Retro Review: Suicide Squad (Vol. 1) #1-39 By Ostrander, Yale, McDonnell, Snyder III & Others For DC Comics

Suicide Squad #1-39, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1, Annual #1 (May 1987 – March 1990)

Written by John Ostrander (#1-37, 39), Larry Ganim (#21), Kim Yale (#23-24, 27-32, 34, 36-39)

Plotted by John Ostrander (#38, The Doom Patrol and Suicid Squad Special #1)

Scripted by Robert Greenberger (#38), Paul Kupperberg (The Doom Patrol and Suicid Squad Special #1)

Penciled by Luke McDonnell (#1-24, 35, 38-39), Peter Krause (#21), Grant Miehm (#25-26, 32), John K. Snyder III (#27-31, 33-34, 36-37), Erik Larsen (The Doom Patrol and Suicid Squad Special #1), Graham Nolan (Annual #1), Keith Giffen (Annual #1)

Inked by Karl Kesel (#1-3, 21-26, 28, 30), Bob Lewis (#4-13, 15, 17-20, The Doom Patrol and Suicid Squad Special #1), Luke McDonnell (#14), Malcolm Jones III (#16), Fred Butler (#21), Pablo Marcos (#27, 29), John K. Snyder III (#31), KS Wilson (#32), Kevin Phillips (#32), Geof Isherwood (#33-39), Tim Dzon (Annual #1), Bob Oksner (Annual #1)

Colour by Carl Gafford (#1-8, 11-39, The Doom Patrol and Suicid Squad Special #1, Annual #1), Julianna Ferriter (#9-10), Matt Webb (#21)

Spoilers (from thirty-one to thirty-four years ago)

I’ve been rereading whole runs and series from my collection for years now, and have covered most of the titles I was most excited about (with the exception of the middle letters of my Marvel collection, which remain inaccessible for now). But there is one series that I place on a pedestal and have been wanting to revisit for ages, and was waiting for the right time for. I think, after a year of stay-at-home orders, and in the middle of yet another one, it’s time to think about a group of incarcerated people who would choose to take on potentially deadly work to reduce their sentences.

That’s right, it’s time for John Ostrander’s classic Suicide Squad. This series has always meant a great deal to me. I remember looking at an early issue in a Towers newsstand, and being drawn to the dark characters. I don’t remember when I bought that issue (my copy doesn’t have a UPC, so I must have gotten it from a comics store later), but I know that by the time the Millennium tie-in happened, I was probably already buying the book.

I loved Suicide Squad. I was new to the DC Universe, and was getting to know these characters, and wasn’t yet aware of how obscure and random the lineup of this book was. I was attracted to the fact that any of the characters could be killed off at any moment (and often were), and that these were hard nosed villains. I remember thinking that Deadshot was one of the coolest characters in comics, that Captain Boomerang was one of the most annoying, and that Amanda Waller, the person without any powers or physical prowess was the biggest badass in the book. And I thought that before I saw her take on Batman.

This book had more character development than any other book I was reading at the time, and it started my lifelong admiration for John Ostrander’s writing. Reading this book made me feel sophisticated, and helped me become more aware of the world.

As I read this, I’m going to also read the associated titles, like Manhunter and the Deadshot miniseries (both of those future columns might have come out by the time you read this). I’m also thinking of doing a separate column for the Janus Directive crossover, which I remember as being a very well-orchestrated and written event. I do want to read all the chapters.

So, let’s get into this column, which I expect is going to end with me gushing praise and feeling as strongly as I do before I start reading.

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Suicide Squad:

Amanda Waller (#1, 3-5, 8-14, 16-17, 19-39, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1, Annual #1)
Rick Flag (#1-10, 12-13, 16-22, 26, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1, Annual #1)
Deadshot (Floyd Lawton; #1-10, 13-16, 18, 22, 33-34, 36-37, 39)
Bronze Tiger (Benjamin Turner; #1-9, 13-27, 29-30, 32-34, 36-38, Annual #1)
Enchantress (June Moone; #1-2, 4-8, 11-12, 14-16, 21)
Captain Boomerang (George “Digger” Harkness; #1-5, 7-9, 11-18, 20-25, 27, 30-37, Annual #1)
Plastique (#1-3)
Mindboggler (#1-2)
Briscoe (pilot; #1-2, 7, 11-12, 19, 22, 24-25, 29, 32-34)
Nightshade (Eve Eden; #1-7, 11-21, 23-26, 28-30, 33-37, Annual #1)
Nemesis (Tom Tressor; #1-3, 5-7, 13, 19-20, 22-24, Annual #1)
Black Orchid (#4, 7, 11-12, 22)
Chronos (#4)
Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot; #5-7)
Privateer (Mark Shaw; #8-9)
Slipknot (#9)
Duchess (Lashina; #10, 13-16, 18-20, 22-25, 27-35, Annual #1)
Vixen (Mari McCabe; #11-18, 20, 22-30, 32-39, Annual #1)
Speedy (Roy Harper; #11-12)
Javelin (#13)
Shade, the Changing Man (Rac Shade; #16-20, 22, 24-28, 30, 32-37, Annual #1)
Captain Cold (Leonard Snart; #16-18)
Doctor Light (Arthur Light; #19, 24-25, 27, 30-31, 33-34, 36-37, 39)
Manhunter (Mark Shaw; #20, 29-30, Annual #1)
Shrike (#24-25)
Count Vertigo (Werner Vertigo; #24-25, 27-28, 31, 33-37)
Ravan (#24-25, 27, 29-34, 36-37, 39)
Punch (#24-25, 27, 30-31, 33-34, 36-37, 39)
Jewelee (#24-25, 27, 30-31, 33-34, 36-39)
Major Victory (Bill Wickers; #31-37, 39)
Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley; #33-37, 39)
Psi (Gayle Marsh; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Thinker (The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Weasel (The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Mr. 104 (John Dubrovny; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)

Villains

Rustam (Jihad; #1-2, 17-18, 26)
Ravan (Jihad; #1-2, 17-18)
Manticore (Jihad; #1-2, 17-18)
Jaculi (Jihad; #1-2)
Djinn (Jihad; #1-2)
President Marlo (President of Qurac; #1-2)
Parasite (#1)
Glorious Godfrey (#3)
Darkseid (#3, 36)
Lashina (Female Furies; #3, 36)
Mad Harriet (Female Furies; #3, 34-36)
Stompa (Female Furies; #3, 34-36)
Bernadeth (Female Furies; #3, 34-36)
Desaad (#3)
Chronos (#3)
The Penguin (#3)
William Hell (W. James Heller; #4)
Major Zastrow (USSR; #5, 7, 37, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Sickle (The People’s Heroes; #7, 13)
Hammer (The People’s Heroes; #7, 13)
Pravda (The People’s Heroes; #7)
Molotov (The People’s Heroes; #7, 13)
Bolshoi (The People’s Heroes; #7)
Derek Tolliver (NSC liaison; #8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21)
Manhunters (#9)
Xavier Cujo (#11-12)
Senator Joe Cray (#11, 14, 22)
The Rocket Red Brigade (#13, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
The Dhazmor (#14)
The Incubus (Larry Eden; #14-15)
Dr. Z.Z. (#16)
Badb (Jihad; #17-18)
Agni (Jihad; #17-18)
Koshchei (Jihad; #17-18)
Jaculi II (Jihad; #17-18)
Ifrit (fka Mindboggler, Jihad; #17-19, 26)
Bocor (Loa; #20, 37-39)
Damballah (Loa; #20, 37-39)
Neiko (#21)
Thanagarians (#23)
Okaarans (#23)
Khund (#23)
Haile Selassie Frelimo (President of Ogaden; #25)
Víbora (Kobra; #27)
Blackadders (Kobra ninjas; #28-30)
Kobra (the organization; #28-30, Annual #1)
Kobra (Lord Naga-Naga; #28-30, 33)
Para-Demons (#34)
Virman Vundabar (#34-36)
Granny Goodness (#34-36)
Kanto (#34-36)
Artemiz (#35-36)
Unnamed demon (#36)
Unnamed demon’s toady (#36)
Stalnoivolk (Ivan Illyich Gort; #37, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Mambo (Loa; #37-39)
Sandinistas (The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Control (Argent; Annual #1)
Anna-Marie Veré (Argent; Annual #1)
Argent (Annual #1)

Guest Stars

Vicki Vale (reporter; #1, 26)
Mikhail Gorbachev (#5, 7, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Madame Xanadu (#8)
Captain Atom (Nathaniel Adam, Justice League International; #9, 13, 28-30)
Firestorm (#9, 29-30)
Duchess (#9)
Manhunter (Mark Shaw; #10)
Batman (Bruce Wayne, Justice League International; #10, 13)
Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz, Justice League International; #13)
Black Canary (Dinah Lance, Justice League International; #13)
Rocket Red #7 (Dmitri, Justice League International; #13)
Green Lantern (Guy Gardner, Justice League International; #13)
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord, Justice League International; #13)
Mister Miracle (Scott Free, Justice League International; #13)
Booster Gold (Michael Carter, Justice League International; #13)
Max Lord (Justice League International; #13)
Red Star (#13)
Ronald Reagan (#14, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Wizor (#16)
Ed Koch (Mayor of New York; #18)
Lois Lane (Daily Planet; #22, 28-30)
Perry White (Daily Planet; #22)
Jimmy Olsen (Daily Planet; #22)
Rocket Red Brigade (#23)
Ram (New Guardians; #23)
Gloss (New Guardians; #23)
Extraño (New Guardians; #23)
Jet (New Guardians; #23)
Harvey Bullock (Checkmate; #25, 27-29)
Harry Stein (Checkmate; #25, 27-30)
Dr. Bridgett D’Abo (Project: Peacemaker; #27-28)
John Chase (#27-28)
Cherie Chase (#27-28)
Mayflower (Force of July; #27)
Silent Majority (Force of July; #27, 29-30)
Sparkler (Force of July; #27)
Major Victory (Force of July; #27, 29-30)
Lady Liberty (Force of July; #27, 29-30)
Abraham Lincoln Carlyle (Force of July; #27)
General Wade Eiling (Atom Project; #27-30)
Dr. Megala (Atom Project; #27-29)
Unnamed Checkmate Knight (Checkmate; #27)
Peacemaker (Project: Peacemaker; #27-30)
Major Force (Atom Project; #28-30)
Negative Woman (Valentina Vostok, Doom Patrol; #28-30, The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Black Thorn (#28-30)
King Faraday (CBI; #28-29, 38)
Knight John Reed (Checkmate; #29-30)
George HW Bush (President; #30)
Big Barda (Barda Free; #32, 34-37)
Mark Moonrider (Forever People; #34, 36-37)
Big Bear (Forever People; #34, 36-37)
Vykin the Black (Forever People; #34, 36-37)
Beautiful Dreamer (Forever People; #34, 36-37)
Serifan (Forever People; #34, 36-37)
Himon (Apokolips #35)
Doctor Light (Jacob Smith’s ghost; #36-37)
Wild Huntsman (#37)
Hawk (Hank Hall; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Celsius (Arani Caulder, Doom Patrol; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Tempest (Joshua Clay, Doom Patrol; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)
Cliff Steel (fka Robotman, Doom Patrol; The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special #1)

Supporting Characters

John Economos (Warden, Belle Reve; #1, 3, 9-10, 14, 16, 19, 21-26, 28-29, 31-32, 34, 36-37, 39)
Flo Crowley (Belle Reve; #1, 3, 8, 10, 14, 16, 19-30, 32-36, Annual #1)
Dr. Simon LaGrieve (Belle Reve; #1, 5, 8, 19, 21-24, 26)
Marnie Herrs (Belle Reve; #1, 8, 14, 23, 26)
Karin Grace (#1, 3, 7-9)
Dr. Moon (#3)
Zoya Trigorin (#5-7)
Father Richard Craemer (Belle Reve chaplain; #10, 19, 24-25, 31-32, 37, 39)
J. Daniel “Murph” Murphy (Belle Reve head guard; #10, 14, 19, 21, 28-31, 33, 37, 39, Annual #1)
Prof. Yvonne Callendar (Chief Research Scientist; #19, 26)
Mitch Sekofsky (Head of Maintenance; #19, 21, 31, 33)
Dr. Mary White (#21, 31, 37-38)
Oracle (#23-24, 26, 32, 38)
Senator Warren Eden (#24-25)
Antoine Hearns (Waller’s lawyer; #24-25)
Sister Agnes Martinon (#25)
J. Danfield Kale (Jack Kovacs; #25- 26, 29-30, 32, 37, 39)
Joel Craemer (lawyer; #26)
Sarge Steel (CBI, head of all government metahuman programs; #29-32, 34, 38-39)
Dr. “Mac” McCoy (Belle Reve; #32-33, 39)
Sereetha (Waller’s daughter; Annual #1)
RJ (Waller’s son-in-law; Annual #1)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

Air Force One, carrying the President, approaches Hub City’s airport. Inside it, we see two men with red shirts behaving suspiciously. One puts down a duffel bag and what looks like a Walkman on the floor. As the plane approaches the runway, one of the men whispers into a small communicator on his finger. A portal opens in a wall, and two figures – one a man with a javelin, and the other, a monstrous creature, emerge. The woman operating the portals calls to the man in the red shirt, and he jumps through. The two new arrivals start rampaging. Some cops respond, but Djinn, a digitized man, emerges from the Walkman and starts killing them. The Mayor and Governor are in the airport, but one of the men in red shirts garrotes one, and stabs the other. The airplane tries to abort its landing, but the other guy in a red shirt has a sword of flame, which he uses to cut off the landing gear and one wing. He teleports away as the plane explodes. The other guy recovers Djinn, and they all depart through a portal, leaving widespread destruction behind. Later, President Marlo of Qurac tours the site with his assistant, Mushtaq and another man. We learn they staged this whole thing as a way of advertising Jihad, their group of super-terrorists for hire. At Belle Reve Federal Prison in Louisiana, reporter Vicki Vale is interviewing the warden, John Economos about how the prison specializes in holding dangerous superbeings. We see that they have Parasite, who they can’t approach, so they feed him by sending rats into his cell (he steals their energy). After Vale leaves, Flo Crowley, John’s assistant, calls Amanda Waller to tell her that the coast is clear. Waller is with Dr. Simon LaGrieve and Marnie Herr, her psychological staff, watching the Suicide Squad in the briefing room. The idea behind the Squad is that villains receive reduced sentences for completing top secret government missions. We learn that Flag has not yet dealt with having lost most of the last Suicide Squad on a mission in Cambodia. We learn that Lawton likely wants to die, and that’s why he’s on the team, but Marnie also thinks there’s a goodness to him. We learn that Turner was brainwashed by the League of Assassins, and that Waller questions how deep his conditioning goes. June Moone is only the Enchantress some of the time, and LaGrieve thinks she is living with schizophrenia. Harkness is mostly just annoying. The staff think that the Squad is not up to the missions being put before them, but Waller doesn’t care. She joins the briefing room and addresses Plastique and Mindboggler, explaining that they have devices on their wrists that can blow their arms off if they don’t follow orders. Boomerang talks about how he doesn’t have one because he’s proved himself, so the Wall has Bronze Tiger put one on him. The team learns about the Jihad, and what happened at the mock airport. They debrief all of the team members, Rustam, Djinn, Manticore, Jaculi, Chimera, and Ravan, the last of the Thugee. Waller explains how the team is being run by President Marlo, with Mustaq working as his number two. We learn that they are holed up in an old WWII base called Jotunheim, which is pretty impenetrable. The team is to infiltrate the base and destroy the Jihad; they already have operatives inside the place. The team moves to a pneumatic tube to get to their airbase, and as they leave, LaGrieve asks Waller why she didn’t tell Flag about the new crew member she’s assigned to the team; she is clearly playing mind games. At Yeager Field, their airbase connected to the prison, their ground crew prepares to leave. Sheba is the name of the team’s helicopter, and its pilot, Briscoe, starts getting it ready to load onto the SS-1, their cargo plane. Flag is nostalgic about the plane, which his previous Squad used to use for their missions, and gets a surprise when he learns that Karin, his former teammate and lover, is on the plane. She’s been assigned as the Squad’s combat medic. It’s clear that things aren’t good between them, because when she was in the hospital, Flag never came to see her. Boomerang keeps hitting on Plastique, so, annoyed with him, Mindboggler uses her powers to frighten him with a vision of Flash, Batman, and Superman mocking him. He tries to toss a boomerang at her, but the Tiger intercepts it. Flag tells him if he does it again, he’ll blow his arm off, and the team departs on their mission.

The Squad is in Qurac, close to Jotenheim, waiting for their contact to arrive. Chimera teleports in, but Flag stops everyone from attacking her, because she’s really Nightshade, and she’s there undercover. She slaps Flag, furious that she was forced into participating in the stage airport attack that killed real people. With Nightshade there to help them, Flag goes over the plan. Briscoe is going to attack soon in Sheba, creating a diversion so the rest of the team can achieve their objectives. Plastique is meant to destroy a lab, while Deadshot’s to go after Manticore. Enchantress is going after Djinn, while Boomerang will fight Jaculi. Bronze Tiger is being sent after Ravan, and an unnamed second agent inside is going to take out the generators. Flag is going after the Jihad’s leader, Rustam. He decides the best way to do that is to wait in Nightshade’s quarters, figuring that Rustam will go there when the attack begins. Nightshade herself is to go after President Marlo, whose name is spelled “Marlos” throughout this issue. They start teleporting in and positioning themselves. As soon as Nightshade leaves Plastique alone, she heads into a hallway, clearly going off mission. With a few moments in her room, Flag and Nightshade talk about their feelings. Plastique tracks down Mustaq, and holds a gun on him. She offers to help him, while Sheba approaches. Mushtaq reveals that he is actually Nemesis, the superspy, and that he’s there with Nightshade. Plastique manages to knock him down and get away though, just as Sheba attacks. Mindboggler terrifies the human guards so they can’t respond. Ravan senses the Tiger in his room, and they begin to fight. Deadshot drops an elevator on Manticore, but it isn’t enough to hurt him. Rustam hears the attack and starts running. Nightshade appears in Marlo’s room, but before she can apprehend him, Plastique blasts her in the back. Marlo runs, and Nemesis shoots Plastique. Rustam is ready for Flag’s ambush, and they start fighting. Nemsis calls Flag over his radio, and when Rustam hears, he takes off. Sheba continues to blast away at Jotunheim. Jaculi, who is hanging out on the roof, is attacked by Boomerang, and bested quickly. Boomerang tosses him over the side of the building, killing him. Bronze Tiger manages to break Ravan’s back. He asks that Ben kill him, but he refuses, claiming he won’t kill anymore. Ravan vows revenge. Deadshot’s guns have little effect on Manticore until he shoots him in the face, killing him. June Moone, in the computer lab, turns into Enchantress, but isn’t able to destroy Djinn before he emerges from his technological home. Enchantress defeats him easily by blasting the tech, and then turns back into June. Ben comes to find her. Boomerang watches as Rustam sneaks up behind Mindboggler. He’s about to save her, but then he remembers that she humiliated him, and doesn’t do anything. Rustam kills her. The team rendez-vous in the hangar, where Nightshade is starting to recover, but can’t use her powers yet. Boomer reports that Mindboggler is dead. The team is going to steal a jet, but they need one person to hang back and set off the catapult that will launch it. Nemesis volunteers just as Rustam leads a cadre of guards into the hangar. The jet launches, and Sheba appears in the open doorway, and guns down the guards. Nemesis jumps on a rope ladder so Driscoe can get him out. Rustam tells the President that he will get revenge. Flag radios Waller to tell her they are on their way home with one dead, and one who needs to be locked up again.

The Apokaliptian, Glorious Godfrey, has been locked up in Belle Reve since the end of the Legends miniseries. Darkseid has decided he wants him home so he can punish him, even though he’s not in his right mind anymore. He orders the Female Furies to go retrieve him. Bernadeth raises Darkseid’s ire, and to smooth things over, Desaad suggests she lead the team now. Lashina disagrees, and they almost fight, until Darkseid stops them and decides to put Lashina in command. Rick Flag walks through Belle Reve, lost in his thoughts, when he hears screams of pain. He finds that Karin Grace and a guy named Dr. Moon (it’s weird that there are two Moones in this book now) have Plastique strapped to a table and are preparing to wipe her memories of the Suicide Squad. Flag disagrees, and when Karin stands up to him, he storms off. In Operations, Nightshade is making it clear to Waller that she’s upset about how the Jihad mission went. Nemesis steps in and tries to take responsibility. Nightshade reminds Waller that she promised her some help, and that she needs it soon. Nemesis also is concerned that the Squad is not aligned with his own goals. Waller brings up how Nemesis came to be with the Squad. He was on a mission where he had to disable an automated helicopter filled with explosives. He succeeded, but was badly injured and left in a river. Some federal agents found him and recognized him, and took him to a hospital. Waller makes it clear that he still owes the government for saving him. Boomerang interrupts to demand he be given an apartment away from Belle Reve. She agrees, and takes a call from Karin about the situation with Rick. Flag busts in and he and Waller start arguing, with him going so far as to threaten to reveal the Squad to the world. An alarm sounds as the Female Furies assault the prison. Stompa busts them in, and they split up to look for Godfrey. Boomerang slips away while Flag gets Bronze Tiger on the phone. He tries to get Floyd’s help too, but Deadshot refuses. Flag splits up the small force he has. Stompa starts fighting Ben, and easily tosses him aside. Mad Harriet faces off against Flag and a bunch of guards with lasers, but it’s not until they bring in a riot tank that things turn a little in their favour. Bernadeth is attacked by Nightshade, and easily knocks her down. Lashina finds Godfrey, and starts carrying him away. Nemesis tries to stop her with a bunch of automated gun things, but has no luck. After knocking him away, Lashina calls the others and they meet outside the prison. As they open a boom tube, Flag approaches. Bernadeth turns around and starts to fight with Lashina. When everyone fires on them, at least one of them goes flying over the prison’s fences. Later, the team debriefs, and Karin lets Waller know that she’s finished with Plastique. Nightshade and Nemesis agree with Flag on this issue, and Waller admits that she was wrong. Flag agrees to stay with the team, and that’s when Boomerang shows up again.

On a hot night in Central City, a group of men rob a liquor store and make off in their getaway car. A masked man swings down from the rooftops to stand in front of them and fire a crossbow bolt into their engine. The man, who identifies himself as William Hell, knocks out the non-white members of the crew, and then tells the two white guys to go join the Aryan Empire, or he’ll hunt them down. The cops and a news van arrive, and Hell claims the rest were the only criminals involved. He takes off, and finds his chauffeured car. He has his driver, Stevens, take him home, and along the way gives him some instructions. After Hell, who is wearing a moustache and beard as part of his disguise, enters his house, the driver opens the trunk of the car, revealing the real Stevens. Fake Stevens brings him up to speed on his boss’s last commands, and then takes off her disguise, revealing the deeply obscure hero Black Orchid, who runs off. Amanda Waller debriefs the Squad (Flag, Nightshade, June Moone, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Chronos) about the racial issues happening in Central City. She blames W. James Heller, who is running the Aryan Empire. She also tells them about William Hell, and how he only arrests people of colour. This gives Boomerang the chance to make some racist comments about who commits crime, which, it’s pointed out to him, doesn’t necessarily reflect the team of criminals he’s on. Waller informs them that Hell and Heller are the same man, and we learn that Lawton grew up knowing Heller and his fiercely competitive family. His parents died in a race riot, which has fuelled Heller’s hatred. Waller has a plan, and it requires Chronos’s help. A couple nights later, as Heller patrols, he finds Boomerang and a Black villain named Wipeout robbing an armored car. He swoops in and fights them, and then offers Boomerang a spot in the Aryan Empire. The cops come to arrest Wipeout, who we learn after Hell leaves, is really Bronze Tiger (Flag and Nightshade are posing as cops). A couple of nights later, Heller is holding a rally in a park that is very well attended by his Aryan Empire crowd, and is being counter-protested by a group of Black people. William Hell swoops in and takes over the podium (Heller doesn’t appear to react to this). Hell gives a speech about how poor white, Black, and Latino people should work together, and claims Heller is not working in their best interests. A second William Hell appears, accusing him of being an imposter. Boomerang, who is on the stage, suggests that they prove who they are using their skills with the crossbow. One of the Hells suggests they shoot an apple off Boomerang’s head, and some of the Aryans tie him to a tree. The first Hell takes his shot and hits the apple perfectly. The second one takes his shot and misses, which is seen as proof that he’s the fake. The first Hell unmasks the second, revealing him to be James Heller. The “real” Hell tells the crowd that Heller kidnapped him in order to twist his good deeds. As he walks away, one of the Aryan Empire guys shoots him in the back, and he collapses. There is a weird smoke bomb, and the shooter disappears. An ambulance arrives and picks up Hell; the doctor (how many doctors ride in ambulances?) tells the media that it doesn’t look good for him. As the ambulance drives off, we learn that it was Deadshot posing as Hell, and that his shooting was fake. Boomerang, Flag, and Nightshade rendezvous with the ambulance, and we learn that Enchantress powered one of Chronos’s devices to make sure that Heller missed when he shot his bolt, but Boomer is not too happy to learn that Floyd took his shot without help. They debate democratic ideals for a bit, and even though they know that the charges against Heller are not likely to hold up, they’ve at least taken away his power.

In Moscow, Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev meets with three high level military or political men, including Major Zastrow, who becomes a mainstay in Ostrander’s books. They are discussing what to do with Zoya Trigorin, a dissident writer who has been imprisoned. Gorbachev wants her freed, but the others are worried that she’ll be a problem for them. Zastrow suggests that she be traded to the American government in exchange for some other prisoners. Gorbachev gives them a month to arrange the exchange. In Belle Reve, Waller and Flag are working with the Penguin to arrange a rescue mission to retrieve Trigoin. Penguin is working on the plan, which both Flag and Waller worry is too political for the Squad. Flag is also worried that the plan relies a lot on Enchantress, who is becoming increasingly unstable. Dr. LaGrieve meets with June Moone, who talks about her desire to be free of the Enchantress, who is becoming stronger. Enchantress almost takes over, threatening LaGrieve, who stands firm and comforts June. Lawton goes to visit Boomerang in his new apartment in New Orleans; Boomerang is not going on this mission, and instead tries to figure out how he’s going to be able to engage in some crime without getting caught by Waller. Two weeks later, Flag disembarks a plane in Moscow, dressed in an Air Force dress uniform. He passes customs, and is taken by a driver (actually Lawton) to the US embassy, where Turner and June are waiting for him. Nightshade and Cobblepot are there too; they’ve all taken jobs in the embassy. Flag and Lawton dress as Soviet soldiers, as does Eve, while Cobblepot disguises himself as a monk, and June as a peasant. They are to travel together. Eve teleports them to a train station, where they board a train separately, but get together in a cabin. They ride the train to Gorki, where they split up and then reunite at night outside the Novogrod [sic] Psychiatric Hospital, where Trigorin is being kept. When a light turns on, they recognize that as their signal, and the plan is underway. June turns into the Enchantress, and is a little confrontational with Flag before agreeing to follow his plan. She flies off with Eve. The doctor in charge of the hospital asks his assistant to bring him Trigorin, despite the fact that it’s very late. Eve makes it clear to Enchantress that she’s not afraid of her. The doctor tells the assistant to leave him alone with Trigorin, who starts to ask why she hasn’t been killed. Nightshade and Enchantress teleport in (Eve needed to see the place to do this), startling the author. We learn that Nemesis has been posing as the doctor, and he explains to her that they are there to rescue her. Enchantress transforms herself to look like her, in order to buy the team time to get away. Trigorin starts to freak out, and claims she doesn’t want to leave. She’d rather stay and be a martyr. As they discuss what to do, the assistant enters the room, and calls for guards.

Issue six was possibly my first Suicide Squad comic (it’s also possible I bought the Millennium tie-in first, then got this one, but I think this was it), and it’s where, to me, the series really got into its rhythm, and started standing out as being equally a black ops as a superhero (or villain) book. Flag, Lawton, and Penguin watch as the psychiatric hospital practically explodes. Nightshade brings them Nemesis and Trigorin, the person who they are supposed to be rescuing who doesn’t want to go with them. Eve explains that Enchantress blew the place up when they were discovered, and is now flying around making the flames grow. Flag sees a convoy of troops closing in. He orders Deadshot to shoot Enchantress to bring her down, but also holds a gun to his head to make sure he doesn’t kill her (this scene was so cool to twelve-year-old me). Floyd fires, and Eve and Tresser go to retrieve her. Tresser forces Enchantress to say her name, which returns her to being June Moone. They return to the others through one of Eve’s portals. Flag figures they need transportation to get back to the train station, as they are out of Eve’s range. Deadshoot shoots one of the approaching soldiers, which draws the others towards him. Having dispatched some of the troops, they sneak up on a truck and knock out the two guys guarding it. They pile in and drive off, but two other trucks pursue them. Trigorin tries to explain that she wanted to stay in custody to become a martyr against the state. Lawton finds a high tech bazooka in the truck (I don’t know how that makes sense) and uses it to blow up one of their pursuers’ vehicles, but not before they are able to radio in for reinforcements. After missing the second pursuit truck, he takes it out too. Flag has Nemesis pull over so they can adjust their plans. Eve gives Trigorin her coat and hat, but lets Flag know that she’s reaching the extent of what her powers will allow without rest. They reach the train station through one of her portals, and Lawton and Eve go, dressed as Soviet soldiers still, to scout out an empty car that some of them could hide in (Eve needs to see it in order to open a portal there). They find a suitable hiding place, but it’s unheated. The others all board the train using the same disguises they did before, leaving Eve and Tresser to teleport into the boxcar as the train leaves the station. It’s taxing for Eve, but she’s able to make it. She and Tresser cuddle together for warmth, and Tresser mentions that he knows Eve has feelings for Flag, and so he’s setting aside his own feelings for her. The train makes it to Moscow without incident, and after the main group disembarks, they are joined by Eve and Tresser. Eve is exhausted, but she’s still able to teleport them all to the embassy, where Bronze Tiger and an undersecretary named Leonard Twilliby wait for them. Twilliby is furious about this mission, which neither he nor the ambassador were aware of. He says they have to turn Trigorin over to the authorities or the ambassador will turn them all over.
The People’s Heroes, Hammer, Sickle, Bolshoi, Molotov, and Pravda (these are terrible names) are at the Gorki train station, trying to pick up Trigorin’s trail. Pravda has some kind of psychic powers that help them, and they board a helicopter to get to Moscow. In the American embassy, the Squad still tries to figure out what to do. June feels guilty that Enchantress put them in this predicament, while Eve worries that she’s tapped out her powers. The Penguin accesses an embassy computer, while Trigorin suggests that they try to escape by going over the Black Sea, which doesn’t normally freeze, and is therefore a plausible and unmonitored way out of the Soviet Union. Rick decides that Bronze Tiger should stay behind, as he wasn’t involved in the rescue op, and get in touch with Waller. Cobblepot comes up with something, so the Squad heads to a local hotel, where, posing as Soviet soldiers, they apprehend a group of American tourists and move them all into a single room, while stealing their passports and clothes. Lawton and Cobblepot want to kill the Americans to help cover their trail, but Flag opposes this plan. Nemesis punches Lawton in the face, and as an alternative, volunteers to stay behind and guard their captives, figuring he can slip out later in one of his disguises. In New Orleans, Boomerang brings a woman back to his place. We learn that he’s left his phone off the hook to avoid a certain woman calling him, but it turns out the woman he’s with is actually Black Orchid; she drags him back to Belle Reve. The Squad is on a train heading east, and talks about how there are wolves running alongside the train. They also talk about communism. In Moscow, the People’s Heroes attack and capture Nemesis. Twelve hours later, the Squad begins to trek across the Sea (you’d have thought they’d need warmer clothes). They are stopped by the People’s Heroes, who have Nemesis with them. Before any fighting can begin, Bronze Tiger arrives with Boomerang and Black Orchid. They tell the others that the SS-1 is on the ice waiting for them. Cobblepot takes Trigorin and June that way, while the others start fighting. June calls on the Enchantress to fight Pravda while Flag and Lawton work together to fight Molotov. Turner fights Bolshoi (who can dance/fight), while Hammer and Black Orchid get into it. Boomerang destroys Sickle’s sickle, and then, when Enchantress goes after Deadshot, takes her down too. As they rush towards their plane, they see a squadron of Hind attack helicopters approaching, and a bunch of soldiers too. Trigorin grabs the injured Nemesis, but things look bad until Driscoe comes in piloting Sheba. He takes out some of the Soviet helicopters, but not before one shoots Trigorin. Nemesis runs to her and she dies in his arms. He is surrounded by soldiers and surrenders, while the rest of the team piles onto the plane. Flag wants to wait for Nemesis, but Lawton insists that they leave. Briscoe reports that he wasn’t able to grab Tresser either. Later, Zastrow and Gorbachev talk about how Trigorin’s death ensures her the martyrdom she was looking for, and how they haven’t been able to get any information out of Tresser because Pravda is hurt.

Issue eight is the first to be given the label of “Personal Files”, a recurring framing sequence that I loved in this series. Dr. LaGrieve, the Squad’s psychiatrist, is up late, unable to sleep. He starts to record his notes on the team. He talks about first meeting Amanda Waller years before, and convincing her to use her anger and pain (one son was murdered, her daughter was raped, and her husband was also killed) for constructive purposes. He then talks about how, after the team returned from Russia, she confronted Derek Tolliver, Task Force X’s liaison to the NSC about the fact that he authorized this mission without permission. He suggested that the team was expendable, and she slugged him. Fearing that he’ll get in trouble, Tolliver started cooking up a plan. LaGrieve next discusses an argument between Flag and Waller. Flag wanted to go back for Nemesis, but she refused, mostly because she didn’t know where he was. Karin Grace entered the conversation, and made comments about how Flag left behind members of the last Suicide Squad, including her. He grabbed her to try to make a point, and then blew off Waller when she tried to deescalate the situation. That’s when the Privateer, a pirate-themed villain named Mark Shaw who is new to the team, decided to get involved. He and Flag got into it, and he managed to take the exhausted Shaw down. Waller put Flag on rest, and asked Flo to let Bronze Tiger know that he’s in charge of the team. Karin flirted with Shaw. Next, LaGrieve begins to talk about June Moone, and her problems with her Enchantress persona. Ben took her to New York, where he arranged to have her see Madame Xanadu, the powerful psychic. They talked about her Enchantress issues, and then Xanadu gave June a necklace to wear. She asked June to transform into Enchantress, and when that more aggressive persona tried to attack her, she neutralized her with her ring and the necklace. After forcing her to turn back to June, Xanadu gave the ring to Turner, warning that with repeated use, it will be less effective. Next, LaGrieve turned to discuss Deadshot, and his concerns that his assistant, Marnie Herrs, might be getting too involved in his care. We see Lawton and Marnie talking. Lawton talked about why he sees prostitutes when he needs a woman’s attention. He went on to suggest that all women are “pros”, including Marnie, who he accused of being interested in him for money. She slapped him, and then they kissed. Lawton left. Finally, LaGrieve records his suspicions that Captain Boomerang can’t be trusted. At the same time, we see that the “Mirror Master” is using his mirror gun to pull off a jewelry store robbery and get away from the cops. The Mirror Master is actually Boomerang, who has stolen his former partner’s gear. He’s quite pleased that he can both work for Waller and pull jobs on the side now. With dawn approaching, LaGrieve finishes his notes and embraces his wife.
Issue nine ties in as part of the fourth week of the Millennium event, and if #6 wasn’t my first issue, this definitely was. The Squad (made up of Slipknot, Boomerang, Deadshot, Karin Grace, Privateer, and Rick Flag, under Bronze Tiger’s command) have been sent to deliver a bomb-filled vehicle nicknamed Baby Huey into the Manhunter temple that has been discovered in the middle of the Louisiana swamp, not far from the prison. Privateer, Mark Shaw, was trained by the Manhunters, and Flag is jealous of the attention Karin is giving him. Slipknot and Boomerang talk about whether or not the explosive wrist devices are real, and Boomerang suggests they aren’t. Before the Squad can move on with their mission, they are joined by Captain Atom, who is there because his boss, General Eiling, wants him to destroy the temple before the Squad does. He figures it’s better they work together, but is surprised to learn of the unstable nature of the xyzedium bomb they’re transporting. Atom and Flag talk about how unlikely it is that the team can survive this mission. They don’t get far before Firestorm also shows up. Atom goes to deal with him (which I guess happens in an issue of his own book). At Belle Reve, Waller complains to Economos that Eiling is messing with her plans, and learns that Batman has been to the prison, looking around. Boomerang uses an explosive boomerang to open a hole in the Manhunter temple. A number of Manhunter robots come out and start fighting the team. Slipknot decides to run off, while Boomerang and Deadshot struggle to even dent the android Manhunters. Shaw knows how to shut them off, but one of the Manhunters hits Turner so hard, he breaks his leg. Flag and Karin get Turner on the Huey, but one of the Manhunters grabs Karin and heads into the temple. Shaw gets him to stay on mission instead of going after her. Slipknot is still running, when his arm bracelet explodes. Boomerang hears it, and knows that Waller really does mean business. Turner insists on being left behind, so Flag takes over, taking the bracelet off Boomerang. A tall woman in fatigues finds Slipknot. Boomerang and Deadshot are basically out of boomerangs and bullets. Flag and Shaw head into the temple, while Shaw talks about how the Manhunters manipulated him. They see Karin hanging from an outcropping up one wall, and ignoring Shaw’s advice, Flag rescues her. She immediately pulls a gun on him – it turns out she’s been with the Manhunters all along, and that Shaw is the one who recruited her. Shaw grabs her gun, and claims he doesn’t know her. A Manhunter approaches, and identifies himself as Mark Shaw, and that Privateer is an android. Flag gives up on this and tries to leave, but the Manhunter blasts him and Shaw. Karin is just about to kill Flag, but remembers some of the good times between them. The Manhunter orders her to kill, but then starts falling apart. At the same time, the Manhunters fighting Boomerang and Deadshot fall apart too, as does the one that was about to crush Bronze Tiger (something happened in Spectre’s comic). Karin offers to take the bomb into the temple, having seen the light now. Shaw starts to take Flag out, and Karin asks that he tell Flag that she remembers loving him now. As she drives, she’s attacked by Manhunters that haven’t fallen apart yet, but she drives through them. She flips the Huey over and is trapped beneath it. The rest of the Squad reunites outside of the temple, and Shaw brings them up to speed as they drag Flag away towards Bronze Tiger. Karin accepts her fate as the countdown on the bomb continues. Flag comes to just as the temple explodes; the team starts walking home.

Father Richard Craemer, Belle Reve’s new chaplain, is shown to the store room that is being turned into a chapel for him. He’s with Murph, the head guard, and we get to know the two men a little. Craemer intends to live in the prison so he can stay close to his work. Murph gets a call that Duchess, the woman who saved Slipknot the month before, is in the armory. We learn that she’s decided to stick around, having no memory of who she is, and that she has a fondness for big guns. She’s made herself one. Waller, Economos, and Flo are meeting in the former chapel, which is the Squad’s operations centre. We learn that Nightshade, Bronze Tiger, and Slipknot are all in the infirmary, and that with Turner out, Waller still doesn’t want to put Flag in charge. We get the sense that Flo is into Ben, and learn that Waller has taken over all of Task Force X, and has to head to Washington for a few days. Mark Shaw talks to Flag, telling him he’s leaving the Squad to become a bounty hunter. He intends to use the name Manhunter again, and that Waller’s given him his first job. He offers to take Flag with him, but he refuses. At midnight, one of the prisoners uses the lens from his glasses to spoof a security camera in his cell. We learn that this is Matches Malone, and that he’s being held as a favor for Gotham’s police. “Matches”, who we all know is Batman, gets out of his cell and heads to a storage room where his uniform is stashed in an evidence box. As Batman, he goes through Economos’s office. Waller and the others finish up their work, and shut down their massive computer. As Waller is leaving, Murph notices on a switchboard that her computer is still on, and she immediately knows that means there’s an intruder. When she gets to her office, Batman is gone, but she figures out that he downloaded the Squad’s organizational structure. He’s spotted on a camera, so Waller calls in Flag, Deadshot, and Duchess to stop him. A ton of guards try to fight Batman, but he gets past them easily. Duchess takes him by surprise, and we see she’s incredibly strong, but not able to withstand a gas pellet he shoves in her mouth. Deadshot has a standoff with Batman, but when he fires at him, he misses, and gets punched out. Batman almost makes it to the main exit, but Flag tackles him and they start to fight. They’re more evenly matched than you’d expect, but their fight ends when Waller fires a rifle above their heads. She’s with Duchess, Lawton, and a mess of armed guards. Batman tells her that he doesn’t like what the Squad stands for, and wants to expose them to the world. He also points out to Lawton that he always pulls his shots when he fires at him. Waller points out that she has his fingerprints from his cell, and can figure out who he really is. Batman returns the disk he made and vows to keep silent for now, and Economos opens the gate so he can leave. Lawton feels good about making Batman back down, but Flag is furious that they made him into an enemy. Waller decides that it’s time to restore Flag as mission leader.
Mari McCabe, the one-time superhero Vixen, is at a modelling shoot in the Caribbean. After a chat with her friend Andreya, she goes for a swim and thinks about her life as a hero, and how she travelled doing charity work after she quit it. She returns to the beach to find that her friend, the other models, and the photographers and crew are all dead. They’ve been shot. In New Orleans, the “Mirror Master” tries to rob a bank. His plan falls apart when his wrist beeper starts going off, and he has to flee. He’s pursued by some armed guards, but makes himself look like his normal self, as Digger Harkness, and calls Waller on a pay phone. She turns off his beeper just as the guards pass him. Later, he arrives for a briefing where Waller has assembled a Squad – Black Orchid, Nightshade, June Moone, Driscoe, Mari McCabe, and the hero Speedy. She explains how Mari’s come to them after the death of her friends. The photographer happened to take some pictures of a drug handoff taking place off the beach, so they were all killed. Speedy, an expert on the drug war, explains that the killers work for Xavier Cujo, a Medellin druglord. Waller shows some real insight into how drugs fuel the Colombian economy, and how there is no extradition treaty with the US. Waller wants Cujo’s fortress destroyed and him killed. Eve doesn’t agree with killing him, but Mari claims she will do it herself. Flag’s on a different mission, so Waller puts Nightshade in charge of this mission. Eve insists that doing this means Waller will finally live up to the promise she made her. The team is split in two and debriefed. Boomerang, Mari, and Black Orchid go to a party in Medellin where Boomerang tries to talk to Cujo about opening up the Australian drug trade. He “gives” Cujo the two women; they are taken to another room to be searched. In Washington, Senator Joe Cray, who is being implicated in a scandal, is visited by Derek Tolliver, who asks him if he knows about the Suicide Squad. In the Colombian jungle, the Squad is setting up camp Eve and Roy talk about how guerilla soldiers from the Silver Path work with Cujo, and how they’ve both done things they aren’t proud of. June chats with Driscoe about Sheba, and she figures out there’s something strange about this man’s relationship with his helicopter. A large group of armed men approach and surround the Squad. Driscoe uses his communicator to give Sheba some orders. It shoots a bunch of the guerillas, while the team takes out the rest. Driscoe kills the one that entered the helicopter. Roy feels the need to explain how Driscoe’s voice commands work. Even though they are ahead of schedule, they feel now is the time to attack Cujo’s fortress. As Sheba fires missiles at it, some jets come into view.

The Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad Special came out between issues eleven and twelve of the Squad, and happens at the same time. A plane is shot down by some Sandinistas. Inside it is the hero Hawk, who jumps out of the plane and gets captured. News of his capture reaches Washington, and President Ronald Reagan is not too happy about it. He gives Amanda Waller the mission to send the Squad into Nicaragua to retrieve Hawk, or to kill him. Two other suits aren’t happy to see Waller get such a good assignment, and one of them decides to get in touch with the Doom Patrol. At Belle Reve, Waller talks to Flag about the mission, and how she doesn’t like it, but they agree they have no choice. In Moscow, we learn that the Russians are providing aid to the Sandinistas, and that the Rocket Red Brigade has been sent there, even though that decision is controversial among the military. They want Hawk brought to Russia. The Doom Patrol (Celsius, Tempest, Cliff Steele, and Negative Woman) are in Nicaragua, having been contacted by the government. Vostok was told that the Suicide Squad was coming to assassinate Hawk, which is why they have come, but they aren’t exactly getting along. Flag’s Squad (Psi, Thinker, Weasel, and Mr. 104) learn through Psi’s psychic powers that the Doom Patrol is there, and this b-list team immediately falls apart. Mr. 104 hates Steele, and is able to destroy his wrist bomb, while Psi takes off the others’. Thinker makes it clear that they are going to stick to their mission or deal with him, and they start to plan how they’re going to get Hawk out of a fortress. Inside the prison, some guards taunt Hawk. The Doom Patrol infiltrates the fortress early in the morning, while the Squad does the same thing, from another angle. The two teams run into one another while both trying to be sneaky, and they immediately start to fight because of Mr. 104’s hatred of Cliff, who he keeps calling Robotman. Thinker prepares to stop Mr. 104, but Weasel rips his throat out, killing him. They all start fighting, and making a lot of noise. Flag picks up Thinker’s helmet, which is what gave him his powers, and yells at them all to stop. That’s when they are all surrounded by a couple of dozen Rocket Reds. In the Kremlin, Premier Gorbachev is unhappy to learn that, in addition to the other chaos happening in Nicaragua, Major Zastrow has also gone there with Stalnoivolk. He wants them all back in Russia, and the Major he talks to is not happy. The Squad and Doom Patrol start to work together to fight the Rocket Reds, and get away from them. As they flee the fortress, the Reds pursue them. A tall man in a trench coat slips past them all, heading towards the fortress. Flag, who is acting out of character, talks to Celsius, and uses Thinker’s power to hurt her, and threatens to take over her mind. Weasel attacks Cliff, and they are discovered by Rocket Reds. Another Rocket Red blasts Psi, who only joined the Squad in hopes of recovering her lost memory. Negative Woman helps her away after stopping the Red. Tempest and Mr. 104 work together to stop other Rocket Reds. The tall man enters the fortress and shrugs off a guard’s bullets. Psi remembers her name, but dies in Val’s arms. A Rocket Red almost gets the drop on her, but Cliff attacks him, and when his suit is opened, Weasel rips him to shreds. Tempest and Mr. 104 continue to fight some Reds, but 104 is killed. Flag, acting even stranger, tells Celsius that 104 was expendable. The tall man kicks in Hawk’s cell door, and then busts a huge hole in the exterior wall. He grabs Hawk and jumps out, and then tosses him over the walls of the fortress before killing the remaining guards and walking away. Flag continues to control Celsisu, and they rendezvous with the rest of the Doom Patrol. When Flag sees Weasel, he immediately kills him, and then pulls off the Thinker’s helmet. He passes out after yelling that the Thinker’s last wish made him kill Weasel. The Patrol leave Flag lying on the ground and go rescue Tempest from the last of the Rocket Reds. They are surprised to find Flag with Hawk. Flag explains that he has a helicopter coming to extract him, and offers a ride to the Doom Patrol. Flag apologizes to Celsius, blaming his actions on the helmet. They meet their helicopter. The big man, Stalnoivolk, meets Zastrow, and we learn that their plan was to damage the reputation of the Rocket Reds by making their mission fail. Later, Waller apologizes to Flag for allowing that mission to happen. In Russia, the Major from before argues with Zastrow, who shoots him dead.
Back in Colombia, four jets come after Sheba, as the Squad mounts its attack on Xavier Cujo’s drug compound. Driscoe drops Nightshade, Speedy, and June Moone off on a roof and draws the jets away. In Medellin, Captain Boomerang is speaking with Black Orchid and Vixen. Mari is worried about the rage she felt as Vixen before, and is beginning to question her desire to kill Cujo. Boomerang and Black Orchid get into a bit of a conflict, and then she goes into another room to change into her costume. Cujo and some gunmen enter the room – they’ve discovered who Boomerang really is. He covers by explaining that he has to hide his identity to keep safe, and it looks like Cujo is going to buy the act when he receives word of the attack on his compound. He realizes that the Black Orchid is missing, so his men start shooting into the room she’s in. She comes out in costume, and is impervious to bullets. She and Boomerang fight the gunmen while Mari goes after the fleeing Cujo, activating her powers. Nightshade and June work their way into Cujo’s compound, and run into a number of guards. Eve makes it dark, and gives them a beat down. They find a storeroom packed with cocaine, so it’s time for June to turn into the Enchantress and destroy it. As soon as the transformation happens, Enchantress attacks Eve, who has the control ring that Madame Xanadu gave to Bronze Tiger. Their fight turns physical, and Eve gives her a good beating, and then orders Enchantress to transmute the cocaine into guano. She forces her to change back, and calls Briscoe for a pick up. He’s still dealing with the jets, and isn’t happy that Sheba takes a hit to her underside. Boomerang and Black Orchid are faced with a large number of Cujo’s guards, so they take off (with BO leaving Boomerang behind). Mari catches up with Cujo, and they fight silently. Cujo stabs her in the shoulder, and she breaks his neck. Mari is shook by this, and almost gets shot by more of his guards, but Black Orchid arrives to protect her. Boomerang finds a large box of cocaine and tries to figure out how to steal it, but Black Orchid grabs him too. She picks up Mari and they fly off. Nightshade and June rendezvous with Speedy, who has been planting explosives. Driscoe picks them up, and as they fly off, Speedy fires an arrow at one of the explosives, setting them all off. Later, they are all in the Squad’s debriefing room. Rick Flag is there, and he’s clearly shook up from his mission to Nicaragua. He even completely ignores Eve when she tries to talk to him. Waller congratulates the team on their successful mission, and offers Vixen a place on the Squad; she accepts, not having anywhere else to go. Roy pushes back a little, pointing out that destroying this cocaine and taking out Cujo is not going to make much difference in the grand scheme of things. To prove his point, the last page shows a flashy creep picking up a woman at a party, and offering her cocaine.

Justice League International #13 starts off a two-part crossover with the Squad. Batman is unhappy to learn that Nemesis is in a Soviet prison. Flag wants to mount a rescue mission when information of Nemesis’s location is made public, but Waller refuses his request. He decides to go anyway, sneaking the Squad onto a jet and out of the country. When Waller learns of this, she goes to the President and suggests he send the Justice League International after them. This plays into Batman’s hands, as he was planning on taking the League to free Tresser anyway. The JLI’s Russian liaison is not happy to hear that more Americans are coming to the country, so he calls his superiors. Waller decides to stay with Max Lord through this debacle (he’s in the hospital). The Rocket Red Brigade are sent to the prison, as is Red Star and the People’s Heroes. Batman insists on checking on Tresser when they arrive. At the same time the Squad starts infiltrating the prison. Batman is upset at the condition Tresser is in, and argues with Martian Manhunter. As they resolve things, the Squad reaches them. At the same time, the Rocket Red Brigade approaches, as does Red Star and a large contingent of soldiers.
The Squad (made up of Flag, Vixen, Duchess, Javelin, Nightshade, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, and Deadshot) stands across from the JLI (made up of Martian Manhunter, Batman, Captain Atom, Black Canary, Rocket Red, Guy Gardner, Mister Miracle, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold) in the hallway outside Nemesis’s cell. Flag is prepared to fight, but Gardner and Rocket Red both appeal for peace (this was the era where Guy had a head injury). Duchess doesn’t know why she recognizes Mister Miracle, and when Blue Beetle reacts to her approaching him, the fight is on. Batman asks Deadshot if he’s going to waste his time and pull his shots again, so Lawton walks away from him. Flag and Nightshade talk strategy – Flag wants to talk to Batman. Martian Manhunter is surprised to see Vixen with the Squad, and he asserts how much she means to him. They embrace. Boomerang tries to hurt Guy, who is in a bubble of ring energy. Eve and Captain Atom sneak off to talk – they are apparently dating (which doesn’t explain why she has feelings for Flag), and are concerned that they are going to blow both of their covers as government operatives. Flag tries to convince Batman to work together to free Tresser, but Batman is opposed to the Squad to the extent that he’s not willing to discuss it. They start fighting. Blue Beetle fights Duchess while Lawton takes on Mister Miracle. Black Canary is confused, thinking that Bronze Tiger is a “good guy” but starts to fight him. Rocket Red checks on Tresser, and learns that the KGB has been beating him; he also reveals himself to be a fan of Zoya Trigorin’s writing. Booster Gold and Javelin start to fight. Amanda Waller continues to argue with Max Lord in his hospital room; she’s not happy that he knows so much about her Squad, and we learn that her mission against Joseph Heller was never sanctioned. Waller starts squeezing his foot. In Russia, the People’s Heroes, the army, the Rocket Reds, and Red Star all approach the prison. The fight continues, with Blue Beetle almost besting Duchess. Atom and Eve (that alone is a reason why they should never be allowed to date) tickle each other while J’onn and Mari continue to talk. Rocket Red approaches them with Tresser – he thinks that they should help Nemesis escape. J’onn agrees. They are joined by Captain Atom and Nightshade, and go and stop Duchess from killing the Beetle. Guy brings Boomerang over, who he’s wrapped in his ring energy. Turner stops Lawton from shooting Miracle in the head. The teams are together, except for Batman and Flag, who are still fighting, with increasing viciousness. The two teams finally pull them apart, and Flag collapses. J’onn takes command, and tells Turner to get the Squad away from there. The JLI will take Tresser to their Russian embassy, and let him escape in a few days. Nightshade opens a portal to teleport the Squad away, and gives Tresser a passionate kiss that makes Captain Atom jealous. A little later, the various Soviet heroes arrive, and J’onn explains what’s going to happen. In the US, orderlies pull Waller away from Lord, and they learn from the TV news what happened. Waller leaves. Back at their mountain base, the JLI worry that Batman’s not speaking to them. J’onn confronts him for having used the League to go after a personal vendetta, and Batman quits. At Belle Reve, Flag is taken to the infirmary, and Boomerang talks about how much he enjoyed watching Flag and Batman fight.

Amanda Waller is summoned to the Oval Office, where President Reagan introduces her to Senator Joe Cray, and tells her to use the Squad to help him get re-elected. Waller is opposed to this, and is even more upset when she sees that Derek Tolliver is behind this job, which is against the Squad’s purpose. Waller realizes that if she doesn’t do this, Tolliver will take over; she looks defeated but has no choice but to agree. In Russia, the JLI’s ambassador tells some Soviet soldiers that Nemesis has escaped his custody. After they leave, we see he has a smuggler tied up while Tresser leaves the country disguised as him. In Belle Reve, Economos, Flo, Turner, and Eve (who is actually blonde?) wait around for Waller to return, knowing that Ben and Eve are going to be in trouble for the Russia mission. When Waller enters, she looks dejected, and just goes to her office. On her way, she tells Eve it’s time for the personal mission she’s wanted. Ben goes to see her and they discuss how he was her first pick for Squad leader, and how much she hates Washington bureaucrats. Ben and Eve discuss her choice for this mission. Lawton is in a therapy session with Marnie Herr, who asks about his wife and kids. He starts to open up, then gets angry and leaves. Ben takes Boomerang out for drinks, which surprises him. He jokes that Ben is trying to get him drunk to get him to go on Eve’s mission, and then he passes out. Later, the team (Nightshade, Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Duchess, Enchantress, June Moone, and the still-unconscious Boomerang) enters a portal Eve has opened. They travel to another dimension, where the wind rips Deadshot’s costume. Eve sees that the landscape has changed since she was last there, and June senses something. Pillars of rock with faces on it rise around them, and they find themselves in a sort of temple. The Dhazmor, the being that gave June her Enchantress powers is there, but he is ripped apart by something. Rock formations spring from the floor and shackle the team, just as Eve’s brother, followed by a massive three-headed dog, approaches. That’s when Boomerang wakes up.
Boomerang tries to figure out where he is while Eve’s brother, Larry, holds everyone captive. Larry explains that he is also the Incubus, and he encases Boomerang in stone. He talks to Eve, who doesn’t believe that her brother is evil. He talks about how when they came as children to this Nightshade dimension, he was captured and taken before its ruler, his Aunt Bea. She kissed him, and transferred the Incubus into him before crumbling to dust. He goes on to explain even more, how he is the spiritual son of Azhmodeus, a demon type who planned on regaining control of the dimension, which can now happen because Eve is there. Larry wants to mate with her. June watches this go down, and decides to try calling on the Enchantress to free them. When the Enchantress arrives, she frees herself but just attacks Larry instead of helping the others. Larry calls her sister as well, and is able to fend off her attacks. He starts to steal the Enchantress’s powers, referring to her as the Succubus, his true sister. June is returned to normal while Larry tells another long story about Azhmodeus, the Dhazmor, and how Larry and Eve’s mother and aunt were brought to the Nightshade Dimension. Their mother left but came back with her kids, and I don’t know, some other stuff happened (this is the first that an issue of SS started to bore me). Larry keeps talking about his father’s plans and stuff, and moves in to kiss Eve. That’s when Duchess breaks free of her bonds, and starts to fight the big three-headed dog. Her gun isn’t that effective, so she shoots the others free. Larry is able to take over Vixen, because of his control over animals. Deadshot tries to get Boomerang into the fight, but he’s a mess. Even tries to flee from her brother, who pins her down with stone and kisses her. Vixen fights Bronze Tiger, and Duchess is able to fire explosive shells into the dog’s mouth. Mari passes out, and they all see Larry (who wears a Romanesque version of Eve’s costume) posing, victoriously. He tells the team they’ve failed, but then Eve hits him in the back with her shadow powers. They fight again, and the dimension goes into flux around them. Fearing that the whole dimension is going to dissolve, Deadshot shoots Larry in the head, and this creates a vortex. The team, except for Eve, link hands.

The Squad falls through the vortex, and I learned from the narration that Eve ended up with the Succubus, who was The Enchantress, was placed into her by her brother last issue, a moment I think I glazed over for. Eve is able to open a portal into another dimension, saving the Squad, but she immediately passes out, leaving them in a dimension that is just as abstract and strange. Bronze Tiger tries to arrange defenses to protect Eve and June, who is now powerless, and as strange disembodied shapes surround them, they are watched by someone. Ben and Mari manage to flirt a little. It looks like the team might be overrun, but that’s when Shade the Changing Man, the obscure Steve Ditko character (this is before Peter Milligan got ahold of him) comes swooping in and saves them with the power of his M-vest. He’s worried that they are drifting towards the “Area of Madness” and wants to leave. Although Eve is unconscious, he’s able to link his vest with her frequency, and teleports them all away. In Belle Reve, Amanda Waller broods over this situation with Senator Cray. She sees a flash of light in the Operations Room, and emerges to find the Squad there. Shade is in a rush, saying something about the fate of the world, but Waller gives the team a half hour to get cleaned up. When they reconvene in the briefing room, they are joined by Captain Cold, who quickly figures out that Shade was a cop back in his home dimension of Meta. He explains a bit about his Miraco vest, and how he was framed for murder. He talks about how a Metan named Wizor hides in plain sight, keeping an eye on Earth. We learn that an organization called the Orc has been taken over by a Dr. Z.Z., who wants to conquer Earth and then Meta. Shade’s mission got messed up by the Crisis, which changed Earth’s vibrational frequency, leaving him trapped in the Zero Zone between Earth and Meta. Shade wants to go after Z.Z., knowing that if Wizor saw him, he’d be stopped. Waller decides to send the Squad, and Flag, who walks into the room just then, insists on being in charge again. Z.Z. is torturing Wizor’s agents for information, in a base that is hidden in or beside an art gallery showing an exhibit of cartoons by Erik Larson (it’s a Far Side reference). The Squad is there, undercover. Boomerang asks Cold about the new Mirror Master, and Snart says he wants to kill him. Shade and Flag crawl through the vents and find Z.Z. When there’s a loud noise, Z.Z.’s agents converge on one room, and the Squad attacks them. Flag shoots Z.Z., which upsets Shade. Wizor wants to kidnap Shade, but Flag holds his gun on him and gets him to back down. The Squad decides to leave, Shade going with them, leaving Wizor to explain things to the cops.
The first half of issue seventeen is used to reintroduce the Jihad, who have come to New York City. A little girl codenamed Badb uses her powers of hate to make everyone around her get into a huge fight. A man called Agni uses his powers to set fire to a subway train, and everyone inside of it. Ravan kills a guard outside the UN, then attaches some device to his neck. This allows Koshchei to reanimate the guard. Koshchei then kills the next guard that comes, and then takes over that body as well. The new Jaculi rampages down Fifth Avenue, killing people and blowing things up with her javelin. In the World Trade Center elevator, Rustam activates Ifrit, an upgrade on Djinn, and sends her to invade the computer banks, disrupting world trade. In the Lincoln Tunnel, Manticore starts rampaging. The Suicide Squad’s airplane sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport. Inside, Shade and Flag talk about the arrangement the Metan has made with Waller – to continue working with the Squad in exchange for help returning to Meta. Turner receives a transmission from Belle Reve – Rustam has sent out a broadcast showing all the things that the Jihad are doing in New York. He talks about how everyone in the group comes from a country that has been plunged into conflict because of American foreign policy. He demands that the criminals who attacked their team earlier be turned over to them. In the broadcast studio, Ravan kills everyone. Flag talks to Waller, who wants the Squad back in Louisiana immediately to protect their cover. Flag pretends that he hears the opposite of everything Waller says to him, and Turner backs him up. Snart asks Flag to take his explosive wristband off, but he refuses, and Boomerang reflects on how Flag is becoming tougher and tougher. Waller calls Harry Stein at Checkmate, thinking of getting them to attack Jotunheim while the Jihad are in the States. Instead, she asks him to start digging into Derek Tolliver and Joe Cray for her, since she figures that since Tolliver left Task Force X before Checkmate was created, he wouldn’t know anything about it. Nightshade comes to see Waller – she’s wearing a new full-body costume, purple glasses, and appears taller. She insists that Waller send her to New York, so Waller agrees. Tolliver calls, asking Waller if she’s decided to help Cray get re-elected. She agrees to that too.

The Squad approach Manhattan in a helicopter. Flag gives the team their assignments as they split up to take down the Jihad. Bronze Tiger assumes that Ravan will be going after the Mayor, while Flag decides to go looking for Rustam. Nightshade uses a portal so the jet that’s bringing her from Belle Reve can get there faster; she seems very different now. Flag drops Boomerang off on top of the World Trade Center. Ifrit finds him, and it’s clear that she, a digital being, is the deceased Mindboggler. Flag spots Rustam using his flaming sword to destroy one of the bridges into Manhattan, so he goes to engage him. Rustam wrecks the bridge. Vixen moves through the injured and dead that Badb left behind, and when she approaches the girl, she collapses in pain. Shade is overwhelmed by the horde of dead people under Koshchei’s control. Duchess engages Manticore in the tunnel. When she learns that she can’t kill him by shooting him in the mouth, she blasts a whole in the side of the tunnel. Ravan quietly approaches Mayor Ed Koch at Gracie Mansion, but Bronze Tiger gets to him before he can garrot the mayor. Ben surmises that Ravan is only able to move with the help of an exoskeleton, and with one strike, destroys its power source (this is not exactly the “fight of their lives” promised on the cover). Ben tells Ravan that he has an idea of how he can better serve his god. Deadshot watches Jaculi run around and blow things up. He calculates that her bursts of speed only last for three seconds at a time, and that it would be easy to take her out. Then, he calls to her so she attacks him, and then he shoots her in the leg. After that, he shoots her again, killing her. Captain Cold enters the subway and finds Agni, who sets his clothes on fire. We see Cold recover and aim his gun at Agni. Shade is able to use his m-vest to short out the tech that allows Koshchei to control the dead; as he walks away, he wonders if that also killed Koshchei. Duchess continues to fight Manticore, ripping off his tail and beating him with it. As Badb continues to torture Vixen, Nightshade appears, engulfing the girl in darkness and knocking her out. Boomerang tries to convince Ifrit that he didn’t allow her to die, but she doesn’t believe him. Flag arrives with Ifrit’s control box, which he shuts off. He checks in with the rest of the team, and we learn that everyone is fine. Flag tells Boomerang that he lost Rustam in the river, but got Ifrit’s device from him; he hopes they can reprogram her.
Issue nineteen is the Personal Files issue for 1988. Amanda Waller is at her desk when she gets a call from Murph, who is looking at his duplicate. He lets her know that Nemesis has returned. Waller joins Shade, Dr. LaGrieve, and Professor Yvonne Callendar, Task Force X’s chief research scientist to discuss Ifrit. Waller wants to program her to work with the Squad. Shade, who thinks he can understand the technology, mistakenly activates Ifrit, who attacks him. Waller shuts her down again, and tells Shade off for his Metan sense of superiority and general lack of intelligence. Flo calls to tell Waller that Black Orchid has been using her computer again, for unknown reasons, and that there’s an incident at the air base. Waller and LaGrieve head over there, to see that Briscoe is fighting with Mitch Sekofsky, the head of maintenance. Mitch is unhappy that Briscoe is sleeping in Sheba, his helicopter, while Briscoe doesn’t want anyone doing maintenance on her. Waller insists they compromise. Heading back to Belle Reve, she and LaGrieve talk about Mitch’s orientation, and the fact that Sheba is named after Briscoe’s dead daughter. They also talk about how Marnie Herrs took leave after Deadshot quit the team (in the Deadshot miniseries). Eve is talking with Father Craemer about how the succubus spirit inside of her is hard to control. She’s worried that she is damned, but he reassures her. Waller shows Duchess footage of Lashina fighting, and getting blown into the swamp outside Belle Reve. She basically accuses Duchess of being Lashina, but Duchess maintains she has no memory of who she is (while quoting her “granny”). Flo hears news about Mirror Master robbing another bank in New Orleans. Later, Waller, Economos, and Ben interview Doctor Light (the first one) about his desire to join the Squad, although he keeps making it clear he doesn’t want to fight children. He’s learned about the existence of the Squad on his own, and threatens to expose the team if they don’t work with him. Waller tells him that the last person who threatened her was killed in the prison exercise yard, and Light gets scared. Waller admits to the others that she lied. It’s 2 AM and Walller is thinking about Tolliver and Cray when Tolliver walks into her office, talking about how he’s going to remodel it when he takes over. He tells her that the President is turning against her. Just then Flag slams him into a wall and holds a gun to his head. Waller pulls her own gun and gets Flag to back down. When Tolliver yells at her, she turns the gun on him and kicks him out. After he leaves, she waits for a phone call. Harry Stein calls, and whatever he tells her about Tolliver makes her happy.

The first Suicide Squad Annual (drawn by Graham Nolan) follows from Manhunter #6, and opens with a history lesson. We learn about the formation of the original Task Force X, and how it consisted of the military-run Suicide Squad, and the civilian-led Argent. Argent was run by a guy named Control, who after the assassination of JFK, learned that Cuba was responsible, in payback for an attempt on Castro’s life. The thing is, the US government didn’t order that attempt, it was done by a rogue CIA agent named William Martin. Control had Martin killed, and then destroyed all evidence that Argent ever existed. He and his organization went underground. Waller shares this information with the Squad (Nightshade, Duchess, Bronze Tiger, Vixen, Captain Boomerang, Shade, Flag, and Manhunter). Waller further explains that Argent has decided to come after the Squad, which he sees as a threat. Anna-Marie Veré (whose name is spelled properly in this book, unlike in her Manhunter appearance) talks about how she ran away from Argent because she didn’t want to participate in the marriage her father arranged for her. Flo continues the briefing, showing a private religious college in California that they believe is Argent’s base. Eve objects to being involved in an assassination meeting, but Waller mentions she has something else for her and Nemesis to do. Waller worries that Flag is accepting this dangerous mission so easily. Later, Duchess, Shade, and Turner pose as surveyors to gain access to the school grounds. At the same time, Shaw and Mari pose as government inspectors wanting the college to accept more Black students. They are all brought before the Dean, where they realize that Boomerang has slipped away from them. He’s posing as a photographer, trying to get some of the students to pose nude for him. Security brings him to the others, and the Dean kicks them all out. On the SS-1, the team learns from Flag that the bugs they planted are working. Shade’s tech tells them that there is a large chamber under the sports field, and Flag punches Boomerang for going off-mission. Waller tells Flo that she is going to miss monitoring the team, as she has to leave for Washington. We see that Anna-Marie is staying at Belle Reve while this all goes down. Flag gives everyone their orders, and stays back in case he’s needed. The Squad infiltrates the college just as Waller leaves the prison, and we see she’s being watched. The Squad discovers a massive complex under the college. Some men dressed in black come to retrieve Anna-Marie, just as Waller finds a tree down across the road she’s driving. Ben and Mari discover that they’ve been set up – they’ve infiltrated a Kobra base, not Argent. When Waller gets out of her car, she is shot multiple times, by Anna-Marie. The Squad attacks Kobra. Waller gets up and reports in – it’s actually Nemesis wearing a lot of padded kevlar; Waller expected the double cross all along and is in the prison. Anna-Marie is on a flight out, and Nightshade is hiding in her shadow. Flag pulls the Squad out of the Kobra base, and lands the SS-1 in the middle of the college’s football field to retrieve them. It seems the plan now has VTOL capabilities. Flag tells Ben that this was all part of the plan, and they are now on their way to rendezvous with Nightshade. In London, Anna-Marie returns to Argent headquarters, and is about to check in with Control when Manhunter and Shade burst into the room. Eve comes out of the other room, announcing that Control is dead, and has been for at least five years (we see his skeleton, still in his tweed with his pipe hanging from his mouth. It seems that Anna-Marie has been running Argent for all this time. One of the Argent agents explains that there are very few of them left, and that they didn’t know Control had died; without him, the guy figures their mission is over.
The Annual has a “Private Lives” backup, which was a thing in 1988, and it’s drawn by the incredible Keith Giffen. Waller heads home one night. As she drives, she worries about Tolliver and his plans for the Squad. When she gets home, she realizes someone is in her apartment, and pulls her gun. It’s her daughter, Sereetha, whom she hasn’t spoken to in some time. Waller phones down and yells at the building’s security guard for letting her in her apartment. Sereetha starts to explain how she’s having problems with her husband, RJ, a linebacker. RJ turns up, and demands that Sereetha come home with him. Amanda yells at the front desk again, and then gets really angry when she learns that her daughter plans on moving back in with her. She stands up to her son-in-law (she comes up to his navel), telling them to straighten out their life or she’s going to quit her job and come live with them. She tells them she has to go to DC, and orders them out of her house. She realizes she has more than enough strength to deal with Tolliver now.

Boomerang, in his borrowed Mirror Master identity, prowls the French Quarter, and decides to rob two drunks. It turns out they’re both cops, and try to arrest him. He duplicates into five Mirror Masters, but a shot from behind makes the extras disappear. Manhunter jumps down and quickly takes him down. The cops want the collar, but Shaw refuses, and uses his baton to fly off, carrying Boomerang with him. Boomerang worries when he realizes he’s being taken directly to Belle Reve and Amanda Waller. Waller doesn’t recognize him, and explains how the Suicide Squad works. She wants him on a mission, and he agrees. She leaves him with Flag to get an explosive bracelet, while she goes off to find Boomerang. In the briefing room, Waller explains that the Squad is going up against a local gang that bases itself on voodoo myths. The Loa is run by Damballah, with his two lieutenants Mambo and Boco. Shaw decides that this job sounds like too much of a problem, so he quits. As the team breaks to prepare, Waller makes it clear that she wants Flo to get Black Orchid to track down the missing Boomerang, giving “Mirror Master” some concern. He sneaks into his own room at the prison, and changes into his street clothes. He goes to see Waller, showing her that he has his arm in a sling (conveniently covering up the new bracelet he’s wearing. Waller insists he still go on the mission, and he threatens to quit all together. She threatens him back, and he agrees to go. Since the Squad is splitting into two teams, he figures he can run back and forth, changing costumes. “Mirror Master’s” team infiltrates one end of the cemetery where the Loa are rumored to be operating, and he sneaks off, changes into Boomerang, and rendezvous with the other half of the team. Changing back into Mirror Master, he is surprised to see that Nemesis was made into a zombie. Flag rescues him, but he also turns. Duchess holds them off, and as Boomerang is changing into his other costume, he gets attacked by a large number of zombies. Then Bocor, a large man wearing a skull over his head, turns Vixen, Shade, and Nightshade all into zombies. Boomerang (still wearing Mirror Master’s pants) is surrounded, and trips and falls to the ground. As he starts to panic, Waller approaches him. That’s when he learns that Bronze Tiger was playing the role of Bocor, and that the whole thing was a setup. Waller explains that most of the Task Force X staff volunteered to scare him, and he loses his temper. She grabs him and he sees reason, that he tried to play her for a fool. She tells him that he’s losing his apartment, and has to return everything he stole. He’s going to move back to Belle Reve, and follow her orders without complaining, or she’s going to turn him over to the authorities. He agrees, but already starts planning revenge. One of the zombies lets Waller know that there’ve been reports of another Mirror Master pulling jobs in Washington state. As the Squad leaves the cemetery, we see that they are being watched. That man heads to an office tower, where he reports to the actual Damballah that Waller and the others believe that the Loa is a myth; Damballah tells Bocor that it’s safe to start up their business, now that the authorities don’t know about them again.
Waller enters Derek Tolliver’s office in Washington. Tolliver is upset that it’s the day before the election, and Waller has still done nothing to help Senator Cray’s reelection, so now he wants the Squad to kill his opponent. Tolliver repeats his threat to expose the Squad, but is surprised to learn that Waller has a file with information on him that changes everything. Tolliver crumbles, and Waller makes it clear that if Cray exposes her, she’ll expose Tolliver. Whatever he’s done, she assumes he’ll be put away for twenty years for it; Waller walks away, leaving him beaten. In Belle Reve, Nightshade comes to see Flag, who is cleaning his gun. Eve tries to get Flag talking about how withdrawn he’s been lately, and admits that she snuck into LaGrieve’s office and read his file. Eve tries to talk about Rick’s father, who killed himself during a mission. Eve is worried that Rick is going to try to do the same thing, and he assures her that if he does, he’ll be on his own. He excuses himself, claiming he has a mission to attend to. As Eve walks through the prison, she is confronted by June Moone, who wants her powers back. Eve explains she can’t get rid of the Succubus inside her, and June pulls a gun on her and shoots her. Murph comes running, and has to shoot June when she doesn’t put her gun down (with “mercy” bullets). As Waller returns to the prison, she’s hit in the face with a pie. Flo talks to Economos about her feelings for Ben, and how she can’t compete with Mari when Amanda enters, wanting to speak to Boomerang, figuring he’s the one that just ‘pied’ her. As he approaches the room, he hears something in the hall, and gets hit with a pie himself. Waller checks in with LaGrieve, who tells him that June is going to take some time to get over having lost her powers. Next she goes to see Dr. Mary White who is trying to treat Eve, but she first insists on speaking to Waller. Eve is worried that Amanda is sending Flag on a mission when he’s not fit for it, but Waller doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Dr. White wants to rush Eve into surgery, and as she and Waller argue, we learn they are sisters. Waller learns that Flag took a plane out about an hour before, and Waller has Flo try to track him down. In Washington, Tolliver talks to Cray on the phone, telling him that things will be fine. He arranges to meet him by the Washington Monument, and we see him take a gun from his desk. It’s clear that Tolliver is going to kill Cray, but he’s surprised to find Flag at the door to his office. Flag shoots Tolliver, and walks out, not noticing that Tolliver’s press release about the Squad is sitting on his desk.
Do you remember the DC Bonus Books? Even though it’s not mentioned on the cover, issue 21 had one, featuring Bronze Tiger in a short story by Larry Ganem and Peter Krause. Ben is attacked by a bunch of guys who he fights off while his prey, a man named Neiko watches from a distance. Neiko is a martial artist and assassin, and Waller has sent Ben after him, wanting to stop him from killing the leader of the political opposition in Cuesta Verde, but to allow him to kill a drug kingpin. Neiko kills the drug lord by swimming up to his fishing boat and shooting him with a harpoon. That night, Ben approaches Neiko’s place, only to find him waiting for him. They fight for a couple of pages, and are pretty evenly matched. Eventually, Ben holds a gun to his head and trades him – if he promises to leave the politician alive, Ben will let him live. This was an alright backup – I’m not sure if Ganem ever wrote other comics, but Krause went on to work on the Power of Shazam.

Waller addresses the Squad (Deadshot, who’s returned from his miniseries, Boomerang, Briscoe, Nemesis, Black Orchid, Duchess, Shade, Vixen, and Bronze Tiger) about the fact that they need to track down Flag. She lets them know about everything that has happened with Tolliver and Cray, and how Flag has gone off on his own to try to kill the two men. She tells them that she’d taken care of the problem, but Flag didn’t know that, which Ben objects to. Waller says that Flag needs to be stopped “by whatever means necessary”. Tom, Ben, Mari, and Shade all object to the idea of killing Flag, and Waller points out they should find him first then, because the others don’t appear to have the same problem. The team heads to the SS-1, while LaGrieve tells Waller he doesn’t think that Deadshot should be on this mission, after what happened in his book (see that column). Flo has been trying to raise Tolliver on the phone, and ends up speaking to the cops that discovered his body. They find the memo he wrote exposing the Squad, and we learn that one of the detectives has already slipped the original of the memo into his pocket, hoping to make some money off it. The Squad arrives in DC, and Ben starts dividing up the team, since they don’t have a lot of leads. Duchess, Boomerang, and Lawton head off on their own. Elsewhere, the editorial staff of the Daily Planet (who aren’t ever explicitly identified) try to decide about printing the memo they received, given its questionable provenance. They agree that they need some other corroborating evidence before they’ll publish, but agree that the murder of Cray would count. Nemesis reports to Ben that Tolliver is dead. At the same time, Cray’s driver drops him off at the Lincoln Memorial, where he thinks he’s going to meet with Tolliver. It being election night, Cray is sure to lose, but figures if the Suicide Squad assassinate his opponent, he’ll still be able to hold on to his seat. We see that Flag is waiting for him, and that Deadshot is in a tree aiming at Flag (although he maybe thinks Flag is his dead brother Edward). At Belle Reve, Waller is fretting about being exposed, but also about Flag being killed. Nemesis stands at the Vietnam War Memorial, thinking about what he owes Flag after he rescued him from Russia. Flag confronts Cray, and is about to kill him when Deadshot gets his attention. Floyd is sitting in Lincoln’s lap, and tells him that Waller has said he has to stop him from killing Cray. We see Floyd fire, killing Cray himself. Floyd seems out of it, believing he’s killed his father, and when they hear sirens, he tells Flag to run. When the cops approach, Floyd starts shooting at them, and they open fire on him, hitting him at least five times. We learn he’s still alive. Later, Waller stands over Floyd in his hospital bed. He claims he was following Waller’s orders, and she says she wants him to get better so she can kill him. As she and Economos leave the hospital, we learn that the Squad was exposed in the newspaper, but at the same time, the Invasion begins, and the squad is getting pulled in, which Waller figures will give them some time to get ahead of the story.
As Waller drives towards the prison, she imagines she is talking to Flag about what happened in Washington, and then to Deadshot. From this conversation, we learn that the Squad has been exposed, which is why she’s facing a congressional inquiry, being run by Eve’s father, who is a Senator. To try to garner some good will, Amanda’s sent the Squad to a few hotspots to help fight the alien invasion (this is an Invasion tie-in, but there’s nothing on the cover to indicate that). At the prison, Ben makes his report to Economos, but first they talk about the situation with Flag, who has gone missing. Ben talks about how he, Mari, and Duchess were sent to Russia to coordinate with the same guy they had trouble with the last time they were there. The Justice League’s ambassador deployed them to fight some Thanagarians and Okaarans. They were very effective, with Mari showing an increased viciousness in her fight against the Thanagarians. Duchess took down a massive Okaaran walking tank thing, and led a charge of Soviet troops. Our anti-heroes were supported by the Rocket Red Brigade, and victorious in their first battle. As time went on, they linked with the New Guardians and some Soviet heroes called Soyuz. Ben talks about how tired he is, and Economos gets on him about talking to Flo. Ben makes it clear that he was never interested in Flo, who is quite young, and that he’s with Mari. Flo, meanwhile, talks to her computer, and is surprised when it answers her, calling itself Oracle. Dr. LaGrieve and Marnie Herrs look through some files, trying to find potential Squad candidates (they mention Doctor Light, Punch, Jewelee, Count Vertigo, and Shrike). LaGrieve gets fed up with how flippant Marnie is being, and she tells him that she’s going to quit in protest over Floyd being sent to Washington. Eve is sleeping in her room when Nemesis comes to visit her. Her shadows almost hurt him, but she regains control and they have a nice talk. They discuss her recovery, and Tom tells her a story about his part in the Invasion. He and Captain Boomerang led some new recruits to Australia to fight the Khund. After the war ended, Boomerang was showing Tom around Sydney, and started to show off to some locals, who it turns out, all hate him. Some of them ended up dumping him in Sydney Harbour while another invited Tom out for a beer. After leaving Eve’s room, Tom is hit in the face by a pie after being distracted by a flash of light.

Issue twenty-four, which is Luke McDonnell’s last, opens with a news broadcast from the special Senate subcommittee’s investigation into the Suicide Squad. The committee is being run by Warren Eden, who is Eve’s father, and Amanda appears before them with her lawyer, Antoine Hearns. As the hearing begins, Amanada thinks back to recent events, so most of the issue is told as a flashback. Waller, Flo, LaGrives, and Father Craemer joined the recently expanded Squad in the briefing room. In addition to some of the regulars – Bronze Tiger, Vixen, Duchess, Briscoe, Shade, Nightshade, Nemesis, and Captain Boomerang – there were new recruits Count Vertigo, Shrike, Ravan, Punch and Jewellee, and Doctor Light. Amanda wanted to send them on a mission to keep them from being called to testify, but before she could explain it, Nemesis told her he wanted out. He was upset that all of the troubles in Washington could be placed under Amanda’s blame. She threatened him, and he called her out for being a bully. Realizing Waller had no allies in the room on this argument, she let Tresser leave, but told him to not be somewhere she can find him when this is over. She continued her briefing, telling the team that they were headed to the East African nation of Ogaden, where civil war has raged for twenty years. The ruling Renamo family was overthrown by General Frelimo, and things have stayed a hotbed of war and famine ever since. Recently, a nun named Sister Agnes Martinon was kidnapped by Renamo guerrillas, and the Squad’s job was to get her back, mostly for the good press it would bring them. Ben pointed out that this is similar to their Russia mission that didn’t work for them, and we learn that’s why Father Craemer was also going on the mission. After the briefing, Waller and LaGrieve checked on Flo and Economos, who had set up an interface to better talk to Oracle, the mysterious computer hacker who was offering to help them. Waller stayed skeptical, and once Oracle was off line, asked Flo to leave a computer virus in the system for it to find. After that, LaGrieve let Waller know that he was offered a job at the Institute for Meta-Human Studies, and that was taking it. Waller threatened to fire Marnie Herrs if he left, but Simon pointed out she’d already quit and Waller didn’t know that. She offered Simon luck, but was not happy. At the hearing, Amanda’s lawyer tries to keep her calm. The Squad flies towards Africa, with Shrike’s endless cheerfulness grating on Mari, while Punch and Jewelee try to make Nightshade laugh. Ravan and Ben talk about how Ben will kill him if he turns on the Squad. They land where the nun was last seen, a refugee camp full of starving people. This is hard on Mari, who has done relief work in the Horn before. She, being the only one who speaks Swahili, learns where the Renamo camp is; the Squad sets out, with everyone running while Briscoe flies over them in Sheba with Father Craemer. They find the rebel base destroyed, with bodies from both sides strewn around. Eve finds one survivor, while Briscoe reports that about twenty-five people are coming their way. The Squad engages the government forces. After the fighting is done, Mari explains that the government forces took the nun when they attacked the camp. Ben figures that the government is looking to make the nun disappear, and blame their enemies, so he figures they are now going up against the Ogaden government.
Harry Stein, the director of Checkmate, is watching a video tape of Amanda’s senate hearings, and is joined by Harvey Bullock. We see the part in her testimony where Amanda lies about the existence of any other part of Task Force X (namely, Checkmate), and the two men talk about how Waller’s polling isn’t too bad. There’s also a strange moment during a press scrum where Waller jokes that she might not actually be Amanda Waller, which sits strangely with Stein. In Ogaden, the President, Haile Selaissie Frelimo (really Ostrander?) talks to his Colonel T’Kaki about the fact that he brought Sister Agnes to him. We’re reminded that Ogaden has been showing up in Firestorm as well, and T’Kaki basically threatens the President that he is more popular among the army, and might be coming for his job. The Squad has assembled near the army base where the nun is being held. Ben, Mari, and Eve scout the place, which is too well-lit for Eve to sneak into in her shadow form. Shrike talks to Father Craemer about how she came to be born again, but freaks him out with the amount of murder in that story. Ben spots a jeep approaching the base and he and Eve make their move, while he sends Mari to get Ravan. Ben and Eve take the jeep, and are joined by Mari and Ravan, who murders the two soldiers. The plan is for Ben and Ravan to disguise themselves in the soldiers’ uniforms, and sneak in with Eve to find the nun while Mari and Shade prepare the others. As the two more heroic Squad members watch the base, Count Vertigo suggests to the others that they attack them and take the detonator device from Mari and go free. In Washington, Amanda goes to see Senator Eden (I’m not sure how it’s night in DC and in East Africa at the same time). She wants to make a deal with Eden, who appears open to listening. Vertigo and the others make their move, but Duchess stops them single-handedly, for reasons she doesn’t share. Eve locates the nun, so Ben sends her to get her while he and Ravan take out the base’s generator. Eve gets the nun, the generator blows up, and the rest of the Squad move in. They make short work of the soldiers, who are rushing to get their backup generator turned on. Just as the nun climbs the ladder into Sheba, the lights switch back on, and Shrike is killed in a volley of gunfire. The team makes their escape. Later, we see on the news that the nun has decided to stay in Ogaden, and that President Frelimo has announced that the nun was captured by rogue elements in his army, and that their leader, Colonel T’Kaki, has been executed. The news also announces that Senator Eden has decided to keep the Suicide Squad in operation, but that Waller has stepped down, and that J. Danfield Kale, an intelligence man, is now in charge of Task Force X. The Squad returns to Belle Reve having heard this news, but are surprised to see Amanda still sitting at her desk. She introduces Kale, who is actually an actor named Jack Kovacs that she hired to play the role of Kale for the media and politicians. Eve is not happy to learn that Waller told her father she’s part of the Squad, and she quits.

In Jotunheim, in the nation of Qurac, Rustam speaks to President Marlo about continuing to rebuild the Jihad and then going after the Suicide Squad, since they know where they are now. At Belle Reve, Vicki Vale is back for a tour of the reconstruction (I guess the place got trashed during the Invasion), and an interview with Kale, it’s fake new boss. Economos and Flo watch his interview from inside, and we learn that Waller has been off helping the Justice League. She returns home, and finds a double of herself waiting for her with a gun. Economos asks about the virus they tried to feed to Oracle, and just then Oracle contacts them, saying that she’s put both a virus and a vaccine for it in their system, telling Flo she has three hours to find it. We get our first clue as to who Oracle is when we see her hands, and that she has a Batgirl doll next to her computer. Ben sees Mari to the train to the airbase, as she’s heading out for a few days to New York and then the west coast. As they kiss goodbye, someone throws a pie in Mari’s face. She’s angry, and Ben sends her on her way, afraid to laugh in front of her. Once she’s gone, he gets hit with a pie as well. Mindboggler finds herself in a virtual suburb, but rejects the scenario, insisting she’s Ifrit. This was the latest test by Dr. Calendar and Shade in their attempt to turn Ifrit to their side. In Washington, the lawyer Joel Craemer meets with the District Attorney and a cop to discuss Floyd Lawton and how he wasn’t mentally responsible when he shot Senator Cray. He’s got LaGrieve and Herrs with him, and they want to transfer Lawton to the Institute for Metahuman Studies. They get their way, and we learn that Craemer is Father Craemer’s brother. Eve is in her apartment, and receives a letter from Rick Flag, explaining how he didn’t know that Waller had the Tolliver situation under control. He writes about Jotunheim, and how his father and the original Suicide Squad infiltrated it during the Second World War, and ended up burying a Nazi version of the atomic bomb in a part of the complex they ruined. Now Flag is sneaking into the base. We see Rustam patrol the base. Flag reaches the bomb, which is just sitting in a storage room. As Flag sets a five and a half minute timer, Rustam finds him and they start fighting. We see the clock tick down as they fight, and the mountain fortress explodes. Eve sees this on the news, where we learn that Qurac claims that the fortress was empty; Eve starts crying.
The Janus Directive started in Checkmate and continued in Suicide Squad, as well as some other titles. I’ve written a separate column for it, so go there for more details.
In Chapter 2 of The Janus Directive, Waller meets with Harry Stein and Harvey Bullock (from Checkmate), Bronze Tiger, and Bridgette D’Abo from Project: Peacemaker at Checkmate’s headquarters, to tell them 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 people 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.

In Chapter 4 of the Janus Directive, 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 Mergala; she tells the others to simply snatch him. Peacemaker comes to and wants to return to the fight. Vertigo finds some guards escorting Mergala, and takes care of them. Mergala 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 Mergala blew up; Mari is sure that wasn’t the real Mergala. 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 8 of the Janus Directive follows on chapters in Manhunter and Firestorm. 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 10 of the Janus Directive has the Squad, Checkmate, and their assorted allies assaulting Kobra’s spaceship. 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. 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.
With the Janus Directive over, it’s time for another Personal Files issue, this time focusing on Father Craemer (and the first where John K. Snyder inked his own pencils, bringing his thick lines and more abstract style to the Squad). Craemer prays and performs the sacrament on his own, missing Nightshade who used to do this with him. Murph comes looking for him, saying Waller wants his help. She, Economos, and Sarge Steel, are interrogating a new prisoner, who claims he has information about The Loa. Waller doesn’t believe him, having made up that criminal enterprise to entrap Boomerang, but the man claims they were manipulating her. He shows her a voodoo doll shaped like her. She doesn’t believe him, but when the man bursts into flames and dies in front of her, Steel orders her to look into The Loa. She asks Economos to put Flo and Oracle on this. Craemer goes to visit Mitch, the head of maintenance, and they talk about how Mitch is nervous to have his son stay with him, since the boy has been very angry since Mitch came out and split from his wife. Next, Craemer sits down to eat with Duchess, Doctor Light, Ravan, and Major Victory. The Major is resentful that the Squad killed some of his former crew, and is especially angry with Light for killing Sparks. He attacks him, and then gets into it with Duchess. Their fight is put on hold when Jewelee comes into the room, having been pied. She’s upset, but they all find it funny. When Punch arrives, he starts to laugh, and they get into a fight. Boomerang comes over and sympathizes with Jewelee, which makes Punch jealous. They are stopped from fighting when Doctor Light tries to make it look like he’d been pied, although he did it to himself to fit in. They all laugh at him. Father Craemer finds a list of names of former Squad members and their allies, which belongs to Duchess. It also mentions Big Barda’s name. Duchess storms off. Later, Craemer speaks with Count Vertigo about his mental health struggles, and how he wishes he was dead. Next, Craemer meets with Mary White, Amanda’s sister. She shares her concerns for Amanda’s well being, recapping her life story, and how she grew to be so hard after half her family was killed, and she had to raise her surviving children in poverty. Mary is worried that Waller’s anger is turning into hatred. As Craemer walks through the halls, he discovers Light, who has been legitimately pied, but now he’s upset that no one saw it. Craemer goes to see Waller, and they talk about how she is feeling about all that’s happened recently. She refuses to open up to him, and he shares his theory that she usually surrounds herself with people that challenge her (Flag, Eve, LaGrieve), but now she doesn’t have that. She shuts him down, but it’s clear she’s thinking about what he said.

An American citizen named Raza Ghavam, who was formerly part of the Savak, the secret police run by the Shah of Iran, was lured back home by news that his mother was dying. It was a trap, and he was captured by the Iranian government, and now faces execution. The US government wants him back, and they turn to Sarge Steel to send in some metahumans to make it happen. He decides to use the Suicide Squad, due to their deniability (which has to be a lot less now). At Belle Reve, Waller, Craemer, and Kovacks sit around a table with a man named McCoy, an old friend of Kovacks’s. He’s figured out that the Kale routine is just an act, and he is using this information to basically extort Waller into hiring him as the new psychologist. He discloses that he had a breakdown, and that’s why he’s having trouble working in the private sector. Craemer believes he’d be a good choice. Waller is a bit surprised when McCoy insists that he have final word on whether or not an inmate be allowed to go on a mission. She hires him, and then speaks to Craemer about her request, which she suspects he pushed for. He reminds her that she does better with people pushing back against her. Flo talks with Oracle about her unrequited love for Ben, her belief that if she could go on missions with him, she’d be able to catch his eye, and her disdain for Mari. Duchess approaches her and tells her that she’s going to help her go on a mission. Waller tells Flo to assemble the team, and is surprised when Duchess tells her she can’t go because she has things to do. The team (Briscoe, Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Vixen, Ravan, Major Victory, and Shade) are assembled. Flo tells Waller that McCoy grounded Vertigo. Waller explains the Iran mission to the team – they are to interrupt his execution and free him, and head to a small town for extraction. Ravan offers to kill Iran’s leaders, but Waller says no. Major Victory insists on running the mission instead of Ben, who to show his prowess, places an apple on Victory’s head, and snatches it off faster than he can see. On the flight to Iran, Boomerang complains that some unsuitable Squad members got left behind. Mari worries that Ghavam is not worth saving. Later, in Tehran, Ghavam is led to the wall where he’s going to be shot. Shade hides behind it, while the rest of the Squad is hidden among the gathering crowd. Ravan places his garrote around the neck of the man running the TV station that’s broadcasting the execution, to ensure that the broadcast continues. Just before the firing squad shoots, Shade jumps over the wall and wraps Ghavam in his forcefield. His vest creates an image of the Ayatollah, and Ben grabs the TV camera broadcasting this. Briscoe leads the attack in Sheba, while the others also go after the various soldiers (who look like ragtag gunmen). Mari flips a tank, while Boomerang goes on a bit of a racist rant. Ravan’s man insists that the broadcast keep going out. Ben calls for a retreat, and the team leaves. Ravan kills the station manager. Later, Kale gives a press conference where he learns that Ayatollah Khomeni has called for his death. Waller watches, and wonders where Duchess is. In New Hampshire, Big Barda tends to her house when Lashina breaks in and knocks her out, saying she’s heading back to Apokolips, and that she’s taking her with her.
Duchess breaks into Arkham Asylum to see Deadshot, but realizes his mental state is too manic to use on whatever mission she has planned. Instead, she breaks Poison Ivy out. Ravan goes to see Kobra in his cell. The two men have fundamental differences, as Kobra exists to bring about Kali-Yuga, the age of chaos, while Ravan’s thugee beliefs tell him that every death he causes pushes the Kali-Yuga back by a thousand years. Ravan promises to kill Kobra. Eve Eden is at home when Duchess and Ivy break in and kidnap her. Dr. McCoy talks with Dr. Light about his guilt over causing the death of his friend, the first Dr. Light. McCoy picks away at Light’s self-image. Shade tries some type of device to get back home, but it fails. Duchess tells him that she can get him home with a mega-rod, but only from her home dimension. She recruits Shade to help her gather an assault team. Waller, Flo, Bronze Tiger, McCoy, and Murph meet to discuss new, thinner armbands that can deliver up to two electrical shocks before blowing off a Squad member’s arm. Waller wants them put into use. Mac updates Vertigo’s situation, saying he’s in a phase of deep apathy. Flo reports that Oracle hasn’t found much on the Loa yet; Waller wants to set up a fake gang to move onto their turf, with Ben posing as its leader. Flo asks if she can go into the field for this mission, and Waller turns her down. She leaves the meeting crying, and Duchess pulls her aside telling her that she can come on her own mission, and very soon. Shade assaults Vixen in the gym, knocking her out. Major Victory turns down Duchess’s request to join her squad, so she knocks him out. Boomerang finds Shade carrying Mari, and asks to have a turn with her (he’s really a terrible person). Shade knocks him out, and carries him as well. Duchess goes to Count Vertigo, and he agrees to come with her. Duchess, dressed as Lashina again, heads to Waller’s office, wraps her up, and drags her away. A guard sees this on a camera, and Murph is about to hit the alert when Poison Ivy comes into the security office and subdues the guards. Flo waits at Yaeger airfield when the train arrives carrying Lashina’s unconscious volunteers. Ivy puts Flo to sleep. Shade questions why Flo is being brought along, but Lashina explains she’s a gift for her Granny. Mitch sees what’s going on and picks up a phone. Lashina grabs Briscoe next, and Shade puts on an anti-grav field device over his m-vest, so he can carry Sheba. With the rest in the train, and Lashina riding on top of it, they start the train up again. Ben grabs Dr. Light, Punch, and Jewelee to try to stop them, but as the train enters the tunnel, Lashina activates a boom tube, and they all disappear. Ben figures out that they’ve all gone to Apokolips.

Arriving on Apokolips, the Squad’s train lands on some Lowlies. Shade takes offence at this, and gets into an altercation with Lashina, who while fighting back, points out that none of them can go home without her now. He stands down, and Lashina orders Poison Ivy to wake the others. Back at Belle Reve, Bronze Tiger tries to organize a rescue mission, but gets shut down by Sarge Steel, who forbids him from using any new felons from Belle Reve, and to not contact Mister Miracle, because he, Steel, doesn’t know the full situation on Apokolips and doesn’t want to risk more people. Ben is not happy with Economos for reporting this in, and decides that he’s going to go to Arkham to recruit. He also tells Economos to get Oracle to look for someone else from Apokolips he can talk to. On Apokolips, everyone reacts to what happened. Boomerang and Vixen are upset with Shade, while Flo is terrified, and turns to Nightshade for comfort. Lashina explains, after Waller asks, how she ended up left behind after the Female Furies attacked the prison. Barda, who is kept groggy with drugs, explains that the only way Lashina can get her role as leader back would be to kill Bernadeth. Lashina says she needs cannon fodder to help her, which is why she brought them. She gives Waller her big gun, which she immediately turns on her. The gun won’t fire on Lashina. Para-demons come flying at them, and the team starts to fight them off. Major Victory worries when they start ripping his uniform, because it provides his power. Sheba is swarmed, and crashes, apparently killing Briscoe. The Squad prevails, but then Lashina tells them that’s the easy part. Ben goes to see Deadshot at Arkham, and threatens him so he’ll come with him. The Squad makes its way through Armagetto, and is confronted by Granny Goodness, the Female Furies (Stompa, Bernadeth, and Mad Harriett), along with Kanto and Verman Vundabar. Lashina attacks, but Granny hits her. Waller tries to shoot her. Ben’s assembled his Squad (Deadshot, Ravan, Doctor Light, Punch, and Jewelee), and argues with Economos over their inability to find a way to Apokolips. Just then a boom tube opens, and the Forever People appear, offering them a ride.
Himon and some lowlies discover the body of Briscoe. The rest of the Squad starts to fight Granny, the Furies, and some other Apokolips baddies. Boomerang thinks that Verman Vundabar would be an easy mark, but is surprised by the man’s ferocity. Vixen holds her own against Stompa, but benefits when Barda decides to take her out. Barda tells Mari to assist Major Victory while she goes to get her megarod back. Mad Harriet and Shade get into it, and after her spikes short out his vest, she knocks him out. Waller keeps firing on Granny Goodness until her gun empties, and then the two older women start beating on each other. Nightshade takes out a soldier and is attacked by Artemiz and her cyberpak (three cyborg dog things). Nightshade takes Artemiz into one of her portals and terrifies her. Major Victory’s suit is falling apart, leaving him with no power, but he gains inspiration from watching Mari fight. Kanto approaches Count Vertigo, recognizing him as nobility, and they insult each other before they start fighting. Kanto throws a knife into Vertigo’s gut. Poison Ivy realizes she never should have joined Lashina, so decides she needs to ingratiate herself with the rest of the Squad. Granny is about to kill Waller when Ivy tries to poison the old woman. The poisons don’t work on Granny. She tosses Ivy away, and is again about to kill Waller when Barda, who has her rod back it seems, confronts her. Lashina confronts Bernadeth, while Flo despairs while holding the unconscious Amanda Waller. Lashina and Bernadeth argue while they fight, and then Lashina blasts her with something that looks like the megarod that Barda is also still holding. She snaps her rival’s neck, and then declares her victory. Granny stops fighting and welcomes Lashina home, asking for a gift. Lashina tells her that she brought her Flo to train in her orphanage (Waller is conscious again and looks as unhappy as Flo is). Lashina also tells Granny that they may as well kill all the others.

The Forever People introduce themselves to Bronze Tiger and his smaller Squad. Doctor Light tries to sneak off, but is confronted by the ghost of Jacob Smith, the man he let die to steal his power suit. Smith convinces Light that he could be a great hero, and that would keep him from feeling like such a failure. Ben has to threaten Punch and Jewelee to join the rescue squad, but Light comes in bragging about how this mission is going to be his finest. They (Ben, Punch, Jewelee, Light, and Deadshot) climb onto the Super-cycle, and Big Bear drives it into a boom tube. In Nightshade’s shadow dimension, she defeats Artemiz and her dogs, and escapes from the place as the shadows come for her. As the Forever People drive through the boom tube, Vykin tells Ben that he’s seen a vision of Vixen, with the Black Racer coming for her. On Apokolips, Lashina again tells Granny Goodness that they should kill all the humans. Waller starts to argue with Granny, while Count Vertigo pulls Kanto’s knife out of his chest and sneaks up behind the assassin, stabbing him in the back before collapsing on him. Granny prepares her troops to kill everyone, but is interrupted when Eve tosses the dead or unconscious Artemiz at her feet. Big Barda confronts Granny, just as the boom tube opens and the Super-cycle comes through. The fight is on again. Flo is happy to see Ben, but he’s only got eyes for Mari. Some of Darkseid’s troops come up behind Flo. Waller starts firing a rifle she took off a dead troop. Deadshot can’t kill anyone with his bullets, but he discovers that when Serafin throws his cosmic cartridges at the troops, it freezes them, and then Floyd shoots them. We notice Ravan choking a soldier, even though we didn’t see him on the Super-cycle with the others. Light talks to Smith’s ghost again, who again encourages him to be brave. Light flies into the sky and is shot dead immediately. Light’s ghost confronts Smith’s ghost, who admits that he was haunting him to get him killed, and hopefully then move on to heaven. An unnamed demon watches them argue with one another, and feels so bored with the notion that this is how he has to spend eternity. The fight keeps going until Darkseid shows up and stops everything. He restores Bernadeth to life, and learning that Lashina broke his law about bringing humans to Apokolips as a way of emulating his behaviour, he kills her. We see Waller holding Flo’s dead body (it’s weird that her death happened off screen). Darkseid offers to bring all of Waller’s dead back to life, but Waller refuses, knowing that would make them his slaves. He sends all of the humans home, and admonishes Granny for how badly her people performed.
Waller, the Squad, and the Forever People (but not their Super-cycle) just appear at Belle Reve in front of Economos and Murph. Economos is shocked to learn that Flo is dead, and when Ben reports that Dr. Light and Count Vertigo are also dead, Murph feels a slight pulse in the Count. Ben and Mari rush him to the infirmary. Murph offers to ship Poison Ivy and Deadshot back to Arkham, but Waller decides to keep Lawton, and gives Isley a choice. Eve comforts Economos. The Forever People offer to give Barda a lift home. Punch, Jewelee, and Boomerang stand over Light’s corpse, and talk about what a loser he was. His ghost is still present and can hear them. The other Dr. Light’s ghost is also there, and they begin to argue. Ravan tells Murph that he figures Shade was sent home by Darkseid. We see Shade approaching his home dimension, feeling immensely guilty about having betrayed the Squad (I think that the Shade series by Milligan and Bachalo was already coming out by this point, so it makes sense that he was written out of the book). The next day, we learn from Mary that Vertigo is pulling through. She and Waller talk about how Flo’s mother, Edna Mae, who is also their cousin, is blaming Amanda for Flo’s death, and has barred her from the funeral. Kale and Murph stand over the comatose Wild Huntsman, who is in a containment unit alongside his dog and horse (this part felt jarring, because I have no idea who this is). Major Victory storms past them, furious because he’s been pied. Eve says goodbye to Economos as she, Mari, and Ben board a plane to Washington. Sarge Steel has called on Ben to account for disobeying his orders, and Economos is worried that he’ll be kicked off the Squad. In Russia, Stalnoivolk, who we haven’t seen since the Doom Patrol Special, fights a half dozen Soviet soldiers while Zastrow talks to some guy named Raskov about him. We learn that the “Steel Wolf” is in his eighties, and was made into a super-soldier by Stalin. We learn the Soviets are starting a metahuman covert group called Red Shadows, and that Raskov wants Zastrow to run it. Zastrow wants Stalnoivolk on the team, which gets some push-back, because he doesn’t fit with the concept of Perestroika, but Raskov agrees. At a crack house in New Orleans, a woman named Mambo comes to the door, because the men inside have infringed on Loa territory. Zombies attack the crack house, while Mambo, Bocor, and Damballah watch. As the building burns, they talk about Amanda Waller knowing about them. They decide to go after her, but Damballah wants to do it subtly. Punch gets out of Belle Reve’s pool, and finds his locker full of pies. He’s confronted by Victory, Jewelee, Boomerang, Waller, Kale, Murph, and Economos, but insists he hasn’t been the one pieing everyone. Murph stands up for him, explaining that he’s narrowed down a small list of people who could be responsible, and that he started surveilling one of the Squad. He accuses Boomerang, who tries to claim he was also a victim. Murph explains he used a boomerang to have a pie fly into his face. He admits to his crimes, and tells Waller he quits. Later, we see Waller drop him out of a helicopter onto a small island twenty miles off Australia, where there is fruit but no people. After returning to Yeager, she seems to be in a better mood, but then is hit by a pie in the face. We see that Murph has tossed it, wanting to keep up the tradition.

In New Orleans, the Loa put a plan into action. Bocor reveals to the media that Amanda Waller is still in charge of the Suicide Squad. At the same time, Damballah intends to flood American cities with free cocaine that has been altered to turn its users into zuvembi that will follow their commands. Ben and Mari have arrived in Washington for the meeting Ben is set to have with Sarge Steel. Steel talks with King Faraday and two others about Ben before the meeting starts. Steel asks Faraday to talk about Ben, and we learn about how he was a CBI operative recruited after he’d spent his adolescence learning martial arts. He was captured by the League of Assassins and turned into the Bronze Tiger, where he held his own against Batman. Faraday rescued him with the help of Rick Flag and Nightshade, and that led to him working with Amanda Waller to be deprogrammed. As the men talk, it becomes clear that Steel does not want the Squad to continue operating, and feels that getting rid of Ben will help his goals. When Faraday objects, and suggests that Steel is uncomfortable having two Black people running the Squad, Steel removes him from the meeting (he warns Ben on his way out to watch his back). At Belle Reve, Mary informs Jewelee that she’s three and a half months pregnant. Waller informs Oracle that Flo has died; this is the first that we see Oracle’s face, and sharp readers will have figured out that she’s Barbara Gordon. Turner enters the meeting room, and Steel questions why he disobeyed orders to not go to Apokolips. Ben makes clear arguments, so Steel brings up his childhood, and how he killed a burglar that was threatening his family. His quest to control his own anger and joy at killing led him into martial arts, where he felt that his anger was exploited to turn him into a weapon. Ben claims that he’s in control now, and Steel surprises him by pulling out his old tiger mask. Ben explains that the League of Assassins’s leader, Sensei, taught him to put all of his anger into his mask, which is what made him such an effective killer for them. He claims that it was Amanda who taught him control (with Dr. LaGrieve’s help), so he destroyed the mask. Steel suggests that he’s still out of control, and that he didn’t kill Ravan because he enjoyed being more cruel. Ben agrees, and grabs the new mask, ripping it apart and running from the room. The other men agree with Steel that Waller’s lost control, and that they need to shut the Squad down. They want Checkmate to deal with the Loa. Mari runs into the street calling for Ben.
The fact that Waller is still running the Squad has been reported, and so Sarge Steel tells her over the phone that he’s shutting down the entire operation. She’s to put all the prisoners back in their cells, or return them to Arkham, and leave. Amanda argues back, but it’s clear that Steel hates her. She asks about the planned operation against the Loa, but he says that it will be Checkmate’s job now; the Squad is done. She informs Economos, Kale, and McCoy. Damballah is very pleased with the way his plan is working, and goes over his other plan with Bocor and Mambo. They have been distributing their laced drugs, which, after a second ingredient is injected, will turn drug users into zombies under their control. They plan to use them to destroy the country’s war on drugs. Father Craemer talks to Punch and Jewelee, who were planning to leave Belle Reve anyway, given Jewelee’s pregnancy. We see Doctor Light’s ghost fly past. Major Victory is brought to the Pentagon to meet with a Colonel. He refuses to betray Waller to him, and informs him that he’s actually a civilian, and that he’s keeping his power suit. He storms out. Economos and Mari talk about their plans. Mari is upset that she can’t find Ben, and is thinking about returning to modelling, while John, missing Flo, feels he can’t keep working at Belle Reve. Murph tells them that Waller has Deadshot, Ravan, and Poison Ivy in the briefing room. Waller has figured out what the Loa are up to, with Ivy’s help, and has decided to go after them with these three operatives, after which she will let them all go free. They grab a street dealer, who tells them how to find his supplier. This guy drives around in a hearse, which Deadshot shoots up. They head to the building where the Loa keep their offices, and fight their way in. They enter Damballah’s office, and Waller and Lawton shoot him, Bocor, and Mambo dead. She tells the others to leave. Later, we see Steel talking on the phone, presumably to the President, about how Waller stayed until the police arrived. Steel has arranged it so that it’s clear Waller acted alone, and she has taken a plea deal, pleading guilty to manslaughter. The issue ends with her sitting in a prison cell.

This is not the end of Ostrander and Yale’s run with the Squad, but with issue forty, the story jumps forward a year, and that makes this a good place to end this already too-long column.

I love this comic. So much of what I remembered loving about it has come through while re-reading these issues, but I’ve also been very impressed with the way Ostrander and Yale managed the massive cast of this book. There are a number of ways that this doesn’t match my memory though, and I want to explore that, and look at a number of specific characters, and the long-term planning that went into this book.

First off, I remember a lot more characters dying a lot more often in this series. For a book called the Suicide Squad, there were fewer deaths than I’d expected. I seem to remember a lot more characters buying it. Sure, they took out the whole group that accompanied Flag into the Doom Patrol crossover special, but beyond that, character deaths were mostly meaningful and treated with some respect. For a team that was supposed to be cannon fodder, they surprisingly weren’t.

I liked the frequency with which the team’s missions went wrong, too. The early issues really stand out as being different from the latter ones, with things taking a turn after the Russia mission, which coincided with Waller taking greater control of the Squad. The tone of the book started to change, as it became much more about the interactions of the people on the team set against the larger intrigues that Waller found herself embroiled in.

This book was groundbreaking in a lot of ways. It was the first series to consistently portray villains as anti-heroes (I know there had been villain-centric titles before, but they were never like this), and to dig into their psyches. It also made use of a massive collection of supporting characters, and a revolving door. I was surprised by how little-used some of the most memorable characters were, and that’s largely because of the impact Ostrander and Yale had on them.

Let’s talk about what an incredible character Amanda Waller is. She is a short, plus-sized Black woman running a covert government program that has her reigning in convicted psychopaths and notorious killers. She even stared down Batman! There is no character more bad-ass or unique in comics. What I really love about her and this series is the way we slowly start to see the other sides of her, and learn about her difficult past. We see, over time, just how much she cares for the people on the Squad (except, I guess, for Boomerang) and its support team. She gives jobs to her sister and her cousin’s kid, and then works to keep them and everyone else safe. Even at the end of this storyline here, where she takes the rap for the others and goes to jail, is done to protect the people she cares about. Ostrander and Yale were really subtle in how they wrote her – our opinion of her changes over time, based on little hints and clues, and it’s what makes this book a tour de force.

Rick Flag is also an interesting character. At first, he appears to be there as a counterbalance to Waller’s extremes, but as time passes, we see that he’s the loose cannon, while she has things under control. I remembered Rick as being around a lot longer than he was here, so was surprised when he was killed off. I’d found myself hoping he’d find some peace with his past, but I’m not sure that happened.

Deadshot is the Wolverine of this book, and I was also surprised by how long he was sidelined after the Senator Cray incident (which was brilliant). I saw him as the coolest character in this book, and liked that Ostrander held back on using him too much.

Bronze Tiger is also really interesting. For much of this run, he seems like he’s just a good soldier with a conscience, but then, right at the end of this stack, Ostrander rips him apart (I know that his story is nowhere near being over). I also think he’s one of the coolest looking characters in this comic, but I didn’t appreciate that back in the day.

It’s weird that Vixen ended up in this book, given that she used to be in the Justice League, but I like how she gave some legitimacy to the team. She was a little under-utilized, serving mostly as a foil to Flo’s love for Ben.

Captain Boomerang was interesting, in that he was usually used for comic relief, and was shown to be a total piece of garbage, so far as human beings go, yet he never left the team. He added a bit of chaos to the team, and I appreciated that about him.

I always remembered Nightshade as having a larger role in this book, but I think that’s because she was pretty integral to the issues she appeared in. I’m surprised that the stuff about her absorbing the succubus wasn’t explored more, and that June Moon kind of got written out after that.

I feel like Nemesis should have found his way back into the book. When he left, I half expected that he was playing a long con with Waller, and expected to see him during the Janus Directive, but that never happened. Nemesis is such a deep cut character, and it was cool how much of a role he played in the early issues.

It was interesting that Ostrander picked two old DC characters who he lost the use of because of DC’s mature line. Black Orchid just disappeared, but we know she was killed in Neil Gaiman’s miniseries. It was strange seeing Rac Shade show up in this book, in his traditional M-vest, just as Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo were reinventing the character in his own book (that I should probably tackle for one of these columns soon, as I loved it).

I liked the way Lashina hung out with the team, as Duchess, for so long, with no one really doing anything about it. It was clear that Waller knew who she really was, and wanted her to know she knew, but it was never explained why she let things go for so long.

Some of the later additions to the team, like Major Victory, Count Vertigo, Punch, Jewelee, and Ravan never got enough space to grow, and always felt like secondary characters. I like how Ostrander played Dr. Light for laughs, as he’s always been a little ridiculous.

Briscoe was an interesting character. At first, he seemed like someone just wanted an Airwolf knock-off on the team, so we got this super cool helicopter, and had to figure out a use for it on a lot of missions. I like how we learned that Briscoe named the chopper after his dead daughter, and thought we’d get to explore his character more, but then he was kind of quickly killed off on Apokolips. The fact that Himon found his body made me think he’d return, but I guess not.

Equal to the official members of the Squad were the support staff, who often got more character development and space than some of the main characters. Flo’s love for Ben was a long-running plot point, and helped drive a few stories. Economos was a good point of view character who balanced some of Waller’s excesses. Similarly, Dr. LaGrieve was a terrific counterbalance, and his presence was missed when he moved over to the cast of Firestorm. Father Craemer filled in for LaGrieve nicely, and helped us to understand Waller better.

Adding Oracle to this book was one of the coolest things that Ostrander did in his career. The idea of a computer-savvy anonymous hacker helping the team was interesting enough, but the slow roll out of the revelation that she was Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, who was paralyzed in the Killing Joke was a brilliant new use for an established character, and one that led to a lot of great stories in other places, most notably in Birds of Prey.

I also really liked Murph, the head guard, and appreciated how much space was given to Mitch, the gay mechanic who worried about his relationship with his son. There was no other book that was giving minor characters like this the same level of development.

Prior to the post-Crisis era, DC Comics weren’t really known for their focus on character, but that’s what drove this title. Even large events, like the Janus Directive, made space to study these characters, and reveal new sides to them. This is why Ostrander (with or without Yale’s cowriting) has long been a favourite writer of mine. He really made the characters stand out.

I also like the way Ostrander and Yale would plot this book out over the long term. It was a few months from when the Female Furies attacked Belle Reve before Duchess showed up in the prison. Stalnoivolk turned up in the Doom Patrol special, and then it was years before we saw him again. The Cray/Tolliver situation played out very slowly, and even in it were the seeds of what led to Waller sitting in that cell at the end of #39.

This is what I love about this era in general, as opposed to today’s writers who plan for two arcs at a time, at most (unless you’re Jonathan Hickman, but that’s a whole different story that has maybe gone too far the other way). I know that I’m writing about this with a third of the run still to read, so there are storylines that are still being developed, and that excites me.

In terms of art, this book rarely disappointed. Luke McDonnell is sometimes controversial, I’ve heard, and there are people who don’t like his solid lines and slightly blocky characters, but I love it. I feel like the roughness of his art suited the grittiness of this title perfectly, and that he did a fantastic job of making so many non-costumed characters visually distinct.

One thing I discovered in exhuming this run from my long-boxes is that at some point, I got McDonnell to sign all of his early issues, up to the time that he left the book. What’s weird about that is I have no memory of ever meeting him. I’m a little embarrassed that as a kid, I would bring a big stack of comics to a convention to get signed, and even more embarrassed that I wouldn’t remember that. I feel like I should apologize for it, but I also think it was a cool discovery.

After McDonnell left, John K. Snyder III came onboard, and in my memory, his art was a much bigger departure than it actually was. Sure, the one issue he inked himself was a lot more abstract, but in my head, his whole run was like that. And I wish it was. In truth, it looks like Snyder tamped down his wilder instincts for this book, and I would have now preferred to see him go nuts with it. His work on this book is good, but when Geoff Isherwood started inking him (and McDonnell), he started making the book his own, which is what ended up happening in the issues I’ll talk about next.

It’s fitting that Ostrander and Yale chose to jump the story ahead in time at the beginning of 1990, as comics were undergoing big changes then. I know that after this, the Squad moved away from wearing bright costumes, and that changed the book for me. I’ll talk about that more next time, as I look at the rest of this run.

Let’s pour one out for Mindboggler, Rick Flag, Briscoe, Shrike, Duchess, and Doctor Light.

If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.

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Retro Review: Suicide Squad (Vol. 1) #1-39 By Ostrander, Yale, McDonnell, Snyder III & Others For DC Comics

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