20 DCEU villains ranked by sort of scary to absolutely sinister

8. El Diablo

Of all the villains that made up the Suicide Squad, one of the most sympathetic characters has to be El Diablo. Yes, he is a villain. Yes, what he did was awful and makes him almost irredeemable. But at the end of the day, his character is not just memorable, but also one we rooted for.

El Diablo was a street thug who used his fiery abilities to make a name for himself. He was a bad guy, but when he married his wife and had a child, he wanted to get away from that life. Unfortunately, it can be hard to walk away from life in a gang. And when it caught up to him, he ended up losing both his daughter and his wife.

On the one hand, El Diablo embraces his villainy. On the other, he is really not comfortable with his abilities. But the fact that he is the cause of many deaths, including his own wife and child means that he simply isn’t someone you want to be around, even if he was comfortable with that aspect of himself.

Over the course of Suicide Squad, we learn enough about this character to actually want to see more of him. And yet he is the one who makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to save not just the world, but also his team who he seems to consider as friends. He did what so few villains have ever done: he found a way to redeem himself in some small way.

If we were ranking these villains on being well crafted, it feels like El Diablo might be at the top of the list. But in terms of sinister, he falls short simply because of what he does to redeem himself.