This event is made up of Checkmate #15-18, Suicide Squad #27-30, Manhunter #14, Firestorm #86, and Captain Atom #30 (May to June 1989)
Written by Paul Kupperberg (Checkmate #15-18), John Ostrander (Suicide Squad #27-30, Manhunter #14, Firestorm #86), Kim Yale (Suicide Squad #27-30, Manhunter #14), Cary Bates (Captain Atom #30), Greg Weisman (Captain Atom #30)
Pencilled by Steve Erwin (Checkmate #15, 17-18), John K. Snyder III (Suicide Squad #27-30), Rick Hoberg (Checkmate #16), Doug Rice (Manhunter #14), Tom Mandrake (Firestorm #86), Rafael Kayanan (Captain Atom #30)
Inked by Al Vey (Checkmate #15-18), Pablo Marcos (Suicide Squad #27, 29, Manhunter #14), Karl Kesel (Suicide Squad #28, 30), Tom Mandrake (Firestorm #86), Romeo Tanghal (Captain Atom #30)
Colour by Julianna Ferriter (Checkmate #15-18, Manhunter #14), Carl Gafford (Suicide Squad #27-30), Nansi Hoolihan (Firestorm #86), Gene D’Angelo (Captain Atom #30)
Spoilers (from thirty-two years ago)
I’ve been working my way through the classic, all-time great Suicide Squad, and its sorta companion book Manhunter, but I realized from the beginning that when I got to the Janus Directive, the all-encompassing crossover that involved all government agencies with metahumans, I would want to read the whole thing.
I decided it was time to launch a new type of retro review column, the Retro Event Review. I’m going to use this sparingly – there are a lot of boxes to move to dig out that one issue of Captain Atom that ties into something, but I think this is the event to do this for.
I remember being really pleased with the coordination between the books for this event (even including the ones not written by John Ostrander), and being fascinated with obscure characters like The Force of July. Government-sponsored heroes always seem dodgy, and that was especially true for many of the organizations here. I don’t remember what set them off against each other, but I do remember Kobra getting involved. Was this a SHIELD vs. Hydra kind of story, only set in the DC Universe? So much of it is hazy now.
I’ve really been enjoying rereading Suicide Squad for the first time in decades, and I’m excited to see if this is as good as I remember it being. Let’s go!
Let’s track who turned up in the title:
Protagonists (because Heroes is not the right word for many of them)
- Knight Ray Carson (Checkmate; Checkmate #15)
- Harry Stein (Checkmate; Checkmate #15-18, Suicide Squad #27-30)
- Valentina Vostok (fka Negative Woman; Checkmate #15-18, Suicide Squad #28-30)
- Harvey Bullock (Checkmate; Checkmate #15-17, Suicide Squad #27-29)
- Amanda Waller (Task Force X; Checkmate #15-16, 18, Suicide Squad #27-30, Manhunter #14, Captain Atom #30)
- Bronze Tiger (Ben Turner, Suicide Squad; Checkmate #15-16, 18, Suicide Squad #27, 29-30)
- Dr. Bridgette D’Abo (Project: Peacemaker; Checkmate #15-18, Suicide Squad #27-28)
- Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness, Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27, 30, Checkmate #16, 18)
- Doctor Light (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27, 30, Checkmate #18)
- Shade the Changing Man (Rac Shade, Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27-28, 30, Checkmate #18)
- Duchess (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27-30, Checkmate #18)
- Vixen (Mari McCabe, Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27-30, Checkmate #18)
- Count Vertigo (Werner Vertigo, Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27-28)
- Ravan (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27, 29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Punch (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27, 30, Checkmate #18)
- Jewelee (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27, 30, Checkmate #18)
- John Chase (Suicide Squad #27-28, Checkmate #17)
- Cherie Chase (Suicide Squad #27-28, Checkmate #17)
- Mayflower (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27)
- Silent Majority (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27, 29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Spark (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27)
- Major Victory (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27, 29-30)
- Lady Liberty (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27, 29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Abraham Lincoln Crawley (Force of July; Suicide Squad #27)
- General Wade Eiling (Atom Project; Suicide Squad #27-30, Checkmate #16-18, Captain Atom #30)
- Doctor Megala (Atom Project; Suicide Squad #27-29, Checkmate #16, 18)
- Babylon (Atom Project; Suicide Squad #27, Checkmate #18)
- Knight John Reed (Checkmate; Suicide Squad #27, 29-30, Checkmate #16-18)
- Peacemaker (Christopher Smith, Project: Peacemaker; Suicide Squad #27-30, Checkmate #16-18)
- Black Thorn (Checkmate #16-18, Suicide Squad #28-30)
- Knight Gary Washington (Checkmate, Checkmate #16, 18)
- Major Force (Atom Project; Checkmate #16, 18, Suicide Squad #28-30)
- Captain Atom (Nathaniel Adam, Atom Project; Suicide Squad #28-30, Checkmate #18, Captain Atom #30)
- Nightshade (Suicide Squad, Suicide Squad #28-30, Checkmate #18, Captain Atom #30)
- King Faraday (CBI; Suicide Squad #28-29)
- Manhunter (Mark Shaw; Manhunter #14, Suicide Squad #29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Firestorm (Firestorm #86, Suicide Squad #29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Briscoe (Suicide Squad; #29, Checkmate #18)
- Sarge Steel (CBI; Suicide Squad #29-30, Checkmate #18)
Villains
- Bishop (Checkmate #15)
- Víbora (Suicide Squad #27)
- Blackadders (Kobra’s ninjas; Suicide Squad #28-30, Checkmate #17-18, Manhunter #14)
- Kobra (Lord Naga-Naga; Suicide Squad #28-30, Checkmate #17-18)
- Kobra (the organization; Suicide Squad #28-30, Checkmate #17-18)
- Parasite (Firestorm #86)
- Black Manta (Captain Atom #30)
Guest Stars
- Lois Lane (Daily Planet; Checkmate #16-18, Suicide Squad #28-30)
- Firehawk (Lorraine Reilly; Firestorm #86)
- George HW Bush (President of the United States; Checkmate #18, Suicide Squad #30)
- Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny, Justice League Europe; Captain Atom #30)
Supporting Characters
- Flo Crowley (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #27-30, Checkmate #18)
- J. Daniel “Murph” Murphy (Suicide Squad; Checkmate #16, Suicide Squad #28-30)
- John Economos (Suicide Squad; Suicide Squad #28-29)
- Dr. Simon LaGrieve (Director, Institute for Meta-Human Studies; Firestorm #86)
- J. Danfield Kale (Fake head of Task Force X, Jack Kovacs; Suicide Squd #29-30, Checkmate #18)
- Margaret “Peggy” Adams (Captain Atom #30)
- Jeff Goslin (Captain Atom #30)
- Randall Adams (Captain Atom #30)
- Harris Eiling (Captain Atom #30)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- Chapter 1: Checkmate #15 – Some guy leaves a restaurant in Washington DC, and finds an envelope he’s been expecting in his car. He’s surprised to see one of Checkmate’s Knights in the road (he wouldn’t recognize the Knight’s uniform). The Knight jumps into the car through it’s windshield, causing it to crash. A support van pulls up and they load the guy in. At Konig Industries, Checkmate’s front, it’s leader, Harry Stein, chats with Valentina Vostok, formerly of the Doom Patrol, about coming to work with him now that she’s lost her powers and isn’t wrapped in bandages. He cuts their chat short when Harvey Bullock calls him to the briefing room. There, the Knight, Ray Carson, and some other guy who is never named, explain that Warwick, the guy they grabbed, has instructions to meet his mafia connections at Lincoln Center. Ray goes disguised as Warwick, and is handed an envelope. He leaves the opera, which he has not enjoyed, and as he and his driver leave, he discovers that the envelope only contained a blank piece of paper. Their car, which is bulletproof, is fired on. Ray puts on his Knight gear, and jumps out. He seeks cover and comes at the shooter, a large armored man. They fight, and the man tosses the Knight, and then fires a missile from his wrist launcher at the car, believing Warwick is still inside it. The car explodes, but the driver gets free. The assassin tosses off the Knight’s next attack, and identifies himself as Bishop. Later, Ray gets stitched up at a Checkmate safe house, and talks with the unnamed guy. That guy says they’ve heard of Bishop but don’t know anything about him. Carson disguises himself as Warwick again, and enters a mob restaurant, where he holds a gun on some guy in the bathroom, insisting they pay him five million dollars to not kill them. He leaves, and consults with the unnamed guy again about how they think that Bishop might be in town to kill the president of Costa Puerto (Port Coast?), who is there to address the UN. They are trying to draw Bishop out with this extortion scheme. Carson, as Warwick, approaches the mob guys in a helicopter, and receives the money from them. He’s surprised that Bishop didn’t attack, but then Bishop blows the tail off the helicopter. Knight jumps out in a more high tech armored suit than the usual one (it looks pretty cool), and they start to fight. Carson brings most of a building down on him, wrecking the robes he wears over his armor, that make him look a bit like Manhunter. They keep fighting, but Carson finally gets the drop on him, blowing him off the dock they’re on. Bishop falls into the river and sinks. In Virginia, Bullock talks into a microphone about how he’s kept in touch with Black Thorn, but hasn’t told Harry or their boss, Amanda Waller. Just then, Waller calls. Harvey rushes to get Harry, and they go to an office, where Waller is waiting for them, with Bronze Tiger from the Suicide Squad, and Dr. Bridgette D’Abo, from Project: Peacemaker. She tells them that the intelligence community is about to go to war. We see someone moving chess pieces shaped like characters from this book and Suicide Squad around on a chessboard.
- Chapter 2: Suicide Squd #27 – Waller tells Stein, Bullock, Bronze Tiger, and Bridgette D’Abo that she’s learned of a conspiracy in the intelligence agency, being called the Janus Directive. She believes that the Atom Project and Force of July are preparing to attack Task Force X. She wants to strike first, and commands that Checkmate and Peacemaker work together to take out the Atom people, killing or capturing General Eiling and Doctor Megala. She wants the Squad to go after the Force of July, and to retrieve the Medusa Mask, formerly property of the Psycho Pirate, which they have. Ben does not feel good about what’s going on. Stein agrees with Bullock that they need to look into the Janus Directive on their own, and decide to use Black Thorn and Valentina Vostok to do the digging. Somewhere rainy, two men try to get away from someone named Víbora, who is ordered to capture them, since they know about the Janus Directive. Ben briefs the Squad about their attack on the Force of July. He wants Punch and Jewelee to break into the home of Abraham Lincoln Carlyle, their leader, to retrieve the mask, while the rest of the team takes on the Force. He divides them up to attack specific targets, and authorizes full use of force. Ben talks to Flo, who says that Oracle doesn’t know anything about the Janus Directive, which they all find a little hard to believe. As the Squad moves in on Carlyle’s mansion, which looks like the Capitol Building, they are attacked. Vixen ends up matched against Mayflower, who has powers over plants. Punch and Jewelee enter the house, and decide to burgle it a little. Silent Majority creates duplicates of himself, and starts beating on Captain Boomerang. Ben and Ravan overhear Spark and Major Victory talking, and realize they’ve walked into a trap. Spark, a child, finds Doctor Light and attacks him, which triggers his weird fear of kids. Major Victory squares off against Duchess, and they seem equally matched. Ben jumps him from behind, knocking him out, and angering Duchess. Ben calls her Lashina, and she walks away. Lady Liberty attacks Count Vertigo, but when she insults him, he starts going wild on her. Shade comes across Carlyle, who has the Medusa Mask. It doesn’t work on Shade though, as he’s used to the Area of Madness. When he fights back, Carlyle dies of a heart attack. While Mayflower uses plants to trap and choke Mari, Ravan sneaks up behind her and kills her. Punch and Jewelee help Boomerang by taking down the Silent Majority. Light continues to run from Spark, but then gets a burst of courage and anger, and blasts him through his chest, killing him. Ben pulls the team out. Elsewhere, Eiling and Megala stand in some alpine house. A Checkmate Knight sneaks up and grabs Megala, while Peacemaker approaches the side of the house in a helicopter, and opens fire on everyone. Eiling falls off the balcony. As they fly off, Eiling swears revenge.
- Chapter 3: Checkmate #16 – General Eiling is furious at having barely survived the attack by Peacemaker, and is upset that some guy named Babylon was killed, and that Dr. Megala was taken prisoner. His monologue gets a little garbled, but it’s clear that Eiling knows about the Janus Directive, and that he wants to go after Peacemaker. At Konig Industries, Stein, Bullock, D’Abo, and Reed, who I assume was the Knight on that mission, talk about how unstable Christopher Smith, the Peacemaker is. Stein and Bullock hang back to talk about how they don’t trust Amanda Waller right now (it is worth noting that before this all began, there were hints that there were two Amanda Wallers running around – they confronted one another in Amanda’s home, but we never saw what happened), and decide to send Black Thorn, Valentina Vostok, and a Knight named Gary Washington to Belle Reve to investigate. Val and Black Thorn meet in a restaurant, and then we see them with Washington outside Belle Reve. They know that Waller is in hiding there, and try to sneak in (by blowing open a door and tranquilizing the guards). In Metropolis, Lois Lane starts to dig into the Janus Directive but can’t get anywhere with a source. At Konig Industries, Megala activates a homing beacon in his wheelchair. The Checkmate team continues into Belle Reve, taking down Murph the head guard to access the camera room. Captain Boomerang is in his room watching a James Bond movie when Black Thorn busts into the room and attacks him. She misses. Bronze Tiger, meditating in his room, senses something is wrong, and runs into Boomerang in the hall, as he rushes to get his weapons. Black Thorn starts to fight Ben, and Val comes to her assistance. Washington starts to fight Boomerang, but his sonic ‘rang is effective. In New York, Eiling learns where Megala is, and decides to send in his “big gun.” Ben keeps fighting to two women, until Black Thorn is able to scratch him with a poisoned thorn, and Val knocks him out. Boomerang chases off Washington, but when he throws an exploding boomerang at Black Thorn, she tosses it back at him. Waller hears the noise and, seeing Washington on a view screen, decides to leave. The three Checkmate operatives chase Boomerang outside the prison (it’s a little too easy to get outside, given this is a prison). Boomerang points to the helicopter flying away, and they realize they lost their chance to get Waller, and take off. At Konig, Stein and Bullock talk about how Waller is going to be upset with them. Just then, Major Force attacks their building. Some regular guards aren’t able to hold him off. Peacemaker insists on heading out there against D’Abo’s wishes. Some Knights engage Major Force, but they are no match. In a cab on her way to Washington, Lois Lane sees the fighting in the distance and decides to go investigate on foot. Major Force keeps trashing the building, until Peacemaker comes at him, threatening him.
- Chapter 4: Suicide Squad #28 – We return to the couple running from a group of men dressed in black. They run into a subway station, and the woman calls her contact, giving the codes “the eggs have hatched” and “anaconda”. As the ninja-like crowd approaches, we learn these two are named John and Cherie; they are taken prisoner. At Belle Reve, Waller is talking with Economos, Flo, and Murph about how Checkmate was able to enter the prison. Murph points out that prisons are designed more with keeping people inside in mind. Waller wants Vixen to lead a team to Konig Industries, since Ben is still knocked out. Waller also wants Murph to bring her the Medusa Mask. At Konig, Peacemaker and Major Force continue to fight. Stein, Bullock, and D’Abo watch on the monitors. Stein speaks with Val Vostok about the importance of her getting to General Eiling, since he now thinks they’ve all been set up. The Squad (Vixen, Duchess, Count Vertigo, and Shade) arrive at Konig. Mari has Vertigo and Shade go after Peacemaker, while she wants Duchess to fight Major Force. Shade takes Smith down quickly, and Duchess keeps Force busy. The others head inside, while Stein has his people start to evacuate. Vixen is worried that Waller wants her to kill Megala; she tells the others to simply snatch him. Peacemaker comes to and wants to return to the fight. Vertigo finds some guards escorting Megala, and takes care of them. Megala seems to be shaking. There’s a large explosion that interrupts Duchess’s fight; it gives her the chance she needs to knock out Force. Vertigo, who is wounded, explains that Megala blew up; Mari is sure that wasn’t the real Megala. She’s approached by Lois Lane, and refuses to answer her questions. General Eiling is on the phone with Captain Atom, and upset that he’s not interested in coming to help him. He hangs up, and is surprised to find that Black Thorn has entered the room, and is holding a gun to him. She tells him that she wants him to make a phone call; he tries to bluff, but she calls him on it. Captain Atom is surprised to see Nightshade has come to see him. She’s with King Faraday, and wants to talk to him about the Janus Directive. Atom says he’s not interested, but she tells him that Faraday’s information brought her back in. John and Cherie learn they’ve been taken by Kobra, who we learn is behind the Janus Directive. He wants to know who they are working for and what they were able to find out.
- Chapter 5: Checkmate #17 – An unnamed Knight is on a mission in the Florida Everglades when he is attacked by a bunch of ninjas who kill him. His handlers wait in a beach house, and worry that they’ve lost touch with him, and with their home base. At the ruins of Konig Industries, a general gives a press conference about how the company was an electronics contractor with the government, and how it was the victim of industrial espionage. Lois Lane questions that narrative, but the general blows her off. She refuses to give any information to the other reporters present. In the Colorado Rockies, Checkmate is re-establishing itself in an old NORAD base carved into a mountain. Stein and Bullock talk about it, and how Stein wants to try working with General Eiling, now that he’s sure Amanda Waller has gone mad. In South Africa, a Knight is attacked and killed by ninjas. Kobra is in a flying base, and we learn that the ninjas are called Blackadders, and are part of his organization. He still has the Chases with him, and talks of taking over the Earth. Val Vostok, Black Thorn, and Knight John Reed bust into the home of a tech support worker from Belle Reve. They want him to hack into Belle Reve’s computers for them, but are interrupted by a squad of Blackadders. They all fight, and our heroes defeat them. Reed finds a tracking device on one of the Blackadders and takes it; they don’t notice that they’re being watched from above. Kobra activates a cloaking device to hide their vessel in orbit. In Qurac, another Knight is attacked by Blackadders, and killed. Stein flies in a helicopter to meet Eiling on the Jersey shore. They talk about a truce, and how Stein believes that someone is playing them all, that Megala and Babylon are still alive, and that Waller is not really Waller. Eiling agrees to trust him, but also threatens him. In France, another Knight and her handlers are attacked and killed. Bullock speaks to D’Abo about where Peacemaker has gone. We see that he’s flying around, and attacks a warehouse he believes is a safehouse for the Atom Project. He finds it empty when he blows the roof open and flies in, except for the fact that Reed and Black Thorn are waiting for him. They try to talk to him and convince him the Eiling is on their side. He doesn’t believe them, and Thorn gets ready to knock him out with her tranq-dart, but before she can, they are attacked by Blackadders. There’s a fight, and the three heroes are overwhelmed. Peacemaker grabs them and flies them out through the roof, calling in his helicopter to blow up the warehouse. They land on a nearby pier, and the others are unnerved by how manic Peacemaker is.
- Chapter 6: Manhunter #14 – Mark Shaw, the Manhunter, is at home in the office he converted his bedroom into by raising his bed (isn’t he supposed to have a rich family?). He receives a package from Southern Cross, containing a new collapsable mask. Amanda Waller comes to see him, and to tell him that she was the target of an assassination attempt. She wants him to go check out a place called Anaconda Industries in Chicago, which she thinks is involved. Mark is not all that interested, as he is a bounty hunter, but Waller promises him backup and insists that he is the only person who can do the job. She points out that he owes her, but it’s when she admits that she’s scared that he agrees to do the job. As he arrives in Chicago and scouts the place out, we learn that once he got into town, he connected with Oracle, who was not able to tell him anything about the Janus Directive, or Anaconda. He enters the building through its roof, and we see a Kobra Blackadder ninja watching him. Manhunter discovers an elevator shaft significantly deeper than the height of the building and descends to the bottom, where he finds a huge cavernous base. Two scientists are working on a model of a microwave gun that’s able to kill the inhabitants of a tiny city (the inhabitants are rats) without damaging the buildings. We learn they are working on a much larger version. They decide to use their weapon on Mark, who they know is watching them. He jumps out of the way and tries to disable the gun. The scientists call in some guards, who are a little more high-tech than the other Blackadders we’ve seen (they have a total Stargate vibe going on with their helmets, and are wearing wings). Mark uses his baton to escape up the elevator shaft and reach the street. He takes off on his motorcycle, while the Blackadders fly after him. He’s not able to shake them by going through a double-layered street, so he drives up to an elevated train station. He jumps on a train, but is followed. He gets knocked off the train, and before the Blackadders can fire on him, he jumps into a river. They shoot him many times as he falls. Later, a pair of Blackadder divers retrieve his tunic, full of holes, and his broken mask. They assume he’s dead.
- Chapter 7: Firestorm #86 – It’s kind of odd that this issue got the full Janus Directive trade dress, as it doesn’t connect to the event very much at all. When this issue opens, it’s not long after Firestorm was remade as a fire elemental, and he is contemplating the pollution being spewed forth by a smokestack in Pittsburgh. He transmutes the pollution into clean air, but watches it get replaced by more pollution. He enters the plant and threatens the CEO of the steel company, and then trashes his plant and flies off. At the Institute for Meta-Human Studies, Dr. Simon LaGrieves, formerly of Belle Reve prison, talks to a few doctors about Parasite, who is there on loan from Belle Reve. He talks to another doctor, who is rude to him, about Killer Frost. Lorraine Reilly (aka Firehawk) goes looking for Ron Raymond, and talks to Martin Stein, who used to be part of the Firestorm matrix. As they talk, they see the new Firestorm on TV, and Lorrain flies off to find him. A young doctor at the Institute gets tricked into entering Parasite’s cell. The villain drains his energy, and that of a guard. Firehawk catches up to Firestorm, and while he recognizes her, he doesn’t feel anything for her. He lets her know that Ron and Mikhail, the two beings that were the last Firestorm, live on in him. Parasite rampages. LaGrieve calls Belle Reve to get some help, but learns from Flo that the prison is under attack. Firehawk arrives and tries to fight Parasite, but gets drained of her powers. She barely gets away before turning back to Lorraine. LaGrieve finds her and figures out she’s Firehawk (apparently he knows her). Parasite continues to rampage until Firestorm appears in front of him. They fight, but Firestorm starts pulling all of the energy out of his body. Lorraine and LaGrieve have to stop him from killing Parasite; he leaves him weak and encased in a shell so he can be returned to his cell. LaGrieve asks Firestorm for help, explaining that friends of his are in trouble at Belle Reve; the elemental flies off.
- Chapter 8: Suicide Squad #29 – Stein and Eiling talk in the new Checkmate headquarters (inside a NORAD mountain). Stein is convinced that Waller is a doppelganger, and is the reason why Checkmate Knights around the world are being killed. They decide to try a joint operation against Belle Reve to take Waller down. Stein wants to free the surviving members of the Force of July to help them. Both men intend to lead their people into the fight. Lois Lane presses Kale, the fake head of Task Force X for information in Belle Reve, while Waller, Flo, and Economos talk. Waller knows an attack is coming, and checks in with Murph just as Peacemaker shows up with his helicopter and opens fire. Eiling leads soldiers into the hole in the fencing Peacemaker has opened up, while Val Vostok, Black Thorn, and Knight John Reed drop into the yard from Peacemaker’s chopper. Stein and Bullock lead the Checkmate troops. Reed and the other two get into the prison, and split up, with Black Thorn hunting Waller. Major Force starts tearing the walls apart, while Peacemaker thinks about killing him, even though they’re allies now. Flo talks to Dr. LaGrieve on the phone just as she comes under fire. Lois Lane decides to run into the action to see what’s going on. Duchess fires on soldiers trying to enter the prison. Briscoe and Sheba arrive and engage Peacemaker, who flies with his jetpack right through Sheba’s front windshield. Reed and Val get to the remaining members of Force of July – Lady Liberty, Major Force, and Silent Majority. They agree to help them, and Reed blows their cells open. Bronze Tiger, Vixen, and Ravan arrive and they all begin to fight. In Space, Lord Naga-Naga (is his name not also Kobra – I’m always confused by this) learns that his big microwave gun thing is almost ready, and should be able to kill everyone on Earth easily, since he’s kept the American spy agencies busy (this is a lot of American exceptionalism, really). We see that Megala is still alive. One of the Blackadders reports on the apparent death of Manhunter, displaying his ruined tunic and mask as proof. We learn that it’s actually Mark Shaw, disguised as a Blackadder. Now he realizes that he needs to save the Earth on his own. Black Thorn approaches Waller, who is waiting for her with a submachine gun. Firestorm arrives and engages Major Force in a fight, as chaos reigns everywhere. Waller (presumably) uses the Medusa Mask to stop everyone from fighting. We skip over the part where everyone makes a truce, and the part where Nightshade, Captain Atom, and King Faraday arrive, with Sarge Steel. We see them, with Firestorm, Stein, Bullock, Eiling, and Major Victory, in a briefing room where Waller explains that she killed the doppelganger who came to take her place, and has been pretending to work for Kobra, while Faraday and Steel worked for her in secret. Now they know what’s going on, and agree that it’s time to go after Kobra together. This whole resolution came about way too quickly…
- Chapter 9: Checkmate #18 – John Reed and Gary Washington address the only surviving Knights about the mission they are about to embark on in the hangar of their new base. In orbit, Kobra’s huge pulse cannon is almost ready, and the organization moves into position to use it. Kobra, the guy, is pretty excited to kill the world’s population and repopulate it with the hostages he’s holding. Manhunter is thinking of the magnitude of the mission he has, and gets called by a couple of other Blackadders to come watch the hostages. He recognizes Dr. Megala, and goes to let him and Babylon know that he’s on their side, and to be ready to act. In Washington, President George HW Bush talks with Sarge Steel about all that’s gone on in the Intelligence Community, and says he wants to put one person in charge of the operation that’s about to take place. The leaders of the various organizations have gathered in Checkmate’s command centre, with Waller speaking over video. They prepare to take the fight to Kobra. Eiling would rather nuke his whole ship, sacrificing the hostages, but Waller and the others want to save them. The President calls in, and tells them that he wants Sarge Steel to run the operation; Eiling is not that happy about this. At Belle Reve, Firestorm checks in on a mis-coloured Flo Crawley, who is in the hospital, and they talk about his friendship with Simon LaGrieve. Kale gives a press conference in Washington, explaining that he can’t tell the press anything. Lois Lane chases him down and he agrees to an interview. Waller briefs the Suicide Squad about what’s going to happen. She wants the A-Team (Bronze Tiger, Vixen, Ravan, Punch, Jewelee, Captain Boomerang, and Silent Majority to meet with the Knights, Black Thorn, Vostok, and Manhunter on Kobra’s ship. The B-Team is Major Victory (who is never pictured in this issue), Dr. Light, Nightshade, Duchess, Lady Liberty, Shade, Peacemaker, and Briscoe; they are to create a diversion so the A-Team can get on Kobra’s ship. Two oddly shaped jets leave from Colorado, piloted by Reed and Washington. Steel sends Firestorm, Captain Atom, and Major Force on their part of the mission. Kobra is ready to fire his cannon. Atom and Firestorm reach Cobra’s ship. They place Invasion debris in front of it, so it has to dive to a lower orbit. As it dives, Firestorm uses his powers to make it dive lower, while Atom takes out its ability to maneuver, sending it further into the atmosphere. All of this makes Kobra angry. The Squad, now in their own jets, rendez-vous with the Checkmate jets just as Kobra’s vessel enters the atmosphere. Briscoe approaches in his jet (even though Waller said he’d have Sheba in the briefing), but Peacemaker ejects from it to do things his own way. Firestorm transmutes the door to the vessel’s hangar, giving the Knights and Squad a way in. They scramble and meet the resistance of Kobra’s troops. A fight begins. Kobra sends his Blackadders as well, giving Mark Shaw the chance to put on his smaller Manhunter mask. There’s a lot of fighting. Kobra decides that since his ship is going down, he should fire his cannon anyway, and kill as many people as he can.
- Chapter 10: Suicide Squad #30 – Captain Atom works at disabling the exterior of the ship, while inside, the Squad fight the Kobra footsoldiers. Mark Shaw drops in on them, still dressed as a Blackadder, and Ravan tries to kill him. Shaw tells Bronze Tiger about the pulse cannon, and Ben calls in everyone to try to stop it before it’s fired. At Belle Reve, Sarge Steel contacts Waller to tell her that the President has decided that the risk of Kobra’s ship landing on an American city is too great, and they’ve decided to nuke it. Waller is furious, because there is no time to get all her people off it. On the ship, Kobra is convinced by his head scientist that he should escape, leaving the scientist to fire the weapon and take out as many Americans as he can before the ship crashes. Kobra, convinced that he is basically a god, agrees and marches off across the backs of his men. He revels in their glory, just as the Squad enters the room and sees they are facing dozens of Kobra soldiers and Blackadders. Ben orders them all to go for the cannon, but Shaw decides to go after the bounty on Kobra instead. Vixen gets hit in the side with a shot. The doctor shoots Silent Majority dead. The Checkmate forces engage the Kobra forces as well. Outside the ship, Firestorm and Captain Atom chat briefly when they see the nuclear missile approaching; Firestorm transmutes it into something harmless. Manhunter confronts Kobra as he approaches his escape vessel. The cannon is about ready to fire. The Squad (with Peacemaker, who flirts a bit with Duchess) get closer. Nightshade engulfs the cannon in darkness, and Lady Liberty destroys it, but is killed by the resulting explosion. Major Force arrives and starts mopping up the rest of the Kobra goons. Val Vostok gets word that the ship is being blown up in ten minutes, giving our heroes time to escape. Shaw drops Kobra at Ben’s feet, and tells him to tell Waller he’s never working for her again. With Major Force doing something inside the ship, and Firestorm and Captain Atom doing other things outside, it basically disappears, although it’s not clear where everyone went. Did they even rescue the hostages? In the first epilogue, we learn that Kale locked Lois Lane up, and now she’s being released, but has been hit with injunctions that make it impossible for her to talk about anything she learned. As she leaves, angry, she’s hit in the face with a pie (this is a running gag in Suicide Squad). In the second epilogue, President George HW Bush is meeting with Steel, Eiling, Stein, and Waller. We learn that the hostages, including the Chases, are fine. He tells them that he’s reorganizing the whole metahuman intelligence industry, putting Sarge Steel in charge of all of it. Eiling will still oversee military metahumans, but is no longer directly in charge of the Atom Project. He’s dissolved Task Force X, so Checkmate is now its own agency, with Project Peacemaker folded into it, and Stein in charge. Waller still runs the Suicide Squad (which now has Major Victory assigned to it), but she’s more or less on probation for not bringing any of the Janus Directive stuff to the President. Back at Belle Reve, Murph and Ben check on Kobra, who is meditating in his cell, and perhaps communing with his god.
- Chapter 11: Captain Atom #30 – This final epilogue didn’t need the Janus Directive trade dress, as it doesn’t exactly add anything to the event past it’s first couple of pages, and even they aren’t exactly consequential. I’m guessing that they just wanted to goose sales on this book a little. Captain Atom and Nightshade have a brief conversation about how they’ve both had feelings for other people. Nightshade ends things between them. Atom’s daughter reads up on the Captain Atom Project, and absorbs the fact that her father, who she thought was dead for twenty years, is a superhero. Amanda Waller is upset that General Eiling sent her a condescending note, and when she tries to call him to yell at him, learns that the President has given him a bit of a vacation. Eiling and his family prepare for a day at sea. Eiling ended up raising Adam’s kids – Peggy and Randall, after he married Adam’s wife while he was believed dead. They and Peggy’s fiance, Jeff, who was Adam’s best friend (and is twenty years older than her), as well as Eiling’s father, head out in a nice fishing boat. There’s some family issues that I don’t really understand, having not read this series. Captain Atom checks in on things at the Justice League Europe headquarters, where Elongated Man tells him that Black Manta has been spotted off the Florida Keys. Knowing his kids are there, he heads off, and when he finds their boat (which really, can’t be easy), he notices that Peggy is swimming, surrounded by sharks. He rescues her and joins the group. As Eiling Sr. approaches, he turns human and hangs out. He’s reacting weirdly to his daughter’s relationship with Jeff, and finds it odd that he’s reacting as much to the fact that Jeff is Black as he is that he’s in his forties. Eiling talks to him, and they kind of start getting along. Adam wants to go diving, looking for Black Manta, and his son insists on coming too. They are noticed by Black Manta, and when his sub approaches them, its prehensile arms manage to knock Adam out and take them prisoner. They end up in an underwater cave facility of Black Manta’s. He wants to test some alien device he intends to use on Aquaman on them. Adam comes to, turns into Captain Atom, and destroys it. He knocks out Black Manta, and turns him over to the authorities, before flying Randall back to Eiling’s boat. They lie to Wade Eiling about what happened, but it turns out he already knows all the secrets. Again, this didn’t need to be a part of the Janus Directive at all.
Well, I really enjoyed this event, but also had some problems with it. I love the idea of nested Intelligence agencies that know nothing about one another, and thought that the early concept of them going to war with one another was really cool. I enjoyed watching Waller take the initiative in trying to shut things down, and also really enjoyed the expansiveness of this story.
Where I had issues was with the fact that this was all done as part of a plot by Kobra to hide the fact that he was developing a doomsday device in space. So he created doppelgangers of people like Dr. Megala and Waller herself, but no one else? And the goal of these doppelgangers was to start the war between agencies? If that’s the case, I can understand why he’d target Waller, but why Megala? Why not anyone else? And how, exactly, would that keep other countries from noticing what he’s doing? And how were these agencies a threat to him?
Beyond that, my only other issues with this event were in the last chapters in the Suicide Squad book, which often moved a little too quickly to move from one story element to the next. We went from all out war between the Squad and everyone else, to Waller getting everyone on the same page. Nightshade just kind of showed up with King Faraday, Sarge Steel, and Captain Atom, without CBI’s role ever being fully explained. We never saw John and Cherie Chase again, nor did we see Megala and the other hostages get rescued, even though time was spent establishing that they were aware that Manhunter was there for them.
I feel like a few more chapters would have helped these pacing issues.
Beyond that, I thought the coordination between John Ostrander, Kim Yale, and Paul Kupperberg was pretty remarkable. There were little omissions and oddities (such as Flo Crowley looking like a white woman in an issue of Checkmate), but generally, this story moved very smoothly from one chapter to the next, which was rare in those days.
I also like the way this event ended with a clearer portrait of the structural organization of these various groups, with Checkmate divorcing itself from Waller, and absorbing Peacemaker’s group into the organization. I also like that Major Victory was added to the Squad – I just wish I knew more about the Force of July. I feel like there could have been a very cool miniseries establishing just what kind of missions they undertook before they got killed off. There was a lot of potential for a pre-Vertigo style series about a group of USA-themed black ops operatives.
Anyway, I digress. This was a good event. It’s got me thinking of picking up the full run of Checkmate at a con, because I think I only have one other issue, and I like the concept. It’s also got me wanting to revisit Ostrander’s Firestorm after I finish reading the rest of Suicide Squad.
I might write about another crossover event like this again. Any picks?
If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.
