By Cat Wyatt

Issue 39 of Suicide Squad was left off with the Wall (America’s fantastic new replacement for the Suicide Squad) going rogue, hacking into the Pentagon, and somehow taking every single person in Washington D.C. hostage via possession. Oh, and the Wall will only allow the Suicide Squad team in, anybody else enters the area and every person under his control dies. Now, I have theories about what’s going on here, but it’ll be interesting to see how this all goes down.

This issue starts off with Rick Flag collecting the Enchantress for a mission that should never have needed to happen (the Suicide Squad got disbanded, after all). June seems to be doing pretty well, all things considered. I was worried she’d freak out about being separated from Waylon like that, but instead, she seems anxious to let the Enchantress back out (possibly because that means she’ll be near Croc once again).

Apparently, the Enchantress was the last member of the team that Rick needed to collect, as the next scene shows them all happily together; Flag, Deadshot, Boomerang, Harley, Katana, Croc, and Enchantress, all together for one final (supposedly) mission. Oh, did I mention that Waller was also on the list of people allowed into the city? So she’s actually going on a mission, instead of hiding behind her concrete walls manning the mission from afar. This could get interesting.

It’s ironic, seeing Waller question Flag about what happened with the Wall. The Wall was created as a safer, more PR friendly version of Task Force X. One that they could have run above the board and have the people be proud of. And here he’s gone rogue on what I believe is his third mission? Still, I don’t think Waller has any right to criticize Flag, considering everything she’s done.

Then there’s the question of what the Wall (or whoever is controlling the Wall) is looking for. Obviously, it’s something contained inside the Pentagon, but considering how much information they have access to, that doesn’t narrow things down for us. Again, I have theories (there are a lot of people who have reason to hate Waller...and the fact that she’s been included in this mission only help to confirm my theories).

The Suicide Squad members are pretty used to being sent out on rough missions where there will be a lot of violence. They’re not exactly the team you send in when you want to rescue a hostage though, and they’re certainly not the team you want when there are thousands of people needing their help. As evidenced by Croc’s open willingness to eat them (he may have mentioned his desire for eating a certain political figure) and Enchantress’ lack of caring for the bodies in the way (as she put it).

Oh right, I forgot to mention the other complication here. I know, it’s not like they already have a ton to deal with or anything. But remember, Flag has control of all of the bombs inside Task Force X…which includes Harley; as in, his ex-girlfriend Harley. I feel like that may be a conflict of interest, but what do I know.

Anyway, now that we’ve gotten all of the risks covered, let’s move on to the actual mission. Which goes about as poorly as one would expect. As it turns out, possessed people are fully capable of attacking targets (which makes sense, really). Which would have been bad enough, had Enchantress’ solution not been to send the people attacking to hell…but…well…she totally did. I’m not sure if they’re doomed to hell for forever, but my money is on yes. So much for saving that block of people.

On the bright side that attack was enough to bring the Wall in close proximity to the Suicide Squad. I will confess that I loved his chiding remarks (okay, not actually him talking; Flag confirms that it doesn’t sound like the Wall at all) about how they were meant to protect the people, but I digress.

The Wall (or rather, the person speaking through the Wall) is more than happy to chat and while away the time, as they’re almost done downloading every single file the Pentagon had on hand. We still have no idea what they’re going for; for all I know it could be everything (can you imagine how much people would pay for the secrets the Pentagon protects and holds?).

Some information the Wall has gotten access to; how to attack and take down every member of the Suicide Squad. Which I can totally see existing somewhere like that (any of them could theoretically become a risk to national security…so…). This includes the Enchantress. I say her in particular because apparently the Wall felt threatened enough by her to take her out (like any other comic series, I’m going to assume she’ll be back sooner rather than later).

But that does poke a hole in my theory. I had thought that Hack was behind all of this still, but we already know that Hack didn’t have an issue with the Enchantress…well…she didn’t have an issue with June. Maybe she sees them as truly separate entities, and this doesn’t see that as an attack on June? (Even though June absolutely got dragged down with Enchantress).

At least part of my theory is confirmed as being correct; whoever is controlling the Wall is after Waller (try saying that ten times fast). Considering how many people have a reason to hate Waller and would love to have a chance to hurt her, this really doesn’t narrow it down much. Guess I’ll have to keep reading to find out who it is.

The artwork for this issue was pretty decent, though it was odd at times. June/Enchantress’ expressions in particular I found to be a little bit jarring. They went a little past manic, if you ask me. Some of the expressions on other characters were also a bit odd, but June’s were the ones that stood out the most to me.

Score: 3/5

Suicide Squad #39
DC Comics