Suicide Squad fan art from 2010

 I dug this up last night and even though I supposedly stopped posting on this blog site back in September of 2018 I'm gonna post this anyway just because. The original art actually included Rick Flag, Amanda Waller, Captain Boomerang and Night Shade in what was group portrait. But I was never happy with the way the rest of the team came out so I cropped it to the portion that only has Deadshot, Count Vertigo and Bronze Tiger.
Just for the record I still hate DC's reboot of Task Force X as I do both live action films. For me The Suicide Squad will be forever be The John Ostrander series of the late 80s to early 90s. I was thinking about how one of the earliest Squad missions back in the original series (issues 5-7) was a hostage rescue operation in russia otherwise then known as the soviet union. With everything going on these days between putin's (may you burn in Hell) invasion of Ukraine and Britney Griner being held as a political hostage I can appreciate those old issues more then ever now. We sure could use a Task Force X about now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRvfDoO2Jg

Hayoth cameo in the DoomsDay Clock multiverse and some awesome new Ostrander era Suicide Squad fan art

I didn't think I was ever gonna do another posting on this blog again but something got my attention recently I really felt like talking about. By chance I came across a panel during a Google search of the Israeli super commando team The Hayoth which I did not recognize from the pages of The Suicide Squad, The Spector or Checkmate from the pre-reboot era of DC Comics. It turns out this panel was from a cameo appearance the team made in The Doomsday Clock series (2019-2020) which was some kind DC Multiverse Watchman cross over story line. In this version of The Hayoth we have all the original characters (Ramban, Judith, Golem and Dybukk) along with a couple additions. One of which is Seraph, who appears to be the team leader.

Seraph's real name is Chaim Levon and he was a Hebrew school teacher. His powers were derived mostly from a number of artifacts with super natural properties based on Jewish folklore. He first appeared in the pages of Super Friends back in 1977 which means he was not part of the pre-reboot mainstream DC Universe any more then supporting characters or story lines from the actual Super Friends cartoon were. https://superfriends.fandom.com/wiki/Seraph

The other addition was a character known as Pteradon. He was part of the pre-reboot mainstream DC Universe. He first appeared in The New Teen Titans 24 (1986) as Captain Israel Harel of the Israel Defense Force. He was part of a rescue operation that was reminiscent of the real life famous Raid on Entebbe operation. He was fatally shot by a not quite dead terrorist right after the mission objective was achieved. Tales Of The Teen Titans Issue 84 | Read Tales Of The Teen Titans Issue 84 comic online in high quality. Read Full Comic online for free - Read comics online in high quality . (view-comic.com)

His body was soon recovered and sent to a company known as Dayton which carried out some form of genetic engineering on Captain Harel which gave him the power of flight, superhuman strength and razor sharp talons. As Pteradon, he was reluctantly pressed into service for the criminal master mind known as Mento as part of a superhuman strike force called Hybrid which battled with The Teen Titans and Blue Beetle. Pteradon never encountered The Hayoth or The Suicide Squad.

 

Now when I started writing this posting yesterday I thought it would be devoid of anything specifically with The Suicide squad it's self. But as good fortune would have it I happened to discover this amazingly illustrated nostalgia bomb by Tom Grummett right after I published this posting. This was posted to comic art fans just 2 months ago so talk about good timing. Anything else you might want to know about this awesome Suicide Squad fan art can be found here https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryPiece.asp?Piece=1789111&GSub=150703&GCat=332&UCat=332&Status=Complete

The Final Mission

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1495688

As you can see the last time I posted anything was way back in January. So clearly this blog site is pretty much done. If you think of each posting as a mission then this is the final one. But for the sake of ceremony I thought I'd just have one last posting/mission to bring this Suicide Squad blog to an official close. I thought I might also use this opportunity to share a few final thoughts and tie up some loose ends in the process. I did see Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay and thought it was over all not bad. It wasn't with out it's problems but I'm not in the least bit interested in getting into all that it is what it is. But I'll admit, between the humor, action and explicit nature it was certainly entertaining if nothing else. So that's as close as it gets to any sort of movie review from me. The live action movie still sucks to me every bit as much as the day I saw it in case any one was wondering. And I could still give a rat's ass about anything going on with The Squad as far as new comics goes that hasn't changed either. So long folks.

DC Legends . . . not quite the stuff of legend for me

Ya know folks I may get a little bit of heat about this but I after doing some reading of the DC Legends mini-series this weekend I'm not that big of a fan. Now ofcourse this isn't the first time I've read the series but even back then it honestly didn't grab me despite all it had going for it. You had The Squad's first mission along with a bunch of some of the best heroes and villains in the DC Universe's history and great talent on the series like John Ostrander and John Byrne. I feel the same way about the original Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series after having finally read it I felt like it was really over rated despite it's legendary status among the DC readership. Can't quite put my finger on it as far as the why but both of these series just didn't make for a great read for me unlike say for example Marvel's original Secret Wars which was like an adrenaline charged page turner which holds up pretty good even today.

Justice League short review with spoilers

Ya know even when it comes to movies I'm really interested in I still generally don't care for reviews that go on beyond a few paragraphs. Write ups that last much longer then that generally start to become too tedious for my taste so with that being said here's what I thought of The Justice League. It was pretty good, not quite Avengers Civil War good but still good. Now I say this as someone who thinks Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was better then most people gave it credit for. It's biggest failing in my opinion was the long running time, I think having taken out a minute here and couple minutes there from various scenes in the movie that lasted a bit too long would have gone a long way to making the story line move at a better pace and make the film over all more concise. Where as when it came to The Suicide Squad that was a complete fucken train wreck, there was nothing to build on for a better sequel unlike with Dawn of Justice.

So getting back to Justice League, no problem with the pace of the story line in this one. At least as far as it being too slow, if anything it might have even felt a bit rushed here and there. If you watched all the trailers for the movie you actually got a pretty good idea what to expect from most of the characters but there are some surprises as well. Although Ezra Miller (Flash) is the primary source of comedy relief we do get quite a few funny lines from Ben Affleck (Batman). Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Jason Mamoa (Aquaman) were about what you would expect as seen in the trailers and I say that in a good way. In some ways I thought Ray Fisher as Cyborg was the stand out character. As the least well known of the DC characters used in this ensemble cast they did a good job of developing him in fact there were times where he almost felt like the adult in the room during some of the team in fighting moments which we get a few of. Jeremy Irons was also great as Alfred Pennyworth. And yes, Superman does make a come back and it's handled fairly well.
Information wise the movie throws a lot at you. Those who are familiar with the Justice league story lines and characters from the comics will have an easier time catching all the details, references and Easter eggs. The CGI got to be a bit heavy handed at times. Steppenwolf works ok as the villain in the movie even though they took a lot of liberties with the character from what I could see. Same goes for the parademons and motherbox. No Darkseid in this one and I'm not really sure if we can expect to see him in the next Justice League installment. But they were pretty clear we'll be seeing more DC heroes added to the team that's for sure. Despite whatever problems it had it's certainly worth the price of admission you'd be a damn fool not to see it at least once while in theaters.

P.S. The Blade Runner sequel was an all around disappointment but Thor Ragnarock turned out to be better then I expected despite the problems I had with it.

Left click to enlarge

Saw these at the store right after the movie. I really love seeing cool 80s retro stuff on store shelves and racks these days. Brings back so many good memories!

Suicide Squad 58

Thanksgiving Day update: I'm posting this panel for my blog bro Dale over at http://dbsuniverse.blogspot.com/2017/11/so-who-would-win-taskmaster-vs-human.html Apparently Sports Master and Task Master from the Marvel Universe have
the same "photographic reflexes" power hence forth I think that would have made for an interesting match up between the two.

November 25 Update: So just last night I was doing some shopping at a Target store when I spotted a single Justice League movie Batmobile from Hotwheels. It was the only one on the rack in the 99 cents Hotwheels section so ofcourse I grabbed it even though I wasn't on the look out for it specifically. It's just one of those things when you see it for a buck you just get it. Just like when I saw the Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice edition on a toy rack in a grocery store of all places a couple months ago. Clearly in each case they were missed by those asshole dealers that go around to stores on shipment days and buy up all the shit you can hardly ever find but wish you could. As you can see the main difference between the two is the color and the extra gun emplacements including a turret that actually swivels.

Awesome classic Ragman fan art

Absolutely bad ass! This is some top notch fan art, the figure composition, the colors and even the detail in the costume. And ofcourse I love the extra added touch of Ragman tearing up a nazi flag while also sporting a Magen David (star of David) pendant. All very appropriate for our "clothe golem" Jewish avenger. And in case you were wondering, this is where I found it https://www.deviantart.com/art/Ragman-705702433

Too bad we never got to see this in the old DCU it would have been epic!

November 11 Update: Saw this from Hot Wheels at a local Toys R Us and on a whim decided to grab it. It was the only one that they had and I think it must have been missed by those asshole dealers who usually show up at Toys R Us stores right before they open on the days they get their shipments and buy up all the hot items so they can then double the price at cons. I actually used to have the original one from Ertl that came out in 1989 but I always hated how they had the bat symbol painted on the roof I never understood the point of that. It's like yeah we know this is the Batmobile already http://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2012/05/ertl-1989-164-scale-batmobile.html Ever since I saw this version of The Batmobile at that vintage car show in Hayward (go back a few postings) recently I had it in the back of my mind to hopefully own a nice replica again some day with out getting ripped off. 

The Vigilante and Peacemaker teamed up against the war on terror back in the 80s

Left click to enlarge

I recently grabbed issue 38 of The Vigilante (1987) out of a 3 for $1 box it seemed like it would make for a fun read. In this issue these two Checkmate affiliated characters* team up to take on a docked freighter ship full of Middle East terrorists. Unfortunately toward the end of the issue they ended up turning on each other over who gets to kill one of the top priority targets and as expected that fight ended in a stalemate. Over all it wasn't bad, certainly worth what I paid for it I hope you enjoy the clip art I posted.

* Peacemaker made multiple appearances in the The Suicide Squad series during the Janus Directive story line https://suicidesquadtaskforcex.blogspot.com/search?q=duchess

Fan art by Steve Erwin