Suicide Squad: The Final Mission (Superhero) (Graphic Novel)

by John Ostrander (Author) & Kim Tale (Illustrator) 

Publisher: DC Comics (May 21, 2019)

Softcover, 192 pages

Amazon Listing

This final volume collects issues 59-66 of the original run of Suicide Squad from the 1980s. All in all it lasted around five and a half years, a decent run. Certainly it was influential, considering how many times it has been resurrected and its original character Amanda Waller is now a mainstay in the D.C. universe. Not only that, it revitalized interest and gave depth to super-villain characters such as Deadshot, Dr. Light, and Captain Boomerang.

What killed it off? According to the writer it was simply low sales. This was in 1992 when the comic industry took a major dip due to oversaturation, lots of low quality material on the market, rising prices, a lot of bad art (Liefeld), and poor stories. Many new writers came in who seemed to have no interest in a series’ history or the mythos of the characters. There was an attitude many writers put on s if they were better than the material they were creating and any old slop would be wolfed down by the idiot masses. This led to the comics’ crash of the 1990s which lasted most of the decade.

As for the last stories, they hold up pretty well. It wasn’t a lack of ideas that drove this comic out of business. It unfolds through two separate story arcs that certain shadowy forces within the military and intelligence services have copied Waller ideas surrounding the Suicide Squad and have put together teams made of super-villains to be wet work teams across the globe. Waller discovers them involved in the attempted assassination of JLI member the Atom, acting as a death squad enforcers for a third world dictator, and a literal assassination squad in the U.S.

Once this is all dealt with, the surviving members of the squad disperse and Waller decides that her ideas about the Suicide Squad were flawed, recent events showing her just how far they could be taken. She decides to retire and help rebuild the third world country trashed by the copycat super-villains. But, as I’m sure you know, this doesn’t last long.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.