Ahead of the new Suicide Squad film, we take a look at the best comic book hero gangs, and their journeys from page to screen.

Why settle for one when you can have them all? For a long time, Hollywood expected us to be happy with a single superhero – Superman, Spider-Man, Batman – and then maybe a flawed baddie to defeat. But back in the 1930s, before superheroes flew across big screens in epic, multi-million-dollar spectacles, they existed in comic books, often written by humble writers who had no clue of today’s commercial money-machines like DC and Marvel. These heroes were born out of artistic compulsion, a way of saying something about those more innocent, aspirational times.

And in that golden era of comics, superheroes weren’t alone, hiding their true identities from those they loved the most. Instead, they worked as a team, facing down their enemies in groups – fractious and imperfect, but united against a common cause, forged in fights of principle.

In the past few years, we’ve seen Marvel expand its cinematic universe, weaving its various plotlines together in movies like Thor, Iron Man, Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Avengers franchise, to a point where the superhero team movie seems like the only thing that’s going to stun cinema-goers into, well, going to the cinema. This year, DC Comics is trying to do the same, first with the release of Batman V Superman in March and, this week, with the much-hyped Suicide Squad, with Justice League set to follow in 2017. But will it work?

Though the superhero team delivers plenty of bombast and action, it also comes with a few of its own problems, especially within the limitations of a 90-minute running time. When bringing various story arcs and big personalities together, how do you avoid making a mess? Scroll down for MR PORTER’s not-so-scientific attempt to answer this question, via a few of the great superhero teams that have made their way off the pages of the comics that birthed them.

The premise:

First depicted in Mr Stan Lee’s 1963 comic The X-Men, this crew is comprised of super-powered mutants, led by the psychic Charles Xavier (Professor X), who often find themselves at odds both with mainstream society, and a brotherhood of evil mutants, led by the metal-manipulating Magneto. Marvel Comics’ flagship movie franchise began with 2000’s X-Men and is now 16 years and seven films down (discounting spin-offs), continuing to attract a stellar A-list cast such as Messrs Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Ian McKellen.

**Did it work as a film? **

Yes. Credit to Mr Lee, for the band of outsiders he created – all struggling to fit in to a suspicious, conservative, hateful world – is a perfect, polyvalent and ever-mutating metaphor. The central relationship, between “old friends” Magneto and Charles Xavier (Professor X), shifts across generations and continents, and their conflicting beliefs on how to deal with humanity animates the entire series – Xavier’s belief that everyone can live in harmony remains eternally at odds with Magneto’s belief in violence and war, and many of the other characters, including Mr Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ms Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique find their allegiance shifting throughout the series (the latest film, X-Men: Apocalypse, was released earlier this year). This central tenet, of having to take nominal sides against a united enemy, allows X-Men to be a study of how we deal with difference, allowing more peripheral characters to be sketched quickly and poignantly, but each connected to a larger, always relevant narrative.

The premise:

Another Mr Lee creation, The Avengers were originally titled “Earth's Mightiest Heroes”, consisting of Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Hank Pym and the Wasp. Captain America, maybe the most iconic character, didn’t turn up until issue four of the original comic. Since then, members have come and gone, and variously taken to the big screen in many a movie, but throughout every incarnation of the team runs a single mission statement – the Avengers are there to fight “the foes no single superhero can withstand”.

**Did it work as a film? **

Like X-Men, The Avengers movies (the first was released in 2012) work because we have a residual understanding, and familiarity with, the characters in the crew. The backstories are already well established, by dint of the preceding Iron Man (2008), Thor (2011) and _The Incredible Hulk _(2008) films, so little time is needed to be spent introducing each character. And, with Mr Joss Whedon at the helm of the franchise, the conflicting existential hang-ups, egos and motivations are allowed to exist at wonderful cross-purposes – the bickering, flirting superheroes of Mr Whedon’s world have an effortless, joyous chemistry.

The premise:

Messrs Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original 1986 comic book, was a biting satire of the superhero genre, featuring a fractured team of middle-aged, superpowered has-beens with little inclination to work together, in an alternate, cold-war reality in which superheroes are outlawed. 10 years later, it came to our screens.

Did it work as a film?

On paper, the Watchmen movie (2009) should have been great. In reality, it was just too long. Almost three hours long in fact. Its director Mr Zack Snyder remains one of the world’s most successful directors – he’s the custodian of DC's “extended universe” – in which superheroes drop in and out of other’s films, he's helmed Man Of Steel (2013), and its follow-ups, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016) and the forthcoming Justice League. But it’s remarkable that he managed to survive Watchmen – a meandering excursion into comic-book mythology that seems, with its surrealist and historical-archival tangents, far too comfortable with the idea of being a “flawed masterpiece”.

The premise:

This concept is far-fetched, but simple: the world’s most dangerous prisoners are given an opportunity to gain clemency, if they undertake black op missions. The original comic-book version debuted in The Brave And The Bold, issue 25 (1959), and the second version, created by Mr John Ostrander, debuted in Legends, issue 3 (1987).

Will it work as a film?

The signs point to a blockbuster smash hit, and Suicide Squad has been in development for seven years, but this won’t neccessarily translate to success. The film has been marketed heavily, and effectively, and features a killer cast, yet the reviews have been far from glowing. However, this is the first time the Joker has been seen on screen since the death of Mr Heath Ledger, and the casting of Mr Jared Leto, alongside the trailing of his performance online, has been set-up brilliantly. Messrs Will Smith and Joel Kinnaman also join the line-up, and few actresses could take on the Joker with Ms Margot Robbie’s sass and wit (the Australian actress plays Harley Quinn, his on/off love interest). An ensemble of anti-heroes and villains promises an edgier, darker, more adult take on the comic-book template. This could shake the genre up. Excitement is palpable.

The premise:

Another wickedly clever Mr Alan Moore creation, based on the idea of Victorian superheroes riffing on the myths and ghost stories of the time. Set in the late 19th century, the film stars a motley crew of literary characters taken from the creations of Messrs Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

**Did it work as a film? **

The 2003 cinematic adaptation grossed over $175 million worldwide at the box office, but is now only notable for the wondrously bad CGI and unexplainable cross-purposes of its motley crew of 19th-century superheroes. It was Mr Sean Connery’s last on-screen performance before his retirement. I imagine, watching the film for the first time, he knew the game was up. But hey, a second film is on the way, believe it or not.