Originally Posted by
ducklord
As far as slapdash comic-book philosophy goes, I found the bits with the Chosen to be wonderfully goofy and charming. And sure, the Chosen were chock full of broad stereotypes, but at least they were well-meaning stereotypes. And I stand by my assertion that Extrano is a character that a competent writer could turn into DC's Doctor Who.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending. It was billed as a story that "wasn't about super-heroes," but in the end it was just about the creation of a bunch of new super-heroes.
I'm not a big fan of this approach either, but when it comes to gross character rewinds, I vastly prefer it to reality-shaking Crises or temporal shenanigans.
I'm not sure what to make of Waller's descent and the degradation of the Squad in general. In it's original Ostrandian set-up, the criminal Squad members were (primarily) volunteers, looking to knock time off their sentences. They were varying degrees of sympathetic, and Waller, while not exactly *caring* about her pawns, did seem to get annoyed when things went bad. The missions themselves were definitely black books affairs, but very rarely strayed into "only Lex Luthor would approve of such ghastly doings" territory.
Nowadays Waller just kidnaps villains and forces them onto the Squad, and is overseeing ridiculous plots to cull the superhuman community. She used to work hand in hand with professionals like Rick Flag, Nemesis, and Ben Turner. Now her #1 guy is Peacemaker, who while funny, is about as professional as a Pee-Wee football team.
I just don't know, man.