SS Issue #1: Writer's commentary

“Membership of the United Nations is open to any country that accepts the obligations specified in the organization's Charter and supports its mission.” Kefir Josam announced.
“Having seen the extraordinary support you received from so many nations around the world at last night's festivities, I do not anticipate any obstacle to your membership.”

“President Marlo officially inaugurated the new government, which is comprised primarily of the same cabinet members that made up the pre-independence Council of Ministers. Some 300 dignitaries attended the ceremonies, including representatives from the nations of Markovia and Bialya, among others. The nation of Qurac is located on the Southwest border of the Persian Gulf and faces Iran across from the Gulf. It is also bordered by Kuwait, which is to the North.” Kim Yale paused as she walked down the steps of the Capital building. “Qurac is now officially recognized as a country since announcing its intention to separate from Saudi Arabia almost two years ago, after years of civil war. Saudi Arabia has long held a strong anti-US policy and has been a major sponsor of terrorism directed against the west. President Marlo stated that the United Nations membership request was the next step in repairing the wounds the Middle East has inflicted on the world…………”

The man sitting in his office turned off the television in front of him. He picked up the phone and dialed a number. After one ring, someone on the other end picked up. “It’s time.”


This scene was written using information gathered about a real country being admitted into the UN (I forget which one since I saw it on CNN one night.)

I threw in the countries of Markovia (home of Geo-Force and Terra) and Bialya (Queen Bee and the Global Guardians), which are two other fictions countries that populate the DC universe along with Qurac.

Mitch moved his head and looked around the room. He recognized it as one of the recovery rooms in the med center at Belle Reve. As he regained his focus, he sat up from the recovery bed and rubbed his eyes.

"The mission." he said to himself, "That was a goddamn mess. I wonder if it got worse after I was taken down?"

"It got worse" A female voice replied, entering the room with Shelly "Then it got better, kinda. Nice to see you have as well."

Mitch Shelly looked up and saw June Moone, known in her other persona as the Enchantress, standing across from him. "Not quiet but I am getting there. What the hell happened out there?"

"We were given some bad intel and we were severely out-numbered. We barely got out of there with our lives. Well, most of us anyway." June trailed off, unable to maintain eye contact with Shelly.

"Hey kid, don't worry. I got blown up but I am back, ok?"


This was important for two reasons. One: this past mission sets up some of the stuff that effects a lot of characters down the road, including Manhunter, Vixen, and especially Black Orchid. Two: I again wanted to establish some back-story missions and I wasn’t too comfortable writing an action scene yet so I just skipped over it. Something I will do a lot to avoiding writing something I feel I am weak at.

Belle Reve, Super Maximum Security Prison:
The office of Amanda Waller

Amanda Waller was tired and when she was tired, she missed her husband and children the most. It had been six months since she had gotten the approval by President Lord to start up the Suicide Squad. It had been six months of trying to make a difference with her life and the lives of the people she now surrounded herself with. One of those people was the man sitting across from her, Benjamin Turner, otherwise known as The Bronze Tiger. He was her choice for mission's leader, not Rick Flagg. Flagg was Eilings choice. Flagg was a military man and Eiling wasn't going to take the idea of the Squad to the President without a proven missions leader as the front man. Amanda didn't like it but she knew she had to make compromises to get this off the ground. She disliked Flagg but he had gotten the job done so far. She knew it was only a matter of time before he slipped up or snapped. Amanda has seen it happen before to better men than Flagg and when it happened, Ben was going to take over and Eiling could go to hell for all she cared.

I really wanted to say that Eilings choice of Flagg over Turner was racially motivated but at the time I wasn’t too sure that it would be appropriate and I wasn’t comfortable pushing those boundaries just yet.

All of that may not matter if they had one more mission like one they had last week. They had gotten word that a super powered assassin was holed up in an old merchant marine base in Oran, Algeria. The Squad was sent in to find out whom he was working for and who he was assigned to assassinate. They knew he was targeting a world leader, but they didn’t have any inclination as to which one. Once they obtained the information they needed from him, he would be eliminated. The Suicide Squad failed on all counts after an unidentified assault team ambushed them. Mitch Shelly fought them off as the rest of the squad managed to escape before the building blew up. Mitch didn’t make it out in time but the assassin and assault team disappeared into the night. They were over powered and out manned from the beginning because they went in without the proper intel. It nearly caused the senseless deaths of the entire Squad in the process.

Again another example of me being afraid to write action. I wondered how long I could stall before people noticed?

"Je retourne ma belle dame avec la nourriture et la boisson bienfaisantes" Mark Shaw proudly exclaimed as he entered the hotel room.

Translated loosely from French: ‘I return my beautiful lady with food and drink.’

"I wish you wouldn't do that,” Mari Macabe said shaking her head as she continued to stare out the window of their hotel room in Bordeaux.

"Wish I wouldn't do what?" He asked, grinning as he walked over and set down the bag of food and couple of bottles of water he picked up from the market down the street. “Speak French?”

"No, I wish you wouldn't speak it so poorly" She said reaching out as he handed her a water bottle, "Vous ne m'entrerez jamais dans le lit si vous continuez à ruiner une si belle langue!"

Translated from French: ‘You will never get me into bed if you continue to ruin such a beautiful language.’

What follows is probably anther example of me learning how to be a writer. What I figured was that I was writing about characters that some people will no be familiar with and with such a large cast I wanted to give the reader some idea on who some of these character are. At this point I wasn’t too sure how big a part Vixen would play but I wanted introduce her into the DC2 universe. It turned out to be a long over-drawn origin recap that slowed down the story. But it did end up giving me a solid piece for her entry I used in the DC2 Who's Who special (which I copied word for word)

Mari Jiwe Macabe had always been perceived as a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. As a young woman in college, a local San Francisco photographer noticed her. He’d told her that she should drop out of college and concentrate on modeling full time. She didn't take his advice. Mari finished college and earned degrees in both business management and fashion design. She was well on her way to a successful career when she moved to New York and began to model full time. Financing her new business ambitions became easy with all of the modeling money that came in and she was quickly becoming everything she inspired to as a child.

Mari hated stereotypes and never wanted to fall victim to what others thought she should be. Because her father traveled on business a lot, she was mostly raised by her mother. They weren’t rich by any means, but they weren’t poor either. By most standards, her family was what you’d call middle class. She became aware of her family heritage at an early age. It was something she was proud of but never fully embraced. That was until she heard that her father had died under mysterious circumstances while away on business. She dropped everything and went home to be with her mother.

It was shortly after the funeral that Mari was told about her family’s true legacy. She was next in line to receive the Tatu Totem, last worn by her father. What she quickly discovered was that it granted her the ability to mimic the "powers" of animals. Soon after, she also discovered her father used these powers to fight against what he perceived to be evil forces throughout the world. Everything she thought she knew about her father, her family, and herself was put into question. She began a journey to her ancestor’s birthplace in Africa. When she emerged, she had a new purpose in life and that was to follow in her fathers’ footsteps.

Still early in her 'crime fighting' career, she was approached by Sarge Steel. He was the one who convinced her to join a larger, more powerful group who all fought for the same cause. Soon after, Mari Macabe began leading a double life. She continued to model, but when she was needed, Steel would call upon her to work with him. It was Steel who first called her Vixen. Well, he’d actually called her a vixen, which literally translated means a woman regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, or malicious. Mari liked it because it fit her perfectly.

Eve and Rick left Las Vegas the morning after their visit from Deadshot. They drove straight through until they reached the Colorado border. They stopped off at a small diner to grab an early dinner before they continued the drive back to Florence, Colorado and Belle Reve.

For a few brief moments on the drive back, Eve was able to pretend they were a normal couple that was on a normal drive back from a long weekend in Vegas. Of course there was nothing normal about her relationship with Colonel Richard Flagg Jr. She would barely even call it a relationship. Rick Flagg wasn't the type of person she would ever see herself with, but for the last couple of months, that’s exactly what had been happening. She didn't know why or how it happened; it just did. There were times like this when it wasn’t so bad. Other times, her guilt got the better of her, and she’d think about the last time she got too close to someone. She refused to let that happen again.

The sun had nearly set behind them as they drove east on Interstate 70. It was almost dark and Eve could feel the shadows as they began to awaken all around her. She sensed them, as they grew stronger, slowly stealing the daylight away as the night crept up all around them. The shadows gave her power and she thrived on them. At night she wasn't vulnerable. She didn't suffer from feelings of regret and self-doubt and she had a purpose.
Eve felt Rick’s hand as he took it off the steering wheel and gently stroked her hand.

“You didn’t have to come.” Rick announced bluntly, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Rick, you’ve told me that already” Eve whispered. There was an awkward moment of silence between them. “Well you sure know how to show a lady a good time” Eve chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah it’s been too long…” He trailed off and she smiled at him.

“Well I am sure it will be even longer once we get back to Belle Reve and Waller gets a hold of us.” Eve replied.

“Waller won’t be mad at you. I’m the one who stormed off; you just followed me.” Rick snapped, pulling his hand away from Eve’s hand and placing it back on the steering wheel.

At this point I was really trying to get into these characters heads and see what made them tick. The Rick Flagg and Eve Eden relationship I had planned out totally changed once the characters started to develop their own distinct voices. I quickly realized that they were together due to nothing more then circumstance and I couldn’t force things that really didn’t seem to fit.

She noticed him gripping the steering wheel just a little too tightly. Eve knew Rick had a breaking point. She had been studying him since she joined the squad shortly after she did and she quickly learned that certain things could set him off without warning. The last mission nearly drove him over the edge. That’s why she agreed to go to Vegas with him for a few days. He needed to cool off and she felt she could use some time off as well. She’d begun to feel like a playing piece on a board game and was tired of getting pushed from square to square. Maybe that’s why she connected to Flagg easier then she should have. Their superiors were pushing them both around and it was getting tiresome. Rick kept it in check most of the time, but Eve wasn’t one to follow orders blindly. Outwardly it appeared that she did what she was told, but she never did it without questioning herself first. Eve had a breaking point as well, and once they got back she was damned certain that her concerns were going to be heard loud and clear. That meant even if she had to go over Waller’s head to do it.

As they neared Belle Reve, Eve leaned back in her seat and let the darkness embrace her. There were few things she could count on in her life. One was the darkness she reveled in. The other was the secrets and lies she’d sworn to maintain. Those were the things she couldn’t let go of even if she tried too.


Eve Eden, like Enchantress was another character I quickly became fond of. I wanted to portray her as another flawed character but make sure she was still a strong woman. A pattern was starting to develop here that would dictate of a lot of story from here on out. The women of the Suicide Squad would be more of a focal point then the men.

Amanda Waller and Ben Turner sat across from Julian Day in one of the non-contact areas of the center. They were separated by three-inch thick, floor to ceiling, bulletproof glass. Julian sat there for a minute saying nothing. He just smiled and rubbed his wrists where his shackles had been to transport him here from his cell. “So are you two here to tell me in person that the governor has denied me a reprieve?”

“Julian Day. AKA Calendar man…” Ben began to say.

“What is today? I asked the guards to tell me what the date was today and neither of them would. Isn’t that a foolish thing to not tell someone? I didn’t ask their sisters to the prom. I asked them for today’s date. I am embarrassed to say I have lost track in the last couple of months due to the doctors and their miracle drugs that do nothing except prove that they can’t do their job. What if unqualified teachers just gave their students drugs instead of teaching………….”

“It’s the twenty-seventh of May.” Ben announced loudly in hopes of shutting him up. Amanda shook her head in disbelief. “We are here today to offer you a deal….”

“Ah. The twenty-seventh of May.” Day said gleefully, interrupting Ben. “Well of course it is. Silly me. All that hassle could have been avoided had they just allowed me the simple pleasure of a calendar in my cell.” Ben looked over at Amanda who sat there with a rare smile on her face.

“You wanted this one.” She smirked, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

“Mr. Day we don’t have a lot of time. We came here today to………..” Ben tried to continue, only to be interrupted again by Julian Day.

“Yes yes, offer me a deal. I heard you the first time. Let me ask you a question first, if I may?”

Ben took a deep breath and slowly exhaled “By all means.”

“Do you believe in the power of time? Not time itself, but how we record it? Is it just so we as a civilized society can feel some sense of power over something we have no control over what so ever? Or do we record time so we can look back and see the measure of a man by what has occurred in life before him?” Julian beamed proudly as he sat there staring directly at Turner.

“I don’t know.” Ben said pausing briefly before continuing. “We are here to offer you a deal. If you can perform some services for your country, survive, and keep quiet about it, we have been given the authority to reduce your sentence to time served. You would then, and only then, be a free man. Do you understand the deal as it has been presented to you?” There was a pause as Julian Day looked at Amanda and then back at Ben.

“May twenty-seventh, say you? There were two women that were both victims of murder 157 years apart. They were both found murdered on the same day, 27th of May, in the same town, one in 1817, the other in 1974. The 26th of May was Whit Monday. They had both been raped before they were murdered and both found dead within 400 yards of each other…”

“Mr. Day I will only ask this once more” Ben said as he quickly lost patience with Day as Amanda continued to look down at her feet. “Do you understand the…”

“Let me finish and then you will have your answer.” Day said still smiling as he continued. “They were both murdered about the same time of day, there were attempts to hide both bodies, both girls had visited a friend the evening of Whit Monday and both had changed into a new dress that night. Then both of the girls had gone to a dance. Now, each of the men who were charged with the girls’ murders had the same name, and both were acquitted of the crimes. The girls looked strikingly similar and ten days before the second girl was murdered, she had told a friend ‘this is going to be my unlucky month. I just know it. Don’t ask me why’. So there’s your answer sir!”

As an FYI that was a true story.
I really wanted to use the Calendar Man in this title but I had no idea how to do it. I found inspiration from Batman-The Long Halloween: by Jeph Loeb. I made him into a different kind of crazy by making him know all this bizarre stuff relating to dates. I spent a long while looking for a real life event that would fit perfectly into this scene and the one a found was just too perfect to pass up.

Tom Tresser was a man consumed by justice. He was recruited to work for the C.B.I. (Central Bureau of Intelligence) right out of college. He was trying to follow in his older brothers footsteps that joined the same agency a few years earlier. His brother Craig tried to discourage Tom from following him but Tom didn't listen. He always wanted to make his brother proud. Although Tom wasn’t as talented or gifted as Craig, he played the same position on the varsity football team in high school. It never stopped him from doing his best. People around Tom thought he was being unfair to himself. They told him to follow his own dreams and pursue his own goals. His only goal was to be like Craig. Just before Craig went on an undercover mission, he made one last plea to his brother to get out of the agency before it was too late. Tom didn't listen and he wished his brother well. It was the last time Tom saw or heard from Craig again.

Craig had gone undercover to infiltrate a criminal syndicate called the Council, which was lead by a man only known as The Head. Craig’s handler had lost contact with him and they believed Craig had switched sides as was now working for the Council. Tom, not wanting to believe it, went in undercover to search for Craig. His cover was quickly blown. Tom was left for dead and all traces of his brother and the council were gone. Tom recovered and quit working for the C.B.I., but he was determined to never give up searching for his brother. He came close to uncovering the Council once, with the help of Batman. In the end, they pulled the plug on their operation and disappeared again.
Tom continued to do undercover work using the name Nemesis and honed his skills in disguise and espionage. He vowed to never use his given name again until he discovered the truth about his brother and the council. Currently, Tom works with the Suicide Squad under the direction of Amanda Waller.

Tom had been on his way back to Belle Reve when Sarge Steel called him and asked him to make a pit stop along the way. When Tom got there, he met with Steel who asked him to escort an unusual young lady with him back to Belle Reve. Tom asked Steel why he was taking her there. Steel explained to him that the girl wouldn’t talk to anyone. Nobody knew where she had been or what had happened. Steel thought that maybe someone at the prison could get her to talk.

The long drive back with his newfound silent partner was a little but it was almost over as Tom stopped outside of the gate at Belle Reve to show his ID. The guard at the gate waved Nemesis through. After Tom had gotten through the compound, he got out of the car and with his female companion in tow. He proceeded to head directly to Amanda Waller’s office. The sooner he dumped the girl on Waller, the sooner he could get some sleep. She was starting to creep him out.


Nemesis was another character that was in the early issues of the original series. It was only mentioned briefly once or twice about his back-story involving the Council. Back when I was reading the original series I never paid much attention to it but when I started to do research for this story I pulled out the pre-crisis Nemesis stories from the old Brave and the Bold series. I read those issues and decided that the Council was cool idea that reminded me of the group’s Sydney Bristow faced off against in the Alias TV series. The Council was now a major player in this storyline.

"This is a complicated matter that needs to be dealt with before things escalate. I need this situation resolved before the National Security Council meets on Monday." Eiling said as he tried to calm his nerves. Amanda sat up in her chair and smiled. She knew that Eiling was struggling of late. He was the chief military advisor to the secretary of defense. The Secretary had been taking a lot of heat lately due to some of the military’s skirmishes in Cambodia and South Africa; things that the general public never sees or hears on the evening news. A lot of pressure was being applied and Eiling felt that he might get squeezed out. Now Eiling wanted to pull a power play so the Secretary didn’t replace him.

"Ok give me the details and then I want copies of all the NSA and FBI files sent over here to me." Amanda replied after a short pause.

"The terrorist group that has the weapon is called The Jihad, well they were called The Jihad but now are known as 'Onslaught'...." Eiling began to explain but was cut off by Waller.

"I know Onslaught. I know The Jihad. Terrorists for hire. Continue."

"Well they have transformed their 'terrorist for hire' ways into patriots for the newly formed country of Qurac. They now serve as chief body guards for Qurac’s newly elected President, Sayid Marlo."

"So, if Marlo has worked so hard to establish himself and his country away from terrorism and Saudi Arabia, why this? Why now when Qurac is an official vote away from being a member of the United Nations?"

"We aren’t even sure he is aware of 'Onslaughts' intentions. That is why I am asking…" Eiling paused to take a deep breath. “The President is asking you to have the Squad take care of this. Take out the weapon, including 'Onslaught' if necessary."

"And President Marlo?"

"Find out if he is involved but that’s it. The President has supported Marlo and Qurac since it officially separated from Saudi Arabia and he doesn't want a national incident on his hands a week before the State of the Union Address." Amanda sat back in her chair again and grimaced. If there’s one thing she knew from her time in Washington it was that there wasn't anyone more dangerous, or easier to manipulate then a desperate man. And Washington D.C. was the capitol of desperate men.


How President Marlo was involved in this story changed a lot as I plotted and wrote out the story. It was very easy to make him a 'bad guy'because he was in the first issue of the original series. Even though I wanted it parallel some of the things from the original series I also wanted to take in a different direction. This certainly caused some problem down the road when it came to dealing with Marlo.

"Where's Waller." Rick said, not even noticing who was all in the room.

The woman who had been standing behind Nemesis turned and with a shocked look on her face finally spoke with a voice that was soft like a breeze blowing through tall grass. "Rick?" She whispered.

Rick looked over at her with an expression of disbelief himself at the sight of this beautiful white haired woman, "Dolphin?"

Deadshot suddenly seemed amused by the whole situation said, "Wow. The mute girl gets around more then I thought!"

"You know her?" Tom asked Rick.

"Yeah. We spent some time together on a team before I joined up here." Rick replied slowly walking towards the young woman. "But I haven't seen her since then. What are you doing here Dol?" Dolphin began to tremble as Rick reached out for her hand.

"Rick is that really you?" She choked back tears as she looked up at him. Rick took hold of her hand and she began to tremble out of control.

"Hey its ok." Rick said squeezing her hand and moving closer to her. Eve noticed something about Rick she hadn’t seen in him during the three days they were together. She saw gentleness as she watched the two of them embrace. Rick felt Dolphin pull away from him.

"No! No!" she began to scream. “You can't be Rick! I saw you...” Dolphin’s eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the floor.

Having Dolphin appear was setting up Forgotten Heroes sub-plot I wanted to explore in the next story arc. After more research I thought it was interesting that Dolphin was one of the members of the Forgotten Heroes along with Rick Flagg.

As I mentioned last issue this would be one of the worst things I decided to do story wise. The mistake I made here was coming up with a cool little mystery that would come to light at the very end of the story arc when it’s explained why Dolphin reacts the way she does. The problem being, I really had no solution for the mystery in mind when I wrote this scene in. I just figured it would be cool and I would come up with an answer later on.

June Moone had left her quarters and was on her way to the mission’s room when she heard her name called. It wasn't a normal sounding voice but one that still sounded familiar. She didn’t stop walking, but she looked back over her shoulder. There wasn't anyone else there. She continued walking until she heard it again. This time June stopped still in her tracks. Her own voice kind of startled her when she spoke out.

“Is someone there?”

“June it’s me.” She heard, but this time it was coming in front of her. She didn't see anyone at first in the dimly light walkway. But she somehow knew someone or something was there. She stood still and focused until she slowly began to recognize the figure in front of her.

“June I don't have much time.” The figure said as it slowly materialized.

“I don't understand? Why are you like this?” she asked.

“I don't have time to explain. It took a lot of energy to find you at the right time, before everything went wrong. So you have to listen to me closely. There is a crisis coming. I didn't return in time, but you can...”

Mitch Shelly hurried down the walkway that lead to Junes Quarters. He paused when a strange feeling washed over him. He looked up and saw June standing there about twenty feet in front of him.

“June?” he began to move closer to her. “What’s going on?” June didn't speak. She just stood there like she was frozen. Mitch reached her and gently put is hand on her shoulder, “June honey what’s wrong?” June jumped slightly when she felt his hand.

“Nothing. I am ok.” The familiar figure was gone and the message was delivered. She turned around and smiled at Mitch. “"Lets go. Flagg is back and the mission briefing is going to begin any minute now.”


Of all the things I made up as I went along, this was one that was planned out from the beginning. The IXE or Crisis event was still in the planning stages but when I found out that this book was going to play a part in it. I wanted to set something up early that I could write in later. I came up with a way to foreshadow that June would somehow be involved with an upcoming Crisis. At the end of this arc it becomes apparent who her mysterious visitor was but not reveal what he meant until that pivotal scene in Issue #7 where the Enchantress fulfills her ultimate destiny.