At any given moment, Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad is full of villains, criminals, the supernatural, the super-powered, or some just plain crazy killers. DC's Suicide Squad has taken many different forms, with many different members, and so the team assembled in the new Suicide Squad movie is just one variation. For their first outing on the big screen, the Squad is made up of a mix of well-known DC villains — Harley Quinn, The Joker, and Deadshot — and not-so-well-known villains — Boomerang, for instance, or El Diablo. If you've never heard of those last two, especially Diablo, you're not alone, so, to prep for the new movie, you should get to know Diablo's powers in Suicide Squad and learn what the guy is truly capable of doing.
If you're combing Suicide Squad trailers looking for information on Diablo, good luck. The mysterious villain is barely featured in the clips, though his firepower does feature quite heavily. Diablo might not talk much, but his abilities speak for themselves. Or they burn you to a crisp before you have a chance to listen. Diablo, aka Chato Santana, has the ability to control fire, the power of pyrokinesis. Trailers for the movie show him holding what appears to be a bright flame in the palm of his hand, suggesting that Diablo can start a fire out of nothing, and control its intensity (a spark versus a full on stream of flames). Curiously, according to his character trailer, his core temperature is listed as 666 degrees Fahrenheit (hence "El Diablo"), and the extent of his powers is deemed "unknown." Diablo, himself, might not know the true nature of his powers, or how much damage he is capable of.
In the comics, El Diablo is a sensitive gangster, who turned himself in after setting a building on fire to collect a debt, only to find that he killed a woman and child. He might have been a gang boss, but he believes in a strong moral code, and that seemingly includes no killing of innocent bystanders. It's also important to note that his powers of pyrokinesis came to him by chance. After his gang was attacked and shot, he ended up in the hospital with Lazarus Lane, a DC hero who also had the name Diablo, who transferred his powers to Santana before dying.
The Suicide Squad version of El Diablo, Chato Santana, is a relatively new character, and has only appeared in 47 DC issues. The fire that cost him his freedom was the first time he exercised his new power. His pyrokinesis has only been vaguely defined, though it is believed that his abilities are loosely tied to the tattoos that cover his body. As a result of his relative anonymity, coupled with the untested nature of his powers makes El Diablo one of the more malleable character in the Suicide Squad movie. It's something that actor Jay Hernandez appreciated about the role. "As a lesser known member of the squad, there wasn't as much anticipation and there wasn't people saying, 'You're veering off doctrine.' There's a certain level of freedom that I thought was great," he told Coming Soon .
Here's hoping El Diablo lives through Suicide Squad so we can learn more about this mysteriously hot villain.
Images: Warner Brothers
