It has been 40 years since DC Comics formed its most dangerous team of anti-heroes in the modern day. This all happened during the six-issue miniseries Legends in 1986 and 1987, a storyline that crossed over with several other major titles, including Batman, Superman, and Secret Origins. This was DC’s first major crossover event since “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” and it had Darkseid as one of the main villains, with the miniseries plotted by John Ostrander, written by Len Wein, and penciled by John Byrne. However, while Darkseid was a huge focus, this series also introduced a new character, Amanda Waller, and the team she formed to impose her will on the world.
On September 30, 1986, DC released Legends #3, and this was the issue where Amanda Waller formed Task Force X for the first time. This was the team that would become better known as the Suicide Squad. As was shown in the issue that introduced Amanda Waller, she did this with Rick Flag as the team leader.
Legends was a series that began to paint superheroes as dangers to the world. In the first issue of the miniseries, Captain Marvel was fighting a villain known as Macro-Man, and when he yelled “Shazam” to get free, it seemingly killed the villain. This led a psychologist named G. Gordon Godfrey to proclaim that superheroes were lawless vigilantes who have no place in society. This one man turned society against superheroes. The twist is that Macro-Man was sent to Earth by Darkseid. The death was triggered by Darkseid‘s agents, and it wasn’t Captain Marvel’s fault at all. This led the President of the United States to ban all superhero activity until the crisis had passed, and this includes Superman.
This opened the door for Amanda Waller, who put together her team of supervillains called Task Force X to work as a black-ops team and deal with issues that superheroes are no longer allowed to deal with. The team was led by Rick Flag, with Bronze Tiger as another, more heroic co-leader. The rest of the team members were straight villains offered pardons, including Blockbuster, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and Enchantress. Their first mission was in this issue, where they were sent to attack Brimstone, who was attacking Mount Rushmore. At the time, they had explosive bracelets attached to their wrists that would kill them if they tried to escape.
This first mission had a casualty, as most later Suicide Squad missions also did. In this case, it was Blockbuster who died, although it was Brimstone who killed him. Deadshot finally took down Brimstone, and when Enchantress’s evil side came out, Bronze Tiger knocked her out. This was the moment that Captain Boomerang noticed this was a suicide mission, and Flag said all of them were expendable. That was the first mission of the Suicide Squad. As the heroes of Earth banded together to challenge Godfrey, they learned he was an instrument of Darkseid as well. At the same time, Captain Boomerang threatened to make Task Force X public, which caused Waller to send the team to eliminate him. By the end, Task Force X did their part to help stop Godfrey while the combined heroes finally won the day, and the Justice League was formed.
Following the events of the Legends miniseries, the story’s plotter, John Ostrander, started his next ongoing title called Suicide Squad. The first issue by Ostrander and Luke McDonnell introduced the Belle Reve Federal Prison and its warden, John Economos, through a tour with reporter Vicki Vale. After Vale leaves, the issue reveals that this is the headquarters for the off-the-books Suicide Squad, with Task Force X undergoing the name change. The name change was explained in this issue to be by Amanda Waller herself, who said it was important thanks to the group’s history. This is because a previous team in World War II also used the name, although they weren’t reestablished in DC until Ostrander started this new series. Rick Flag is also still there, and he is still the field leader for the team.
At this time, not all the members wore the explosive bracelets. In fact, none of the previous members had them on, and only the new members, Plastique and Mindboggler, were forced to wear them. That changed when Captain Boomerang, as usual, spoke out and got one placed on him again as well. The team was then sent on missions to eliminate enemies of the United States, and the table was set for the Suicide Squad to do what genuine heroes would never attempt.
