Pictured above is a new image from Suicide Squad, with the movie's leading players in a striking pose. The front row features Harley Quinn (portrayed by Margot Robbie), Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney); in the back are Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) and Deadshot (Will Smith).

"We all need good guys and everything -- yay, good guys -- but at the end of the day, they’re kinda boring,” Suicide Squad director David Ayer told USA Today. “They’re always going to do the right thing. When you’re dealing with the baddies, it’s easy to get ahead of the audience and invert expectations.”

Due in theaters on August 5, Suicide Squad will be the second adaptation from the DC Comics universe to be hitting big screens this year, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which will open on March 25. As with other upcoming movies in the expanded universe, Suicide Squad will feature characters introduced in earlier titles; in this case, Batman (Ben Affleck) will be making an appearance. "It felt like I have such a cool cousin," he said. "This thing that is so awesome is somehow related to me, and that was really exciting because it started to feel like a constellation of things, and I’ve never had that feeling.”

Speaking of Batman and Superman, two new TV spots have debuted that perform the neat trick of communicating a very dark vibe in the movie in a reduced amount of time.

This year's DC Comics movies are definitely plunging into turbulent times but it looks like Marvel superheroes may be following a similar trajectory, even as they welcome familiar characters into their universe. A new version of Spider-Man, for example, will be introduced in Captain America: Civil War and directors Joe and Anthony Russo recently explained to ComicBook.com how the character will fit into the cinematic world that has been slowly growing darker on the big screen.

"We took a very personal approach to the character,” Joe Russo said. “He was my favorite character growing up, so the opportunity to bring Spider-Man to the screen is a dream come true. … We had thought back to the things that excited us about him as a character when we were younger, and one of the most important components of that was that he's a high schooler burdened with incredible powers and responsibility. That really differentiates him from every other character in the Marvel universe as opposed to other superheroes."

"I would also add, again, we're introducing this character in a Captain America movie,” said Anthony Russo. "It's a very specific tonal world. It's a little more grounded and a little more hard-core contemporary."

It sounds like Peter Parker (played by Tom Holland) is in very good hands, even if he will only appear in a small role in Captain America: Civil War. We can't wait until the web-slinger gets his own movie again.