Bland heroes and villains make you
root for death in this early team book
I
never did catch on to the appeal of DC's Suicide Squad books. What with their
random assortment of rotating door villains performing black ops style missions
under duress alongside order-following, straight-arrow good guys and led by
Amanda "The Wall" Waller, the government special operative who has
"the end justifies the means" tattooed on the inside of her eyelids, I found that
much of the time the books just didn't excite me.
For
one thing the villains never seemed villainous enough. A true criminal would
always be looking for the opportunity to escape and far too often these guys
just went with the flow. I'll go into the particulars below, but suffice to say
real bad guys would have been plotting from the very first moment to get away.
Also
our good guys are pretty bland. Even at their emotional high points they are
boring. And their superpowers are not just weak, but non-existent. Suicide
Squad needed someone with flashy explosive powers to go along with their deadly,
high-risk mission itinerary. Bronze Tiger and Rick Flagg, Jr just don't cut it.
The
squad created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru back in Brave
and the Bold #25 in 1959 bore little in resemblance to the current team.
This was a band of secret military heroes who fought strange foes, and nary a super
criminal one was in evidence in their numbers. The group had a brief run in Brave and Bold and a one shot in Action
Comics #552 before vanishing.
Following
DC's Crisis, mainstay writer John Ostrander wrote them into the 1986 Legends
miniseries in much their current incarnation, as Task Force X operating out of
Belle Reve Penitentiary in Louisiana. Amanda Waller was introduced as the
behind-the-scenes puppet master of the group. The initial group even lost a
member before the series began as Blockbuster dies combating Darkseid's heavy
Brimstone. 1987 began volume one with Ostrander at the helm and things were off to the races.
The
issue I hold in my hand was from that run, near a year in. Ostrander is doing
the scripting, as he would for all 66 issues of this run. Luke McDonnell is on
pencils and Bob Lewis on inking chores. This was a tie-in to end all tie-ins,
too. Millennium was DC's plot to suck every nickel from your pocket in 1987, a
crossover event that touched all their titles. They must have loved the sales
bump that Crisis gave them and were hitting the well a second time. It would be
a while yet before readers realized that these multi-title stories were bumpier
than four miles of gravel road in a car without shocks.
This
particular chug-hole filed trail concerned the non-event of all time, a
creation of a group of super-powered beings to succeed the Guardians of OA
while they went to another dimension with the female Zamarons to eh..um, it's
not really clear so I'm gonna go with "bone." Those little guys were
kinda lonely, I guess.
Also
these "New Guardians" were going to birth a race of immortals.
The
selection of the New Guardians became the instigation of an attack by the evil
robot Manhunters. At the culmination of the crossover the replacement Guardians
got their own book, titled The New Guardians which lasted exactly twelve
issues. There were lots of problems with their book including one villain
gaining superpowers by snorting cocaine, a villain named The Heomgoblin who was
basically a vampire with AIDS and a hero that was flamboyantly gay to the point
of being an offensive stereotype. But mostly it was just boring. And after it
wrapped up we went back to business as usual in the DC universe with the
regular little blue smurf Guardians back on OA.
What
little good did come out of the event came from the Manhunters. Manhunters are
robots that the Guardians created before the Lanterns. They ended up turning
evil. So it goes. Crafty little devils that they are and having near indefinite
lifespans, they managed to create a stir at the start of Millennium. This
initial excitement came from DC teasing us with the Manhunters having
infiltrated every hero's core group in some way. Flash's Dad came out as a
Manhunter, the JLI's own Rocket Red turned out to be a robot Manhunter in
disguise and so was the Olympian goat god Pan.
For
a while there we had some fun guessing who the turncoats would be. Then we
found out and…well, the rest of the stories became what this issue was: overlap
city. This one issue ties into Captain Atom #11, Detective Comics #582, and the
Spectre #10. Yes, they wanted all your money. The interlocking cover looked
kind of neat, but come on…this is just a gimmick.
And
the story suffered greatly. Characters appear and disappear back to their own
books a couple of times in each of the Millennium issues. This book concerns the
heroes destroying a Manhunter base hidden in the swamp. And here on the title
page is the "Baby Huey" bomb they are using, which looks suspiciously
like one of my kid's pinewood derby cars.
And
not a winning one, at that.
Our
cast of villains for this traipse into the jaws of certain death are Slipknot,
along with book regulars Boomerang and Deadshot. Guess who will end up getting
killed or maimed?
The
hero chaperons are Rick Flagg, Jr, Bronze Tiger, Privateer (who was trained by
the Manhunters and now wants revenge) and Karin Grace, the love interest of
both Flagg and Privateer.
A
whole page of story takes place that recaps quite a bunch. Flagg has
reservations about Privateer's loyalties…
…and
why he's losing the love of his life to him.
Boomerang
sets in motion a plan to test the range of the explosive cuffs that keep Task
Force X's criminal complement loyal to the job.
In
fact all this setup is going along swimmingly until…
Oh,
yeah. I was getting so involved in the characters in this book that I forgot
this was a crossover storyline. How about we get both of these out of the way
as quickly as possible?
So
this is a literal suicide mission this time. It's right about here that I
realize why I didn't like this book. I find the good guys without motivation to
risk their necks. Bronze Tiger and Rick Flagg take orders well enough, but I
constantly find myself asking why. Why are they in the middle of this? The
movie at least has all bad guys going in to take out the sure-death whatever
with the dangled carrot of early release as the incentive. I don't know why
these two do it. At least Privateer wants revenge, an understandable impulse.
Anyway,
I mentioned getting these crossover cameos over, right? Well, on cue Firestorm
shows up and starts an all-out battle with Captain Atom. (Notice the blurb? I was RIGHT!)
Ostrander
is really trying to push past all these to get to the story he wants to tell.
Heck, Batman only gets his name dropped, Ostrander is in such a hurry.
Which
he would be. No sense in putting criminals IN jail just for them to obtain some
kind of unearned early release due to taking part in Waller's clandestine
program. That might make Bats a teensy bit upset.
Meanwhile
the squad has blown a hole in the Manhunter base and we get some "useless powers
vs robots" action going.
And
you thought driving the bomb filled the suicide portion of the book, didn't
you? Fists, ropes, exploding boomerangs and regular bullets have no effect on
these robots, quite as one might expect, yet that's the most these guys came
packing with. Seems like Waller picked the wrong bunch to send after killer metal
robots. Why didn't they save Blockbuster for this instead of letting him get
wasted on the first mission? Or Enchantress? Maybe she could magic the team
some giant can openers to use as weapons or something.
Okay,
so Deadshot finally has something effective to use but even the shrapnel
appears to be against them. Evil shrapnel. I guess that's a thing.
Speaking
of Deadshot, he and Captain B are the books staple characters during this run.
They are the two criminals who never get the benefit of early release from the
program, but are perpetually back in the thick of things while others rotate out.
And I kind of like these two, just don't love them.
Captain
Boomerang is a conniving, sniveling thief, the type of villain who would twirl
his mustache if he had one. Digger's weapon choice makes him seem a gimmicky
third-stringer, but he's effectively used in this book making for both comic
relief and a bit of melodrama.
Deadshot
on the other hand is a bit more complex. He just doesn't care. He is completely
nihilistic in his approach to everything. We get to watch him shoot a fellow
member of the squad in the head and shake it off like it doesn't phase him. I
don't see Will Smith being able to capture this level of emotional detachment unless
you count his performance in After Earth, because Deadshot truly doesn't care
about anyone or anything. That includes his own skin. While Digger seems forced
into squad membership, Deadshot appears to look on it with callous
indifference. As long as it allows him to shoot people, it doesn't matter what
cause he serves. That kind of attitude is a bit chilling, actually.
About
this time Slipknot realizes the title of the squad is literal and he heads for
the hills. Given the doubts Captain Boomerang has put in his head, seems like
his chances of dying are the same either way. Unfortunately that's gonna cost
him.
Digger
here is exactly on point with what we need more of: an evil sense of entitled
self-interest. Whatever works to his good, he'll use. It makes him an established
bad-guy, one we love to hate.
Storywise
it works too, because just like in a horror movie we expect a little death here.
Suicide IS in the team's name and everything. I bet in the movie they kill the
pyrotechnic guy, El Diablo. He fell so below the radar that outside of interviewing his creative team, I hadn't heard of him.
Deadshot? No. Harley? Don't make me laugh. Killer Croc? Nope. Guy who I don't
remember seeing before? TOAST.
Unless Slipknot is in the movie. Then of course he's the one going down.
Unless Slipknot is in the movie. Then of course he's the one going down.
In
the meantime, Rick Flagg and Privateer have driven the bomb deeper into the
complex where they come across Karin, who was last seen struggling with a
group of Manhunter robots. The two men get into an altercation over the
decision on whether or not to help her.
So
they help her. And then this happens.
Yeah,
don't ask me to explain this twist either.
It
appears that Karin has been working with the Manhunters and Mark Shaw/Privateer
is a mole for them as well. Yet two seconds ago he wanted Flagg to let her fall
to her death. Unless he somehow knew Flagg wouldn't let that happen. Yet in
the very next panel Karin talks about this…
…and
mentions how Flagg doesn't let his personal feelings get in the way of the
"mission" or "duty" which flies in the face of his actions
here, meaning if he was that guy, Karin would be street pizza right now…so this
is just all real bizarre. And it only gets worse when…
Yup.
Karin wasn't in love with the real Mark Shaw. She was in love with…
A robot
Manhunter.
Who claims Privateer is actually an android. Privateer claims the Manhunter is an android (which would make them pretty specialized robots for Karin not to notice anything amiss). Rick Flagg feels like a dumbass and decides to ditch all this and ride that bomb right down the Manhunter's throats.
The robot Manhunter tries to stop him and instead shoots Mark Shaw/Privateer. Or the Manhunter android that thinks it is Mark Shaw/Privateer. And then Flagg. But he doesn't kill them for some reason, instead states they are just stunned. He hands his pistol-thing over to Karin and instructs her to …
Who claims Privateer is actually an android. Privateer claims the Manhunter is an android (which would make them pretty specialized robots for Karin not to notice anything amiss). Rick Flagg feels like a dumbass and decides to ditch all this and ride that bomb right down the Manhunter's throats.
The robot Manhunter tries to stop him and instead shoots Mark Shaw/Privateer. Or the Manhunter android that thinks it is Mark Shaw/Privateer. And then Flagg. But he doesn't kill them for some reason, instead states they are just stunned. He hands his pistol-thing over to Karin and instructs her to …
Woah.
Karin really was loving on a robot. Kinky.
Why
did it suddenly explode like that, though?
See
the yellow box? Oh, that's right! It happened in the other part of the
crossover that you will need to purchase to figure out the ending…thanks for
holding the ending hostage, DC. I'm sure they plant this bomb in a few pages
and blow the Manhunters to kingdom come, in the Spectre book it will have a
similar blurb pointing readers to spend their pocket change back this
direction.
And
about that bomb: Karin drives it the rest of the way in, while Mark Shaw drags
Flaggs body out. The car topples over, trapping her underneath. Flagg wakes up
and gets an emotional "KAHN!" moment, then "blammo!"
This
issue's soap-operatics were a staple of the series and one of the reasons I
didn't really dig it. The most interesting thing to me was the villains-as-heroes and
their motivations. Far too often we were caught up in Flagg and Tiger and any
other "good guy" handlers instead of letting us revel in the bad
guys. They are what truly set the book apart and yet they are never really
given much chance to shine.
It's
a true shame too. A book without any heroes in the forefront, (no Flagg, Bronze Tiger,
Nightshade or Karin) where the criminals face off against Waller would have
been so much more interesting. Hopefully this is something the new movie gets
right.
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