Suicide Squad appreciation thread

[Robotman]

DC Forum Appreciation Thread rules:

1) No negative comments about the honoree of this thread. It's an appreciation thread, not a non-appreciation one.

2) No negative discussion about any competitors of the honoree of this thread (i.e. John Stewart in the Hal Jordan thread). No ifs, ands, or buts. Find another non-appreciation thread to do that, just not here.

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TASK FORCE X: a group of incarcerated supervillains who act as deniable assets for the United States government, undertaking high-risk black ops missions in exchange for commuted prison sentences.

They are the SUICIDE SQUAD!

An appreciation thread dedicated to one of the best concepts in comics!

With the team's appearance on Arrow and now the Assualt on Arkham animated movie the future has never been brighter for this team of villains and anti-heroes!

[The Odd Man]

John Ostrander turned Flord Lawton into one of the most interesting characters in the 80's and beyond. I still own every issue of the original series. It's what today's comics should aspire to.

Suicide_Squad_-1.jpg

[Zartan's Brother]

Ah, Suicide Squad. Where Z-list characters go to die and otherwise neglected villains get to shine. I have every issue written by Ostrander. Shame that it's never come close to the quality of the original run in subsequent volumes.

[SilverZeal]

Luvly thrd...devoted Task Force X/SS supa-fan here but hving said dat we/SZ caaaant stand any version of d team without Bronze Tiger/Ben Turner who was on d team since d very beginning. DC Nu 52 totally butcherd him.

[TheDarkKnightReturns]

Ah, Suicide Squad. Where Z-list characters go to die and otherwise neglected villains get to shine. I have every issue written by Ostrander. Shame that it's never come close to the quality of the original run in subsequent volumes.

Agree. There is too much A and B list villains in that book. Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Joker kid, Deathstroke and rest just cannot die. Deadshot and Harley Quinn actually died but they were brought to life because plot induced stupidity. Hell in Arrow, Deadshot died too but again plot induced stupity came into play to revive him. No point of reading a book like that when you know that many of these A and B list villains just won't die. DC just should change the name of the book seriously.

[Robotman]

Luvly thrd...devoted Task Force X/SS supa-fan here but hving said dat we/SZ caaaant stand any version of d team without Bronze Tiger/Ben Turner who was on d team since d very beginning. DC Nu 52 totally butcherd him.

The fact that Bronze Tiger isn't prominent in the current DCU is so frustrating! The character has so much potential. At least put him back on the Suicide Squad. Characters like Black Manta and Deathstroke don't really belong.

[Robotman]

Just gonna repost my thoughts on the Assault on Arkham movie.


Ok, I loved this movie! After Justice League War and the godawful Batman and Son I was really depressed about the future of DC animated movies. Assualt on Arkham has restored a bit of my faith.

I felt the recent movies have been overly violent. Not really adding to the plot but just for shock value. Not a fan of seeing heroes act overly brutal. But the violent nature of these villains makes it work. There was a lot of cursing and some racy scenes but again these are thieves and murderers we're dealing with.

I also loved how Batman was almost like the villain in this. Every time he showed up I'm rooting for the Squad to beat him.

DC/WB knows how to market Harley. Comedy, violence, and sex appeal. She has it all.

My only complaint is the lack of Bronze Tiger! That character could be huge for DC. He's a regular member of the Ostrander team and he was a member of the Squad on Arrow. Not to mention the fact that they all but said he was recruited in the Arkham: Blackgate video game. Yet they didn't use him here. So disappointing.

I'm shocked that DC allowed them to use classic fat Waller. Seeing as Diane Nelson is trying to have more cohesion between comics and multimedia. It was great hearing CCH Pounder voicing The Wall again!

[Black_Adam]

The Suicide Squad, love the premise, so much untapped potential. I really do feel DC/WB could turn them into a A-list franchise if done right. We've heard rumours of long gestating video game and live action movie adaptions, the recent Arkham games have definitely teased further things to come, but we'll see I guess.

I recently watched the old JLU episode "Task Force X" great episode which also managed to capture that "heist" style feel that Assault on Arkham did so well. I definitely think a live action movie could work if it followed a similar formula to these.

The fact that Bronze Tiger isn't prominent in the current DCU is so frustrating! The character has so much potential. At least put him back on the Suicide Squad. Characters like Black Manta and Deathstroke don't really belong.

Deathstroke I agree, he's a badass and should always work alone besides having him and Deadshot on the same team is kinda redundant. Black Manta however I think is a great addition to the squad especially spinning out of Forever Evil which definitely raised his profile. As for Bronze Tiger would definitely love to see him back on the squad but I hate his new power to turn into a "man-tiger", prefer him with no powers but one of the worlds best martial artists.

[Robotman]

Deathstroke I agree, he's a badass and should always work alone besides having him and Deadshot on the same team is kinda redundant. Black Manta however I think is a great addition to the squad especially spinning out of Forever Evil which definitely raised his profile. As for Bronze Tiger would definitely love to see him back on the squad but I hate his new power to turn into a "man-tiger", prefer him with no powers but one of the worlds best martial artists.

Totally agree. That were-tiger thing needs to go! They could just say it was a temporary power like in his Batman: The Brave and the Bold appearance.

[quinnzel]

Suicide Squad easily turned into one of my favorite things about comics and I'm so frustrated I haven't been able to find anymore of the trades printed up with the original 80s series. My brother and I were able to stumble upon volume 1 in our local comic shop but haven't been able to find any of the others, even online. Our comic shop owner said he hopes with Suicide Squad's rising popularity, what with New Suicide Squad being marketed now and everything that they'll reprint them again. I sure hope so because the original 80s series is badass and still holds up even almost 30 years later.

I'm also a fan of the New 52 Suicide Squad but I still haven't made up my mind about New Suicide Squad. Joker's Daughter just feels too gimmicky to me, and I agree with what everyone else is saying, and Deathstroke doesn't seem to really belong. Why not just have Deadshot be the leader again, or, hey, here's a thought they'll never do but I can dream... bring back Bronze Tiger? Bronze Tiger and Deadshot were the best parts of the Ostrander series (aside from original Amanda Waller, that is).

Speaking of Amanda Waller, that's another thing that's really bothered me. Aside from the obvious physical changes they made to her, they've completely butchered her character for me in every other way, too. Amanda Waller could be seen as an unsympathetic jerk who's no better than the people she puts on SS, but in the Ostrander series, you at least understood why she had such a big chip on her shoulder. And then in New 52, they took that away and gave her a very unimaginative back-story. In Ostrander's series, Waller had lost almost everything to violence and had fueled that loss into hatred and a drive to get the job done. In New 52... she just feels like another generic character.

[Zartan's Brother]

The biggest failing of the nu52 Suicide Squad (for me) doesn't even have to do with the characterization of Waller (mediocre), the absence of classic members (Bronze Tiger, Nightshade, Vixen, Count Vertigo), or the presence of A or B-List characters (ruining the tension since we know they won't die). It's not even the stupid immortality serum that prevented the team from dying when they were killed, which was an awful idea. No, the worst part for me was that in a title that should have developed its minor characters, only Yo-Yo got anything resembling a complete story. Black Spider, El Diablo, Iceberg, they all just disappeared. I wanted more of them, especially Spider and Diablo, but they were pretty much jettisoned after the first 13 issues.

Also, I think it's a cop-out to only kill four members over the course of 30 issues. Voltiac (killed twice), Lime, Light, and Yo-Yo. Now we have a team of five members where all five are probably untouchable for editorial reasons? I have to pass. The Squad has lacked the punch that even Giffen injected into the title back in 2001, and I wasn't even a fan of his run.

[JackDaw]

The biggest failing of the nu52 Suicide Squad (for me) doesn't even have to do with the characterization of Waller (mediocre), the absence of classic members (Bronze Tiger, Nightshade, Vixen, Count Vertigo), or the presence of A or B-List characters (ruining the tension since we know they won't die). It's not even the stupid immortality serum that prevented the team from dying when they were killed, which was an awful idea. No, the worst part for me was that in a title that should have developed its minor characters, only Yo-Yo got anything resembling a complete story. Black Spider, El Diablo, Iceberg, they all just disappeared. I wanted more of them, especially Spider and Diablo, but they were pretty much jettisoned after the first 13 issues.

Also, I think it's a cop-out to only kill four members over the course of 30 issues. Voltiac (killed twice), Lime, Light, and Yo-Yo. Now we have a team of five members where all five are probably untouchable for editorial reasons? I have to pass. The Squad has lacked the punch that even Giffen injected into the title back in 2001, and I wasn't even a fan of his run.

So if a bit more spotlight had been given on the minor characters, then all the other failings wouldn't matter?? And some people say comic fans are hard to please....

The John Ostrander series was a real fun read. But, for me, that was down to a really good writer more or less being allowed to get on and do his own thing with a basically good concept. It doesn't surprise me at all that some other DC writers have made a dog's breakfast of same good idea.

[Nite-Wing]

Yes the point of the suicide squad is to show really dangerous missions and the ramifications of those missions by having members die. Now that this immortality serum is a thing we should literally be seeing all of the team die one time or another. I mean I figured the only reason that concept was brought in was to place a safety net under the non red shirt characters too popular to die.

[TheDarkKnightReturns]

Yes the point of the suicide squad is to show really dangerous missions and the ramifications of those missions by having members die. Now that this immortality serum is a thing we should literally be seeing all of the team die one time or another. I mean I figured the only reason that concept was brought in was to place a safety net under the non red shirt characters too popular to die.

So whats the point of putting A and B list villains in the book in the first place ? The serum makes the concept of ''Suicide'' Squad completely useless.

[Zartan's Brother]

So if a bit more spotlight had been given on the minor characters, then all the other failings wouldn't matter?? And some people say comic fans are hard to please....

I said that the failure to develop minor characters was the biggest failing, not that the others don't matter comparatively. If the title had developed its minor cast members it might have at least lead to stronger overall writing, which would have been something.