Today, March 19, 2014, is a big day for DC Comics New 52 and DC Entertainment fans of the Suicide Squad. We get both a CW Arrow centric episode, Season 2 Episode 16, featuring the team on TV and in print we get a Forever Evil tie-in issue in Suicide Squad #29 that builds to the Forever Evil #7 finale. (Also, if you haven’t seen them yet, the costume and pilot pics for CW Arrow’s spin-off CW Flash look amazing!)
Here are the Top 5 spoilers from my mini-review of CW Arrow S02 E16:
CW ARROW, Season 2, Episode 16, “Suicide Squad”
CW Arrow has been building to this for some time and in this evening’s self titled “Suicide Squad” episode, Season 2 Episode 16, the team comes together for Amanda Waller with John Diggle, who has also made his comic book debut after proving to be a popular TV character, seemingly taking point for Amanda Waller.
(5) More Villains Teased For CW Arrow Debut?
This was a classic Suicide Squad mission with the team heading to Markovia to foil a terrorist plot set to utilize a deadly nerve agent, We had references to Kahndaq and Qurac in the episode too. Could Black Adam and Queen Bee respectively be next to visit CW’s Arrow?
(4) Code Name Easter Eggs
We get some interesting codes names for the team. John Diggle is “Freelancer” and Amanda Waller, who runs the Suicide Squad – a covert government team using expendable super-villains on deniable missions, is “Mockingbird”. That codename is a nod to DC Comics’ Secret Six, a later iteration of a pseudo Suicide Squad (despite its Silver Age inception being very different), who was run by a mysterious Mockingbird. At one point Mockingbird was Superman arch villain Lex Luthor and even Amanda Waller had that identity too.
The team is rounded out by Lyla Michaels as “Harbinger“, Floyd Lawton as “Deadshot“, Ben Turner as “Bronze Tiger“, and Mark Scheffer as “Shrapnel“.
(3) Mr. J’s Muse Debuts Off-Camera?
A crazed female prison mate of Deadshot yells out “I’m a trained therapist!” In the DC Comics New 52, Dr. Harleen Quinzel a.k.a. “Harley Quinn” is a member of the Suicide Squad. It sure looks like she’s next to debut despite us hearing, but not seeing her on camera.
(2) Amanda Waller’s Explosive Leash
Shrapnel is expendable. He escapes mid-mission and has his micro-chip triggered. He explodes and presumably dies. However, I imagine because he is the villain Shrapnel, he’ll be able to reconstitute his body and come back for revenge.
(1) Suicide Squad vs. Deathstroke Coming?
Oliver Queen, the titular Green “Arrow”, seeks Amanda Waller’s help in tracking down Slade Wilson, who has promised to destroy his former Island “brother” turned enemy Oliver Queen and all he loves, whose swath of destruction across the globe the Suicide Squad matriarch has been monitoring; she’s dubbed Slade Wilson… “Deathstroke“.
An excellent episode! A video teaser for the episode follows.
