As a kid, I was unknowingly a DC fan.

I didn’t read comic books since there were never any at the library my mother took me to and we never went to a comic book store. Instead, my comic book store was the television. I watched every single animated DC show that was on television when I was a kid. I watched “Justice League,” “The New Batman Adventures,” “Justice League: Unlimited,” “Static Shock,” “Batman Beyond,” “Teen Titans,” “The Batman,” “Young Justice,” “Batman: The Animated Series,” and even “Krypto the Superdog.” I adored the serious yet action-packed nature of the shows as well as their humor. They provided me many characters that I still love today and that inspire my writing. Sometimes, I go back and binge-watch them all over again just to experience them once more.

As I grew up, however, my dislike of the DC universe grew, and I found it to be problematic.

I fell out of love with DC when I realized how obsessed they were with Batman and Superman. It would be one thing if their obsession was legitimate. Marvel loves Spiderman in the same fashion, but each Spiderman does have a different look and personality. Batman and Superman are pretty consistent in their portrayals. Batman is a skulking, angsty guy who never got over his parents being murdered and thus becomes a vigilante who swears never to kill but totally does because physics. He is too good and perfect to the point of being obnoxious. Superman is no better. He is so powerful he might as well be considered a god. He is invincible except for a foreign space rock that can apparently just be bought on the villain-equivalent of Amazon Prime. Honestly though, how does Superman even have enemies? He can kill them with a snap of his fingers. Like Batman, he is also too good. He has few flaws and doesn’t seem human really. These two “heroes” bore me to no end, and I just want to roll my eyes when I see them come on my screen these days. They are overdone, and I’m tired of them.

It isn’t like there aren’t other characters in the DC universe for them to portray. They have a bunch of female superheroes to choose from — and I am not just talking about Wonder Woman. She’s quickly approaching that overdone phase for me — including Hawkgirl, Black Canary, Zatanna, Starfire, Raven, and Huntress. The DC universe has options. They just refuse to utilize them to their fullest capacity. An argument can be made that they are learning. Wonder Woman did have a starring role in the last DC film and she is getting her own movie, which is more than Marvel is doing at the moment -- Ahem. Black Widow Movie. Ahem. But, DC is only just learning how to use women in their films, and they continue to have setbacks, i.e. “The Killing Joke.” Marvel has been doing it since their renaissance, and they are doing it spectacularly better than DC. The new Captain Marvel film is a great example of this since she is an awesome super heroine that hasn’t had much of a stage of her own. I have critiques for both companies with their lacking portrayals of super heroines compared to their male heroes but at least Marvel is trying.

This brings me to the latest DC film, “Suicide Squad.”

“Suicide Squad” follows the escapades of DC villains Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Killer Croc, and more as they are forced to fight yet another villain who wants to kill all of humanity because they are petty and bitter. I first saw a preview for it during “X-Men: Apocalypse,” and I knew I wanted to see it. Ever since I was a kid, I had loved the character of Harley Quinn because she was just a beautiful and funny badass. She was fearless and determined, yet she was also wild and crazy. I adored her and wanted to create complex characters like her. So, when I saw she was going to be one of the headliners in this film, I was so down.

So, thanks to T-Mobile, my sister and I were able to see it for free on opening night. We sat in our favorite place in the middle of the top row of the theater with our large bag of heavily buttered popcorn and large drinks. The theater was packed. My sister and I sat between a group of friends beside her and a black couple with the woman sitting beside me. Together, all of us tried to make it through the previews, but they were rough. Usually, I never miss the previews because they are my favorite part about going to the movie aside from seeing the movie. But, these were previews I could have lived without. They weren’t funny nor were they any movies that I wanted to see. They just looked boring and done before, offering poor omens for the movie we were about to see. They were so tiring that I, my sister, and the woman beside us started to play a game of Count the Black People. Out of the five trailers we saw, there were five black men with two of them in leading rolls surprisingly. But, there were no black women in any of the trailers at all. Again, we exist, Hollywood. But, let’s move onto to the movie.

So, the movie began, and I loved it. The main characters were introduced awesomely. I love anti-heroes because they are the most human to me, so I adored these characters. Amanda Waller was introduced as a total badass who was always in control of the situation. The other main characters were introduced in a way that reminded me of “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” The movie provided backstory for each character to show how they ended up in prison. Harley Quinn’s was my favorite because it reminded me of my childhood, watching the cartoon version of her. Seeing her on screen brought back my love for her. Plus, the film portrayed her relationship with Joker in such a twisted, sexy, and awesome way. It even made the Joker seem sexy. Deadshot was brilliant and epic. The soundtrack was so great that I bought it from iTunes as soon as I got home. The jokes in the film were great. The villain, Enchantress, was cool even though I would have liked more of her backstory to understand her past, motives, and her relationship with her brother, but, hey, she was beautiful and an ancient creature who was pretty awesome in her own right. Overall, the movie was cool.

But, it was far from perfect, and it was even farther from a good Marvel film to be honest. The characters were introduced and bonded way too fast. They knew each other for, like, three days tops and suddenly they loved each other like a family? I could give them an intense friendship since they all had plenty in common and didn’t have anything to lose and/or gain from the friendship, but family remains a stretch. The Avengers bonded. The Guardians of the Galaxy bonded. But, they were all still friends at the end of the day, argued like friends did, and it was all believable and made sense. Speaking of things that didn’t make sense, the ending was a hot mess. Up until the climax, the movie was enjoyable, fluid, and kind of made sense if you didn’t think about it all too much. However, it quickly went downhill from there as far as sanity and understandability went. Suddenly, members of the Squad randomly became what appeared to be ancient gods from dead cultures, people started to die for reasons unknown, Amanda Waller lost her ever-loving mind, things went into slow motion that shouldn’t have, visions happened unnecessarily, and everything just went left for reasons I have yet to understand. The film left me with far more unanswered questions than a Marvel film ever has. Where was Batman during the entire catastrophe? How could a movie of any regard make me hate a character portrayed by Viola Davis? Do people know what happened in the film’s universe like they often do in the Marvel one? Did the citizens see the events, or did the government try to hide it? How did Amanda keep her job? Why can’t the DC universe leave fewer unanswered questions?

Overall, I would buy the DVD because the movie was really good. It had a great soundtrack, awesome characters, and an interesting story. But, Marvel definitely does it better in my opinion. I will probs stick with Marvel from now on.

I will always love you though, Harley Quinn. And, Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Starfire, Huntress, Black Canary and Raven. You girls rock.