They are a team of supervillains that the world had no idea they needed: they are Task Force X. More famously nicknamed the Suicide Squad, this team of DC characters has had a rather expansive history in the comics before they were turned into big-budget movies.
After the critical success of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, it would be the perfect opportunity to look back at the history of the team; showcasing many interesting facts about one of DC's strangest teams since their original debut in 1959.
Originally A Team Of Heroes
These days, the Suicide Squad is famous for consisting of DC supervillains. In their first appearance in The Brave And The Bold #25, it was quite different. Instead, it was about a team of hotshot heroes including Rick Flag Jr. assembling to fight monsters and other supernatural threats.
It wasn't until post-Crisis On Infinite Earths that the Suicide Squad would get revamped into a team of villains working for the government to get times off their sentence. This idea was brought to life by John F. Ostrander in Legends #3 in 1987, leading to Ostrander becoming the godfather of the team.
There's A Revolving Cast
Unlike other teams, the Suicide Squad does not feature set except for their puppet master Amanda Waller. The Justice League typically has Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman whereas the Squad is constantly shifting depending on the mission.
There are Squad who have been used on many missions such as Deadshot and Captain Boomerang but even they will be replaced with the likes of Deathstroke or Peacemaker. This leads to some stories featuring surprise villains/anti-heroes that nobody would expect.
Team Are Truly Not Safe
Another reason why there is a constant change in teams is that nobody is guaranteed to survive the mission, hence why they earn themselves the nickname of a Suicide Squad. James Gunn embraced this concept with many characters dying surprisingly in The Suicide Squad.
In their first mission in the comics, Blockbuster was seen as a powerful member of the Squad but ended up being killed by Brimstone. Over the years, both famous and obvious cannon fodder have met their fate as part of the Squad.
They Fought The Justice League
Typically, the Suicide Squad handles covert ops missions for the government, taking on terrorists or the occasional monster attack. However, the Squad has taken on superpowered beings in the past, including the famous Justice League themselves.
In one of the first big crossovers of the Rebirth era of DC, the Justice League took on the Suicide Squad. Despite the Justice League being comprised of many powerful DC heroes, it proved to be a challenging fight for both sides with the Suicide Squad able to put up a good fight.
Heroes Have Been Squad
Amanda Waller makes a habit out of putting mainly villains with a life sentence in Task Force X but that doesn't stop her from trying to wrangle superheroes onto her team. For example, characters such as Hawkman and Power Girl have been drafted into Amanda Waller's program.
Most recently, Superman's young clone Connor Kent was coerced into the team by a Kryptonite infection. Superboy ends up becoming one of Amanda Waller's most powerful tools under the command of Christopher Smith, also known as Peacemaker.
Inspired By The Dirty Dozen
When John F. Ostrander revamped Suicide Squad for post-Crisis comics, he took inspiration from the classic World War II film: The Dirty Dozen. It was a film about a team of convicts going on a mission to assassinate German enemies, a nearly identical concept as Suicide Squad.
Ostrander also listed the original Mission: Impossible television series as an influence of his Suicide Squad comics. James Gunn kept The Dirty Dozen inspiration in mind for his movie, even featuring similar posters to that classic film.
They Fought On Apokolips
Due to events prior, the world was protesting against superheroes including the Justice League forcing Amanda Waller to assemble Task Force X to be the heroes that the League could not be at the time. Early on during Ostrander's run, the Squad ended up fighting the Apokoliptan team known as the Female Furies.
One of the Furies named Lashina became a member of the Suicide Squad and she took the Squad to Apokolips to face Darkseid's forces. Even if Lashina was only interested in getting back to the Furies, she proved to be helpful and the Suicide Squad nearly won their battle in Apokolips until Darkseid arrived to quickly turn the tide before sending the Squad back to Earth.
Suicide Squad Turned C-Listers Into Icons
For DC fans, the likes of Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Bronze Tiger are famous villains these days. That was not the case when they first debuted in the comics; in fact, most of the Squad consisted of the C-list villains that nobody cared about.
In James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, he brought back this concept by having obscure villains such as Bloodsport, Polka-Dot Man, and Ratcatcher #2 as of the team. Those ended up being some of the best characters of The Suicide Squad thus showing that nobody was relegated to C-list status.
Harley Was Not An Original Member
Everyone's favorite jester Harley Quinn has become the face of the Suicide Squad comics and movies alike but she was not part of the original team. Back in 1987, Harley Quinn had not even been created in Batman: The Animated Series yet, let alone the comics.
The original line-up of Task Force X consisted of Rick Flag Jr., Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Blockbuster, and the Enchantress. It wasn't until 2011 that Harley Quinn ed the Squad in the New 52 relaunch of the comics.
Oracle Makes Her First Appearance
A common mistake even DC fans tend to make is that Barbara Gordon made her first appearance as Oracle in the Birds Of Prey or Batman comics. Neither are correct, it was John F. Ostrander that revamped Barbara Gordon as a mysterious information broker in his Suicide Squad comics.
Oracle would provide information to Amanda Waller that would prove to be most helpful for the Suicide Squad. For many issues, Oracle's identity remained a secret until Suicide Squad #38 revealed the twist which helped set up Barbara Gordon to have a resurgence in DC.