Ratcatcher 2

*"This city isn't yours. This city isn't ours. This city is theirs."*
―Ratcatcher 2 to Starro[src]
**Cleo Cazo**, also known as **Ratcatcher 2**, is the daughter and protégée of the original Ratcatcher. Under his guidance, she turned to a life of crime, while being aided by an army of small rodents which she can communicate with and control. After being arrested, she became a member of the second Task Force X strike team sent to Corto Maltese, where she formed a close relationship with Bloodsport. Cleo played a major role in Starro's defeat by calling all the rats in the city to enter in the alien monster's eye and eat its organs, killing it.

## Biography

### Early life

#### Childhood

*"Why rats, papa?""Rats are the lowliest and most despised of all creatures, my love. If they have a purpose, so do we all."*
―Cleo Cazo and Ratcatcher[src]
Cleo Cazo was born in Portugal and raised by her father. Despite her father's drug problems, he gave his daughter a lot of love and taught her that if rats, the most helpless creatures in the world, had a purpose they did too. Throughout her life, her father taught her to use his gadgets to control rats, getting the animals to bring her things they stole and protect them on cold winter nights. However, Ratcatcher's drug problems continued to grow and one day he died of an overdose, leaving his young daughter alone. For the next several years, Cleo continued to live on the streets with the rats until she reached adulthood.

#### Imprisoned in Belle Reve

Upon reaching adulthood, she tried to straighten herself out and live the "American dream." However, she ended up following in her father's footsteps as a criminal, calling herself "Ratcatcher 2," after her father. While a criminal, Cleo evaded the police several times and grew quite fond of one rat in particular, who she named Sebastian and treated as a pet. Unfortunately, Cleo was caught by local law enforcement after robbing a bank and sent to Belle Reve, where she became a member of Task Force X.

### Mission in Corto Maltese

#### Recruited into Task Force X

*"You are a little idiot."*
―Bloodsport to Ratcatcher 2[src]
In August 2020, she and her fellow team members went to Corto Maltese to destroy the prison and laboratory known as Jotunheim, formerly used by the Nazi Party, as well as wipe out all traces of the mysterious Project Starfish. Upon arrival, they find a spot to camp for the night. As she is asleep, King Shark tries to eat her, but DuBois saves her, pinning him against a tree. Cleo drowsily catches up with the team, where they tell her that King Shark had attempted to eat her. Enraged, she summons a horde of rats, prompting Bloodsport to reveal his fear of rats. She questions why he is on a team with her if he is afraid of rats, which he counters by saying it was not his decision. As the team argues, DuBois begs her to get rid of the rats, which she does so reluctantly. To prevent King Shark from trying to eat them, Cleo decides to befriend him, much to her teammates dismay. Annoyed by her childish optimism, DuBois calls her a "little idiot" before storming off with the others, leaving her confused.

#### Finding Rick Flag

After receiving orders from Wallace to find Flag, who she believes has been captured by the Corto Maltese government, Ratcatcher aids the rest of Task Force X in distracting and murdering numerous armed men at a nearby base. She and the others are surprised, however, when they find that the men are actually working for Sol Soria, the leader of the resistance, and that they had actually rescued Flag.Despite a rocky start, Soria agrees to help them, providing them with disguises and a ride into the city.

#### Capturing Thinker and Saving Harley

*"Don't worry, yeah? I'm gonna get you outta here alive.""I'm going to get **you** out of here alive."*
―Bloodsport and Ratcatcher 2[src]
On the bus, Cleo asks DuBois why he afraid of rats, where he retorts by asking why she loves them. She then reveals her upbringing, living homeless on the streets of Portugal. Although her father struggled with a drug addiction, he loved her unconditionally and taught her how to use his equipment to train and communicate with rats. The rats acted as their safehaven, stealing trinkets for them to live on, and keeping them warm on cold winter nights. Eventually, his addiction caught up with him and her father died of an overdose, leaving the young Cleo alone. From there, Cleo took his creations and came to America, hoping to live the "American Dream", but instead was arrested and incarcerated at Belle Reve for armed bank robbery(due to the state considering the rats a weapon). Sympathizing with her, DuBois tells her about how her past reminded him of his daughter's. Cleo then asks again why he is afraid of rats, where DuBois tells her that one day as a kid, his father locked him in a crate full of starving rats for 24 hours. Cleo then says that as imperfect as her father was, he loved her, and she feels sorry that DuBois couldn't have that too. Bonding with each other, they make a mutual pact to keep each other safe.

Soon after, they arrive at a bar the Thinker frequents, where they pass the time by drinking and dancing. Eventually, the Thinker arrives, and DuBois successfully takes him hostage. Before they can leave however, the Corto Maltese military shows up, asking for ID's. Realizing the military is onto them, he gives Thinker and his gun to Cleo and Abner, telling them to escape out the back and meet at the shared coordinates. He, along with Flag and Peacemaker, then turn themselves in, giving Cleo and Abner time to escape. Panicked, Cleo leads Abner and Thinker out the back, where they meet up with Milton. On the way, the Thinker complements her rat technology, saying he is working on a similar invention with humans, but she does not want to hear it. Indignant, Thinker calls her out for her increasingly anxious state, deducing that she is not her team's leader, which angers her enough to threaten him, making him back down. She and the others later meet Dubois, Flag, and Peacemaker outside the city where they had crashed the convoy.

#### Infiltration in Jotunheim

Infiltrating Jotunheim with the Thinker as their prisoner, they head to the sub levels where Starro is being held. Here, the Thinker reveals information to Ratcatcher, Flag and Peacemaker about the involvement of the United States government in the gruesome experiments on Starro.

#### Facing Starro

Facing an unchained Starro, Ratchatcher tries to outrun the giant starfish and narrowly a adds being crushed by following Sebastian through some rubble. After Peacemaker and Flag fight following the reveal of the government in Jotunheim, Ratcatcher watches in shock as Peacemaker forcibly kills Flag before he was killed himself. Ratcather takes the hard drive and flees the scene after Peacemaker orders to give him the drive. Afraid and panicked, Ratcather tries to evade him, but just as she tries to assemble rat backup, Peacmaker grabs her and throws her on the ground. Though she frantically tries to tell him to just destroy the drive and leave her be, the cold assassin can’t afford a witness. Even though he apologies just as he is about to kill her, Ratcather cries in fear before deBuoy enters the scene from the collapsing ceiling. After a short Mexican standoff, the two hitmen fires simultaneously, with Peacmaker dropping seemingly dead. DeBuoy meets with Ratcather whom explains the situation and regroups with the remaining members of Task Force X. With the building destroyed by the bombs, Starro is free to roam the city and the group is forced to come up with a plan of action. In a desperate attempt to save as many lives as possible, Ratcatcher summons the cities rats to overpower Starro. This is eventually successful and the team are able to take down Starro working together. After the helicopter picks them up, the team finally catches a breath, with Ratcather leaning into Nanuae and sleeping.

## Personality

*"If I die 'cause I gambled on love, it will be a worthy death."*
―Cleo Cazo[src]
Unlike most of the Squad, Cleo is not a hardened and violent criminal, rather a sweet, empathetic, and endearing young woman, but completely out of her element as a member of the Suicide Squad. She sees the good in everyone, and attempts to make friends with them, even dangerous serial killers like King Shark and the Peacemaker. Because of her innocent demeanor and empathetic nature, Cleo tends to panic easily when suddenly thrown into a dangerous situation. She also seems to be afraid of violence, and prefers to have her rats fight for her. Her most defining trait however, is her apathetic laziness, as she tends to get tired easily and sleeps whenever she gets the chance.

She, however, is entirely capable of threatening and reacting aggressive if someone she cares about is threatened or in danger by others, like when she angrily used her technology to threaten Nanaue when he insinuated to eat Sebastian, but she quickly forgives him after becoming friends with him. Cleo is also a little bit naive, believing that she and her teammates were sent to Corto Maltese to destroy the Project Starfish in order to stop the Thinker and save the world.

Cleo is fond of rats, having one as her own pet. This is mostly related to her bond with her father who told Cleo that if rats have their own purpose then they also have one. This also due to how she views herself at the eyes of society. Cleo dislikes seeing people being killed, quickly turning around to not watch the recording of the Herrera family being publicly hanged. Also, despite being a member of the Suicide Squad, Cleo has noble intentions with people, telling Flag that they had to save those who were used by Starro as part of the proyect.

## Powers and abilities

### Abilities

* **Keen intellect**: Cleo was intelligent enough to better the technology made by her father by controlling rats on a large scale to defeat Starro. She was also the one to realize that Starro's spawns could be countered by shielding the face, which was instrumental in allowing the Suicide Squad to survive when others were being controlled.
	+ **Bilingualism**: Cleo is able to speak her native Portuguese, as well as English, albeit with an accent.

### Weaknesses

* **Hypersomnia**: Cleo suffers from hypersomnia, a condition that makes her feel extremely tired and tends to sleep in every moment of the day. She admitted that is unable to work good at daylight due to this disease.

## Equipment

*"Do you want a dozen angry rodents crawling up your ass?"*
―Ratcatcher 2 to Thinker[src]
* **Ratcatcher uniform**: Cleo's uniform was mostly made of leather, consisting of a thick coat and boots. The suit had two pouches attached to it, able to hold equipment and her pet rat Sebastian. The uniform was also able to hold the Ratcatcher mask on the belt and presumably had a place for the Rat communicator to be stored when not in use.
* **Ratcatcher mask**: The smell of the sewers, where rats usually live, can be overpowering to the human nose, so Cleo cleverly wears a mask with a filtration system, ensuring she doesn't need to breathe in the smell and fumes of the sewer system while controlling her rats.
* **Rat communicator**: An advanced technology device created by Ratcatcher to easily tame and train rats. Cleo inherited the device after her father's death, and used it in her crimes and on the mission to Corto Maltese. There is no apparent limit to the amount of rats it can communicate with, as demonstrated during the Suicide Squad battle against Starro, where Cleo tamed hundred of thousand of rats to attack the monster and eat them from the inside, defeating them.
	+ **Rat manipulation**: Cleo can easily tame and train rats with the rat communicator to do tasks for her.
		- **Mind control**: Cleo can control the minds of rats and have them do her bidding.

## Relationships

Allies* Sebastian - pet
* Task Force X - former teammates
	+ Rick Flag † - team leader
	+ Abner Krill/Polka Dot Man † - friend
* Nanaue/King Shark - former teammate and attempted killer turned friend
* Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn - former teammate and friend
* Robert DuBois/Bloodsport - surrogate father, friend, savior, and former team leader
* John Economos - former mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally
* Emilia Harcourt - former mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally
* Flo Crawley - former mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally
* Briscoe - mission transport
* Maltese Resistance - assistance to Task Force X during the Jotunheim mission
	+ Sol Soria
	+ Milton †
	+ Amanda Waller - former manipulator
	+ Fitzgibbon - former physician
* Starro † - target and indirect victim
* Corto Maltese Armed Forces
	+ Silvio Luna †
	+ Mateo Suarez †
	+ Vera †
	+ Isabella †
* Gaius Grieves/Thinker † - former manipulatee
* Christopher Smith/Peacemaker - former teammate and attempted killer

## Trivia

* This version of Ratcatcher is gender-swapped and is named after the first Ratcatcher, who trained her to be his protégé at a young age.
* While the DCU's original Ratcatcher is more true to the comic version, this version of the Ratcatcher is an original character created for the DC Universe.

## Behind the scenes

* Katie Eischen was a stunt double for Daniela Melchior in the role of Ratcatcher 2.
* In the original script, Polka-Dot Man was supposed to live while Ratcatcher 2 was supposed to die, but Gunn ended up reversing the roles because he had felt like Polka-Dot Man's arc was "complete" by the time of his death while Ratcatcher 2's was not.
* Concept art for *The Suicide Squad* by Simon Murton showed young Cleo Cazo and an army of rats holding a candle wake for the deceased original Ratcatcher in a Porto alleyway. This scene did not appear in the final version of the film.
* The church tower Cleo and her father were sitting on during one of the flashbacks is the well-known Igreja dos Clérigos (Clérigos Church) in Porto.

## References

1. ↑ In *The Suicide Squad*, it is mentioned that Cleo Cazo is a millennial alluding to the fact that she was born during the 1990s, and coinciding with Daniela Melchior's birth year.
2. ↑ Jump up to:2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Gunn, James (writer and director) (August 6, 2021). *The Suicide Squad*.
3. ↑ "Simon Murton: Porto Alleyway (The Suicide Squad 2021) Concept Art" - ArtStation
4. ↑ "Simon Murton: Clérigos Tower in Porto (The Suicide Squad 2021) Pencil Study" - ArtStation
5. ↑ "Simon Murton: Clerigos, Porto, Portugal (The Suicide Squad 2021) Concept Art" - ArtStation

## External links

The **DC Universe Wiki** has a collection of images and media related to **Ratcatcher 2**.

* Ratcatcher on DC Database
* Ratcatcher on Wikipedia