Issue 0: "Bang and Blame, Prologue"

“There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.”-Ramsey Clark

Six weeks ago: Las Vegas, Nevada. 3:17 a.m.


Richard Flagg Jr. got out of bed quietly so as not to wake the woman lying next to him. He fumbled in the dark to find his pants that were lying on the floor next to the bed. After putting them on, he headed out onto the patio of the third floor hotel room. He barely noticed how warm and dry the air was as he lit his cigarette. When the man sitting on a chair in the dark corner of the patio spoke, it didn’t surprise Rick.

"Mama Waller says its time to come home Flagg" the man said as he too lit a cigarette.

"The Wall sent you all this way out here to tell me that Lawton?" Rick replied, unfazed.

"No. I volunteered. I had something’s to do in Sin City before we get back to work."

"Work. Right.” Rick grunted. “Well, message delivered. Tell Waller next time to call me if she needs me."

"Next time, don't disappear without telling anyone where you are going.” Floyd Lawton said as he threw his cigarette out over the balcony. "Oh, and Flagg, tell Ms. Eve Eden" Lawton gestured with his head towards the woman still sleeping in the bed, “Waller wants her on this one too."

"Get out of here Deadshot, before I shoot the messenger." Rick snapped as he took another drag of his cigarette. Deadshot climbed down the balcony and disappeared into the night.

Rick Flagg knew his vacation was over. He had led the Suicide Squad on their first three missions, five members killed in action, two injured, and one lost in action. So far, Amanda Waller’s experiment of using convicts and costume criminals hadn’t exactly been a smashing success. It also hadn’t been a complete failure either. If you want to call using criminals to do the governments dirty work, where everyone one is expendable, a win-win situation. Rick followed orders. He worked with whom he was told; it wasn’t up to him to decide what was acceptable or who was expendable. Rick Flagg had spent his entire life following orders. He ate his vegetables when his mother told him to as a child. He did his best in sports just like his Father told him to. He got good grades and excelled in everything he was expected to excel at. It was decided for him that he would be a great asset to his country by following in his father’s footsteps and pursuing a career in the military. On the day after graduation, he walked into the local recruiting office and signed up. A week later, his mother left his father. She claimed that he put his career ahead of his family. She was devastated that Rick chose the same career path. Like everything else in Rick’s life up to that point, it wasn’t a choice he was making. He was the only one that could see that he would be a better soldier then he had been a son. After four years in the Air force, an unnamed agency within the government recruited Rick to work for them. He led several undercover missions, one of which was infiltrating and spying on a group called the Forgotten Heroes. Things didn’t turn out so well but Rick completed his mission like he was ordered to. Four months after the disaster with the Forgotten Heroes, Rick was recruited to serve as leader to the newly formed Suicide Squad. That was six months and three missions ago. Rick took one last drag of his cigarette and pitched it over the balcony. It was time to go back to work.

Fifteen months ago, Washington D.C. an
undisclosed room in the oval office:

"Mr. President, thank you for meeting with me today." Amanda said as she sat across the desk from President Maxwell Lord.

"Well, with General Eiling and Sarge Steel both bringing this 'Suicide Squad' to my attention I must say I was a little intrigued." President Lord said as he gestured towards the men sitting on either side of him. "But only a little. So tell me why the U.S. should be involved with what you are proposing here today?"

This was it. After months of planning and research it was time to face the three men who would help decide the fate of her new favorite project. The man on the left was Wade Eiling. He has served in the U.S. army and achieved the rank of General. Eiling was the chief architect of the failed Atom Project in the 1980’s but went on to serve as chief military advisor to three presidents including the current chief of staff, Maxwell Lord. Amanda Waller didn’t know a lot about Eiling, but she knew his type. His was a type she often butted heads with. But when she was floating around the idea of the Suicide Squad in Washington, Eiling contacted her and informed her that he had the pull to take her proposal to the President. Amanda wasn’t too sure she could trust him, but he did have a history with Meta-humans and he was currently an advisor to the Secretary of Defense. The physically overpowering man on President Lord’s right was Sarge Steel. Waller knew even less about Steel than she did about Eiling, but one thing she knew was that he did seem to show up a lot when Meta-humans were involved. She also knew that Sarge was his first name, not his rank. Amanda had managed to dig up a few facts about his ‘work’ history. He had served in the CIA for a number of years and then disappeared. Steel popped up a few years later when the ‘Lynx Affair’ occurred. Since then, he’d been sporting a prosthetic steel hand. She also knew that he had the ear of the president and could posses a serious threat to her plans. And last but not least was the third man in the group of men sitting in front of her; President Maxwell Lord. She never liked Lord. He got under her skin. The fact that he had always been there in the shadows, seemingly trying to undermine everything she’d done since coming to Washington, didn’t escape her either. But Amanda Waller knew she would have to play it cool and focus on the facts if she was going to get him to go along with this.

"Mr. President, the U.S. has always been involved in this type of situation in one form or another for over one hundred and twenty years." she sat back in her chair and began her pitch. "In the late 1800's, prison officials realized that prisoners could be money makers for their facilities. Some were contracted out by private businesses that paid for the use of the inmates’ labor and they provided the materials while prison officials supervised the process. Prisons were paid by private industries according to the number and quality of goods manufactured. The prisoners were even thrown a “bone”, for lack of a better word, from time to time. That idea was so successful that some industries were entirely prison owned and operated, and goods were sold in the free market. Several prisoners were taken to a work site under armed guard and turned over to a private contractor who made them work. Some prisoners were used for maintenance of roads, highways, public parks and public and recreational buildings. Labor unions and the Great Depression effectively ended prison labor in the early part of the 20th century."

"Mrs. Waller. Amanda. I do appreciate the history lesson but is there a point here?" Lord said with a disinterested look on his face.

"Just a little background information so you can appreciate the situation we are in now" she replied.

"Well then, by all means, continue." He lifted his arm up to look at his watch.

"After that time, prison administrators were mandated by the federal government to focus on security and custody. Prisoner’s daily routines became monotonous and frustrating. Prisons became a terrible place to be." Eiling spoke up, interrupting her, "Imagine that." Without pausing, she continued, " Prisons then began to focus on treatments for offenders, which led to psychiatry and medicating the prisoners. Also, tests, psychological profiles, group therapy, behavior modification, shock therapy, and individual counseling were administered. This, plus rising crime rates, led to the overcrowding of prisons, which in turn led to more tax dollars being used to build more prisons. At the same time, prisoners began to demand basic rights and became more interested in conditions of prisons. All of which prompted the facilities to a move away from psychological treatment in prisons and to move towards programs designed to enhance offender's opportunities to become successful citizens outside of prisons. Even still, the crime rate continued to rise over the years, forcing the reinstatement of the death penalty in thirty-eight states and more severe sentences for career offenders. Along the way, the focus has been lost. The reason we need to punish offenders is retribution. It doesn’t matter if punishment deters or rehabilitates. We are losing the battle as the prison population grows at a rate of seven percent annually with the ratio of incarceration being four hundred and ten inmates for every one hundred thousand citizens. We need to get back to what works just on a larger scale, and making the prisoners work for their early parole"

"And putting costumed freaks to work for the government is the kind of scale you are referring to?" Lord said using a little less of a condescending tone.

" Sir, the military has been using these people off and on for years." Eiling said.

Lord ignored him and looked over at Sarge Steele, "You on board with this?"

"Mr. President, prisoners have gotten time off for doing less. My only concern is the choice of some of the people who would be involved with this program." Sarge Steele said. The president began to flip through the file in front of him. He stopped when got to a list of names.

“Rick Flagg, Ben Turner, Eve Eden, the list goes on…” Lord said trailing off. “These people are the primary team?”

“Some of them, yes.” Amanda replied. “With secondary roles filled with prisoners as different missions require.”

“And these people are going to keep the bad guys in line?” Lord asked, shaking his head. “Who’s going to keep them in line?”

"A lot of the people involved in this are broken or bent people, Sir. They might get a chance to mend themselves and serve their country at the same time." Waller sat up as she anticipated the final word from Lord.

"Well, I have to admit that I am more then a little intrigued at the idea. But having you in charge of all of this... " Maxwell Lord trailed off, pausing as he stood up. He turned to face Amanda. "The success of this group and your involvement with it will greatly depend on how well you play with others. You do have a track record of going off on your own since you've been in this town."

"I'm sorry Sir, but sometimes there is only one way to get the job done, and it isn't always pretty or pleasant." Waller retorted as she too stood up. “ I understand the problems this country, and you as its leader in particular, are facing. There are situations here and abroad that need dealing with. Situations that the government shouldn’t be involved with. At least not directly involved with. This is where the Squad comes in. They will be a group of agents that can get the job done and are totally expendable. We give the ‘super-villains a deal. If they do what they’re told to do, succeed and survive, and keep quite about it, then we will reduce their sentence to time served. The government gets a super team with one-hundred percent deniability if things ever go sour”

"I think you've sold me on the idea enough to give it a trial run." President Lord announced, glancing back and forth between Waller and Eiling. "You will answer to Eiling for now and he will keep me informed on your progress as this gets up and running." Amanda forced a smile as she shook the Presidents hand. "Thank you, Sir."

"Don't thank me yet. I will be looking for any reason to pull the plug on this if I see fit, understand?"

Amanda gritted her teeth but held her composure as she nodded and headed out the door. Wade Eiling shook hands with Lord and Steele. "I will be in touch." He said before heading out the door himself.

"I don't like this, Sir." Sarge Steel noted as he and President Lord sat back down at the desk. “Do you think it’s wise to let her lead a government sponsored group of misfits and super-villains?”

“Don’t be so paranoid Steel. They might be of some use. And when they cease to be useful……We’ve got people in place who can take care of them.” President Lord grinned slyly as he glanced at Steel.

“And Waller?” Steel said.

“Waller has been a thorn in my side for years” Lord pauses and then begins to chuckle. “ Look at it this way, she is on a course of self destruction, and when it all ends she’s bound to get her self killed and take the lot with her.” Maxwell looked up at Steel and gave him a reassuring grin. "Relax, Steel. With a name like the Suicide Squad, what could go wrong?"