (by Che Grayson, Sergio Acuña and Ivan Plascencia) or Bryan Hill’s Birds of Prey, Katana has shown herself to rival Lady Shiva regarding martial prowess. While Lady Shiva is still superior, the fact that Katana could push Shiva to her back foot and successfully place her blade against her opponent’s neck is nothing short of extraordinary, given that Shiva regularly bulldozes the likes of Batman and Catwoman with little difficulty. She has also been shown engaging in lengthy duels with Ra’s al Ghul, managing to last significantly longer than Bane did when he attempted such in Batman: Bane of the Demon.

2 Bronze Tiger (Benjamin Turner)

Bronze Tiger Is Definitively Known As One Of The Greatest Martial Artists In All Of DC Comics

Starting as the archrival of martial arts master Richard Dragon, the Bronze Tiger quickly established himself as an incredibly skilled fighter within the DC Universe. As the rival of Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger has occasionally been able to one-up the martial artist master and is considered his near-perfect equal overall. The sheer immensity of his abilities is put on display by how he has defeated the likes of Batman, Batwoman, Catman, Enchantress, Red Tornado, Major Victory, Ravan, Black Canary, and Catwoman, as well as numerous members of the League of Assassins.

Even Lady Shiva herself has credited Bronze Tiger as ‘the best,’ which, given her skills as a fighter and occasional egotistical spurs, is a heavy compliment. Bronze Tiger was even selected to train Shiva’s daughter, Cassandra Cain, who is regarded as the greatest martial artist the Bat Family has ever seen and one of the few people who can best Shiva. But perhaps his most impressive feat was in Marv Wolfman’s Deathstroke: The Hunted, wherein Bronze Tiger not only engaged Deathstroke on equal footing in a lengthy fight, but he gained the upper hand for a good part of the fight; sadly, Deadshot intervened and shot Deathstroke before a true victor could be determined, but Bronze Tiger still gave Deathstroke the toughest fight out of any of the Suicide Squad’s fighters.

1 Deathstroke (Slade Wilson)

To Fight Deathstroke Is An Act Of Suicide

Deathstroke’s reputation proceeds him. Even casual DC Comics fans know how dangerous he is as a warrior. His successes go beyond facing other martial artists –although he has defeated such greats as Batman, Nightwing, Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul, Black Manta, Odysseus, Ra’s al Ghul, Green Arrow, Silencer, Arsenal and Azrael, to name a few– but he has regularly defeated members of both the Justice League and Teen Titans, including some of the strongest metahumans and magic users the teams have to offer.

In Identity Crisis alone, Deathstroke stabbed the Flash, incapacitated Hawkman, Black Canary, and Elongated Man, knocked out the Atom, and broke Green Lantern’s hand before he could summon a construct with his power ring. In Deathstroke: Godkiller, Deathstroke took things further by killing the gods themselves, battling the mad titan Lapetus and slaying him. In Dark Crisis, Deathstroke also became a conqueror, besieging the entire planet and battling against dozens upon dozens of superheroes, who he either slayed or overpowered. It’s no wonder why Amanda Waller desperately wanted Deathstroke for the Suicide Squad in 2014’s New Suicide Squad, but it’s also not surprising that he was able to escape the team in less than three issues.