The Many Deaths of The Suicide Squad

DC fans of the '80s fondly remember John Ostrander’s time as writer of Suicide Squad. With his wife and writing partner the late Kim Yale, Ostrander presented one of the greatest long form villain comics of all time. The book’s body count was always high and there was a feeling that death could come to any character at any moment. The title turned once D-List villains like the Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Plastique, and Count Vertigo into serious players. As fans discovered more about them, they also feared losing them as Ostrander established that nobody was safe from a swift and sudden death.

That trend continued in future incarnations of the Suicide Squad. Now, with the small screen debut of the Suicide Squad on Arrow, and the news that a major motion picture is coming from Fury director David Ayer (and that may star names like Will Smith, Tom Hardy, Ryan Gosling, and Margot Robbie) it’s time to take a look at the members of the Squad that lost their lives doing Amanda Waller’s bidding.

There are a LOT of them. How the hell is this going to work as a movie?

Blockbuster (Mark Desmond)

First Appearance: Detective Comics #345 (1965)Death: Legends #3 (1987)Writers: John Ostrander and Len Wein
Penciler: John Byrne

During the Squad’s inaugural mission, as detailed in DC’s second major crossover, Legends, Blockbuster became the first casualty of The Suicide Squad. Blockbuster was DC’s closest thing to the Hulk and was a semi-regular Batman foe. He wasn’t a major villain, but he also wasn’t small change, so it came as a pretty big surprise when Blockbuster was killed by Darkseid’s fire demon, Brimstone. Blockbuster’s brother became a major player in the pages of Nightwing after the first Blockbuster’s violent demise, but the original Blockbuster will always be part of history as the first victim of Amanda Waller’s meat grinder.

Mindboggler

First Appearance: Firestorm Vol. 2 #29 (1984)Death: Suicide Squad #2 (1987)Writer: John Ostrander
Penciler: Luke McDonnell

Let’s just say Firestorm villains did not fare well in the pages of Suicide Squad. Mindboggler was Leah Wasserman, a member of the group of killers known as the Assassination Bureau. After being defeated by Firestorm, she took Amanda Waller’s offer to go on the Squad’s first mission in return for having her sentence shaved down. Her death was one of the most important in Squad history as it established that any character can die at any moment. Ostrander wrote Mindboggler like she was going to be a major player in the Squad: a tough as nails punk rock chick with the power to cast illusions who stood out amongst the Squad’s original line-up.

In the first issue of the title, she used her illusion powers to humiliate one Captain Boomerang. In the second issue, during a climactic struggle with the very politically incorrectly named team of super terrorists, the Jihad, Captain Boomerang could have saved Mindboggler from the villainous Rustam. Boomerang did nothing to pay Mindboggler back for the disrespect and caused her death. This established that Ostrander was not afraid to kill his characters and that Boomerang, the once clownish Flash villain, was a grade A dick.

Karin Grace

First Appearance: Brave and the Bold #25 (1959)Death: Suicide Squad #9 (1988)

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciler: Luke McDonnell

Karin Grace was part of the original Suicide Squad that first appeared in a few try outs in the pages of the Brave and the Bold. With such a pedigree, one would think that a classic Silver Age character would have been safe. Not so much.

During the Millennium crossover, the Squad was sent to take on a group of Manhunters. Karin was once the lover of Mark Shaw who, at the time was the Squad member known as the Privateer, but once was known as the Manhunter. Shaw reveals he has no memory of ever having known Grace. The original female Squadie realizes that her Shaw was a Manhunter android. Disgusted that she was buggering a robot, Grace set off a bomb killing her former lover and a regiment of Manhunters. Grace’s death warned readers that not even legacy characters were safe in the pages of the Suicide Squad.

Slipknot

First Appearance: Firestorm Vol. 2 #28 (1984)Maimed: Suicide Squad #9 (1988)

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciler: Luke McDonnell

During the same mission that took the life of Karin Grace, the Firestorm villain Slipknot was maimed by a Manhunter robot. The dude’s only ability was his prowess in tying nooses and knots so after he lost his arm to the Manhunters, Slipknot became next to useless. The poor shmuck can’t even make balloon animals, how is this mort supposed to tie a knot with one arm? This effectively ended Slipknot’s villainous career, the second victim of the "Firestorm Suicide Squad" curse.

Mr. 104

First Appearance: Doom Patrol #98 (1965)Death: Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special (1988)

Writers: John Ostrander and Paul Kupperberg
Penciler: Erik Larsen 

Mr. 104 was one of the original Doom Patrol’s villains, a former scientist who had the power to turn into any combination of the then known 104 elements. Clearly, the dude needed a publicist, because that has to be one of the worst names in villain history, but whatever he called himself, he was pretty powerful.

Mr. 104 was recruited by Amanda Waller to join with the current incarnation of the Doom Patrol on a mission to Russia. By the end of the mission, the Doom Patrol would be down one villain as Mr. 104 was blown to pieces by a squadron of Rocket Reds. He did return much later to take on Beast Boy, but his career as a member of the Squad was short-lived. Maybe if he was Mr. 105…

Psi

First Appearance: Supergirl Vol. 2 #1(1982)Death: Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special (1988)

Writers: John Ostrander and Paul Kupperberg
Penciler: Erik Larsen 

Psi was a very powerful and very tragic woman. She had a great deal of psychic powers and was raised by an insane scientist who felt the world was in constant danger from a being named Decay. Psi psychically fed off these delusions and grew convinced that the Decay was real and embodied in Supergirl. Psi and Supergirl clashed many times, the troubled girl growing increasingly unstable as the scientist’s fear became deeply ingrained in her psyche, replacing Psi’s own identity.

On a Doom Patrol mission in Russia, Psi was shot by a Rocket Red. Later, as she died, she was freed from the scientist’s hold and found herself once again...a relatively peaceful death for a Squad member as these things go.

Thinker

First Appearance: All-Flash #12 (1943)Death: Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special (1988)

Writers: John Ostrander and Paul Kupperberg
Penciler: Erik Larsen 

The Thinker had been around forty-five years before the former Golden Age Flash villain appeared in Suicide Squad. Would Ostrander dare kill a villain with that kind of legacy? Hell to the yes! The Thinker’s powers were fueled by his helmet which fell into the hands of Squad leader Rick Flag.

While the Thinker was battling to get it back, he was betrayed and killed by his teammate the Weasel, thus proving no villain, no matter how classic, was safe. As for the Thinker’s murderer…

Weasel

First Appearance: Firestorm Vol. 2 #38 (1985)Death: Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special (1988) 

Writers: John Ostrander and Paul Kupperberg
Penciler: Erik Larsen 

OK, seriously...Star Trek Red Shirts laugh at Firestorm villains. Spinal Tap drummers mock Firestorm rogues. But yes, in the mass killing spree that was the Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad Special, Firestorm villain the Weasel was killed by Rick Flag as the Squad’s leader was controlled by the Thinker’s helmet.

Weasel was once a colleague of one half of Firestorm, Professor Martin Stein. The villain was transformed into a, well, a were-weasel. During the battle with Rick Flag, Weasel betrayed the Thinker who used his dying thought to order his helmet to kill the bestial villain. Not many tears were shed upon Weasel’s death, but one assumes that Firestorm went on a lengthy vacation now that he barely had any villains left.

Shrike II

First Appearance: Justice League of America #235 (1985)Death: Suicide Squad #25 (1989)

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciler: Grant Miehm

The second character to use the name Shrike was an escaped mental patient who ran with the Cadre, a team of villains that did pretty well against the Justice League. Shrike was childlike and easily manipulated. In fact, on her first mission with The Squad, she reveals that she was sexually abused by a priest and his wife, an incident that broke her mind and set her down her path of villainy.

Ostrander gave the villain purpose and depth...and then riddled her with bullets as she tried to rescue a nun held as a political prisoner by the hostile Ogaden military, Shrikes last words were “I’m a comin’ Jesus.”

Rick Flag Jr.

First Appearance: Brave and the Bold #25 (1959)Sort-of Death: Suicide Squad #26 (1989)

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciler: Grant Miehm 

What?!? Rick Flag Jr. was the main character in the title. Ostrander and company didn’t really have the gonads to kill off the book’s central protagonist, a character that served as the last connection to the original Squad did they?

Yes, in Suicide Squad#26 Rick Flag got Game of Thrones-ed as on a mission to take out the villainous Jihad, he detonated an experimental nuclear weapon. Flag had many connections to other characters, like a budding romance with Nightshade, a grudging respect for Deadshot, a blossoming friendship with Bronze Tiger, and a loathing of Captain Boomerang, but all these connections were severed as Flag was atomized by a nuclear blast. All of a sudden, the Squad was left without their leader who had grown increasingly unstable after witnessing so many of his team killed in action.

It would be revealed much later that Flag had been teleported away from the blast to the lost land of Skartaris, the Warlord’s stomping grounds, but his death in issue #26 effectively served to remove the central character from the Squad and was a moment that sent shockwaves through the entire series.

Briscoe

First Appearance: Suicide Squad #1 (1984)Death: Suicide Squad #34 (1989)

Writers: John Ostrander and Kim Yale
Penciler: John K. Snyder III 

Briscoe was the Squad’s personal pilot, an elite air combatant and top grade mechanic, Briscoe lived for his ride, a helicopter he named Sheba, after his deceased daughter. He lived and slept in Sheba and fit right in to the disturbing collection of rogues he ferried around. On a mission to Apokolips to help his fellow teammates the once Female Fury Lashina (also known as the Duchess), Briscoe and Sheba were destroyed by Parademons.

At least he had the distinction of being torn to pieces and atomized by monsters created by Jack Kirby.

Dr. Light

First Appearance: Justice League of America #12 (1962)Apparent Death: Suicide Squad #36 (1989)

Writers: John Ostrander and Kim Yale
Penciler: John K. Snyder III 

Dr. Arthur Light, long time foe of many DC heroes, was kind of a joke before his appearance in the Suicide Squad. Ostrander portrayed him as a cowardly, moustache twirling scumbag, but a scumbag with deadly powers. When he joined the Squad, Dr. Light was haunted by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Finlay. Finlay watched as Light committed cowardly act after cowardly act, ultimately murdering Sparkler, the youngest member of the Force of July, a team of government sponsored heroes that went up against the Squad.

While on the mission to Apokolips, Finlay convinced Light to put his cowardly ways behind him and attack a squad of Parademons. Light’s ghost would hang around the Squad for awhile and was eventually resurrected. In later years, Ostrander’s portrayal of Light informed future Dr. Light stories, including Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales' Identity Crisis, where the villain’s depravity led to the violent attack on Sue Dibny and served as the catalyst for the book’s events, proving that Suicide Squad was one darn influential comic.

This is a very long article with a ton of images, so we've had to break it up over a few pages. Please don't kill us...