Warning: SPOILERS for The Suicide Squad.
The Suicide Squad invades Corto Maltese in James Gunn's DC supervillain team-up movie but the South American nation has a storied DC Comics history and has made many appearances in other movies and TV series. Originally seen in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, Corto Maltese is named for the comic book character created by Hugo Pratt in 1967.
In The Dark Knight Returns' third chapter, "Hunt The Dark Knight," President Ronald Reagan sends Superman to the U.S.-backed Latin American nation to stop a rebel uprising. This would set the tone for Corto Maltese going forward as the country is constantly undergoing some sort of revolution each time it appears in DC media. The DC Universe has many fake locations, like Gotham, Metropolis, and Central City, and countries like Markova in Eastern Europe, and Qurac and Bialya in the Middle East. Corto Maltese has been the DCU's go-to choice whenever a trouble-causing South American country is needed as the location for a superhero story.
Outside of recurring in the pages of DC Comics, Corto Maltese has also been depicted several times in DC's animated series and movies as well. Although the war-torn South American country has been referenced by and served as the backdrop for live-action DC TV series, The Suicide Squad is the first time an entire live-action DC feature film has been set in Corto Maltese.
Tim Burton's Batman in 1989 marked the feature film debut of Corto Maltese. Photojournalist Vicki Vale's (Kim Basinger) coverage of the countries violent revolution made the cover of Time Magazine. Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) teased Vicki that coming to Gotham City to capture proof that the Batman exists is "a little light" after covering a South American war zone.
Corto Maltese was name-dropped in Smallville season 6. Clark Kent (Tom Welling) was recruited by the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) to join Cyborg (Lee T. Young), Impulse (Kyle Gallner), and Aquaman (Alan Ritchson). The ersatz Justice League planned to invade one of Lex Luthor's (Michael Rosenbaum) labs targeting metahumans in Corto Maltese.
Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) visited the South American nation in the Arrow season 3 episode "Corto Maltese" on a mission for A.R.G.U.S. and to bring his sister, Thea Queen AKA Speedy (Willa Holland), back home to Starling City. Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) also had a mercenary history in Corto Maltese, which is mentioned several times throughout Arrow's 8 seasons.
Although Titans has yet to visit Corto Maltese, in the season 2 episode "Fallen", Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) is incarcerated and he shares a cell with three inmates who are immigrants from Corto Maltese. They tell Grayson that they plan to escape prison.
The Suicide Squad is the most expansive depiction of Corto Maltese and it's the first time multiple supervillains like Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Javelin (Flula Borg), and T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion) are killed on Corto Maltese soil. In addition, Col. Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) also dies in Corto Maltese at the hands of Peacemaker (John Cena). Meanwhile, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) assassinates the President of Corto Maltese, Sylvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto), who intended to marry Harley to make war on the United States, and a civilian rebellion stages a successful coup of the government.
Of course, the Suicide Squad invaded Corto Maltese because of Project Starfish, a 30-year-long series of experiments on Starro the Conqueror headed up by The Thinker (Peter Capaldi) that was secretly financed by the United States. Starro was held in an old Nazi facility dubbed Jotunheim outside the capital city. When Starro broke free and attempted to conquer Corto Maltese, The Suicide Squad members Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) killed the kaiju starfish and saved the South American nation.
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