New Ostrander era commission art by Luke McDonnell

 

Based on the date by the artist signature I guess this isn't really new. But I literally just discovered it on social media where it had been posted only early last month. Makes me wonder what other Ostrander era Squad fan art has been out there for years now that I don't know about? Anyways, always good to see something "new" from the true Suicide Squad. And yes, I still hate the New DC 52 version as well as those shit movies. If you're also a fan of the late 80s to early 90s Suicide Squad series be sure to at least check out the most recent blog postings I only ever post anything once or twice a year these days.

John Ostrander era Suicide Squad sketch card

After years now of just having done fan art sketch cards for only the Marvel and Star Wars franchises I finally decided to do something different and get at least one for DC into my body of work. So ofcourse it had to be The Suicide Squad. The the late 80s to early 90s John Ostrander Suicide Squad, accept no substitute. 

I was looking at some early issues recently and something occurred to me while going over this one. It's too bad there isn't a Task Force X in the real world. That could have been one way to bring putin's barbaric war on Ukraine to an end sooner then later.

August 16th Update: Just found this Luke McDonell art work of a Suicide Squad height chart. It was a random post on twitter and unfortunately there was no supporting information on where it came from. Was it some kind of promotional material or just some unpublished art? Well, whatever and wherever it's the Suicide Squad I love and miss so i'm delighted to have found it all the same.

Well said anonymous owner of this white Mercedes.

November 17th Update: I stand with Israel. No ceasefire with out the return of all the hostages. Period end of story! Fuck hamas and their idiotic "progressive" cheerleaders like the congressional Jihad Squad. 

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.

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!

The Suicide Squad goes nuclear

Ya know with all this shit going on with north korea and their nuclear program not to mention renewed tensions with russia and the threat of islamic terrorists trying to get their filthy hands on that shit for years now it got me thinking about Firestorm 64 written by John Ostrander. The issue came out in 1987 in which the Cold War was still going on here in the real world even though it would be only a few years later that the soviet union would collapse. For about the next two decades or so we really didn't think about nuclear war as something that we had to worry about any more.
So this issue was part of a story arc in which Ronald and professor Stein (who was dying of a brain tumor at the time) as Firestorm attempted to coerce the nuclear armed nations of the world into dismantling their nuclear arsenals under the threat of doing it for them if they didn't comply. A some what similar premise to the awful Superman 4 film which ironically also came out in 1987. Yeah that didn't go over to well and as a result Firestorm was declared an outlaw and become subject to arrest. As a result Captain Atom (prior to this issue), Task Force X, The Justice League mixed it up with Firestorm in an attempt to end his crusade.
The story line continues and comes to a head in Firestorm annual 2 in which The Squad and The League start to fight each other. Adding to the mayhem The Parasite who at the time was in The Squad goes rogue. Firestorm manages to deal with The Parasite and make his escape only to be confronted in the Nevada desert by a russian super powered agent named Pozhar. The show down happens shortly before professor Stein's tumor finally kills him and disrupts the Firestorm bond in the process which happens only seconds before both the U.S. and Soviet governments try to nuke both combatants. Good stuff, makes me miss the 80s all that much more.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/marvelmasterworksfansite/suicide-squad-the-complete-ostrander-run-1st-time--t24588.html

Farewell 007

Roger Suave

So I'm just doing this spur of the moment posting on what is now mostly an in active blog site. Only heard the sad news about an hour ago about Roger Moore passing away at 89 from cancer. Right on the heels of Sound Garden's front man Chris Cornell no less but in his case his death was in some ways even more tragic given that he was only in his 50s. I figured I better throw something on the internet especially with all this russia/trump investigation and terror attack in Manchester drowning out all other news stories including this one. Again, what seemed to be one of those timeless celebrity icons from my child hood has left us. There's really not much of anything I can say that you don't know or haven't heard already if you know anything about Roger Moore's career so let me pivot a bit to some of the 007 toys I used to have when I was a kid.

Ya know I still see the 007 submarine car (Corgi) from time to time at comic and toy conventions, usually going for a pretty hefty price tag. Especially for the ones that are in better condition part of that being if the 007 logo sticker is still present and not too tattered and faded.

I also used to have both the large scale and smaller Moon Raker shuttle craft toys (also from Corgi). Both featured retractable landing gears and cargo bay doors that open. But the bigger shuttle also had a removable satellite which had extending solar panels where as the smaller shuttle just had a fixed molded piece in it but I loved both em just the same. I see the smaller shuttle once in a while at a con but have yet to come across the bigger one. I wonder if all these 007 toys will bump up in value now?

Left click to enlarge

Might as well throw this up here as well while I'm at it it's seldom I ever come across any fan art related to the Ostrander era and it's pretty original and other wise well done. If you want to get a better look at it go here... http://elena-casagrande.deviantart.com/art/Suicide-Squad-banner-for-Blastoff-Comics-625873780

Janus Directive splash page

It seems after all there may yet be a little bit of Suicide Squad stuff to blog about as we kick off 2017. I was at the library today when I noticed a Janus Directive trade paper back on the shelf. I never knew there was a TPB of that multi-titled DC story line in which a conspiracy devised by Kobra turns all the U.S. meta human special ops organizations against each other. The top part of this splash page ( jeez, did they really have to draw Bronze Tiger with that excessive bulge in his costume?) from Checkmate 15 can be found at the DC Wikia page but I mostly like the bottom half with the character chess pieces.

Also today, I was reading Justice League vs Suicide Squad # 3 on Youtube. I have to admit it was actually pretty good. Top notch art with some well done character development and a story line that looks very promising.

Well it had it's moments at least

Did you know that out of the entire Ostrander run for The Suicide Squad there was only one annual? And admittedly despite having been written by John Ostrander it wasn't a very good read in what was other wise an awesome series. But it did have it's moments like the exchange between Rick Flag and Boomerang as well as between Shade and Manhunter. In case you didn't know during his time with Task Force X Shade was known for having something of a condescending attitude toward Earth technology which other Squad members found to be annoying at times. So it was kinda funny seeing someone talk down to him for a change when it comes to the comprehension.

My obligatory Suicide Squad movie review

Ya know the day before I saw the movie I had caught this cool scene on youtube of Waller having the Enchantress magically teleporting some military secrets out of iran during a meeting with some top brass to help make the case for the Task Force X program and I was like fucken eh. Finally I'm at the theater and the movie starts and it opens up with this introduction of the main characters that reminded me of DC's Assault on Arkham and I started thinking that this might not be bad after all. I even liked a lot of the music in the movie especially the use of these classic songs that really were spot on for the moment. Probably the best example was the Rolling Stone's Sympathy for The Devil with the introduction scene for Waller. Unfortunately that along with some funny one liners is about all the movie really has going for it.
I think my biggest problem with the movie was the plot. The disaster Task Force X gets called up for is over some shit (shit that I never really fully quite understood) The Enchantress stirs up so basically she's not even a member of The Squad she's actually in effect the primary villain of the movie. That didn't really work for me, and aside from that the movie felt a bit disjointed as far as how the story flowed. Also, there were a few cool scenes from the trailers that were absent in the film I didn't like that much either.
Some of the characters hardly made any impression at all on me. Ok we had Slipknot. who's purpose in the movie literally was to be a mission fatality I mean they gave that character nothing to do but die. They don't even introduce him in the movie he just shows up and dies 15 minute later after 2 or 3 lines. Katana seemed to also show up out of no where and in spite of her swinging around this soul stealing sword she still some how manages to be absent from the story line. Boomerang didn't have much to do either other then some extra comedy relief. Killer Croc was more present in the film but they didn't do much to develop his character into something a little less predictable and two dimensional. They probably did a little bit better with the Rick Flagg character then the before mentioned cast members. Then there's El Diablo, who they did alright with his character up until the end when he transforms into some kind of demonic "Aztecy" fire kinda thing for what was supposed to be this epic battle scene you probably won't care much about at that point in the movie even though Diablo sacrifices his life for the mission. That was one of those huh? moments. Are all my spoilers bothering you? It's ok trust me you really won't care much once you start watching the movie.
As expected the stand out characters were Amanda Waller, Deadshot and Harley Quinn what you saw in the movie trailers as far as how those characters are portrayed is pretty much what you get in the movie. Jared Leto as The Joker wasn't bad but certainly fell short of Heath Ledger's legendary performance. Another issue that bugged me was how through out the movie many of the character's seemed to be out of character. Toward the end of the movie Rick Flagg tries to give Deadshot a hug and I'm like no way that would ever happen. In any universe cinematic or published you couldn't even get a hand shake out of those two they can't stand each other. I think you'd best save your money for now and wait for this movie to show up at a nearby Redbox.

Stop, Waller Time!

Apparently all this old school Amanda Waller fan art has been up for a little while on deviant art I just happened to have discovered it today. It's nice to have something to post about here for a change I realize it's been a while. Just in time it would seem for our new commentator to this blog welcome Jeson Holder now the number of people following this site might be up to 3 now how exciting. The fan art on the bottom is fairly self explanatory but the top side fan art leaves a bit more to the imagination. I like how it shows that Waller isn't just some pencil pushing bureaucrat despite being a plus size middle age woman she's willing to get into the fight when she has to http://biram-ba.deviantart.com/art/Amanda-Waller-486215893

http://bielero.deviantart.com/art/286-Amanda-Waller-497984946

Well the Suicide Squad movie isn't quite so much off in the distance any more. No way of knowing for sure if it'll be any good but I know I'll see it at some point no matter what I hear about it although I'll most certainly be catching a matinee. But good or bad or some thing in between I'll certainly be doing a review of it here so all 3 or 4 of you who follow this blog still can see what I thought of the movie.

Luke McDonell Suicide Squad commission fan art 2014

Found this on Comic Art Fans last night. It's seldom that I find some fan art from this era of The Suicide Squad it's too bad I didn't find this in time to feature it for the first day of 2016. In case anyone was wondering I still could care less about the DC relaunch and it goes with out saying I don't follow it whats so ever including whatever is going on with the so called Suicide Squad these days. As for the upcoming movie, not really following the hype I'm content to see how it turns out when it hits theaters. Probably gonna play it safe with a matinee.

Millennium Week 4 with The Suicide Squad

Any of you remember the late 80s DC 12 issue maxi-series Millennium? It was similar to Marvel's Secret Wars II in which it was it's own title but also crossed over into just about every DC title at the time including Suicide Squad issue 9. So tonight I was browsing at this Millennium TPB at a discount book store after work and came across a couple pages of unknown (at least to me) clip art which is actually a prelude to Suicide Squad #9. I took a couple of pictures of this page with my iphone for your viewing pleasure.

What a pleasant surprise, a real nice way to end my day by getting to read some Ostrander era Squad stuff I previously was unaware of. On the this page the Squad is informed that their going to be transporting a bomb to the Manhunter's fortress in the Bayous. Slipknot and Boomerang initially refuse to take part in the mission upon which they are informed that not only are they going to go but also will have to wear explosive bracelets. And if you want to see how that worked out in Suicide Squad # 9 you can have a look here . . .
http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/06/lame-ass-villain-7-slipknot.html

Along came a Black Spider

I was really enjoying the mano a mano throw down between Black Spider and Batman in Assault on Arkham it's too bad it got cut short by a mis thrown boomerang by the good Captain. Have a look at the rest of The Squad files from Assault on Arkham . .  .
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2014/08/05/batman-assault-on-arkham-meet-task-force-x

Speaking of DC animated films I just got done watching Justice League War on youtube I finally found an actual full movie upload as opposed to the bogus channels that just have in the title "full movie" only to find some bullshit. It wasn't as good as Assault on Arkham or Batman Year One but it was still fairly good even though the parademon/Darksied fight scenes got to be a bit tedious. Can't wait to see Throne of Atlantis it's probably gonna be the only thing from DC worth looking forward to in 2015.

I'm posting this old school fan art of the Martian Manhunter (8 1/2 X 11 oil on canvas 1996) just for the hell of it. Some retro fan art to help usher in the new year as it were : )

 

FINALY! some new group shot art of the REAL Suicide Squad

What a breath of fresh air this is! Some brand new Suicide Squad fan art that has nothing to do with the WW II version, or Harley Quinn or any other aspect of the New DCU. I just found this only a few hours ago on comicartfans.com apparently it's a commission piece done by Steve Erwin. This guy is good I've featured his stuff here at least once before.
On a separate matter here I found this over at the Firestorm blog yesterday. I think it's much to do about nothing but still worth having a look at if your a Suicide Squad fan http://firestormfan.com/2014/01/16/suicide-squad-film/

A new year with probably the same ol shit

I was at my local comic shop a few days before new year when I noticed a #1 issue for Harley Quinn. That's odd, I thought she already had her own book perhaps you've heard of  it's called "The Suicide Squad". Like I said, that's what it's being called at any rate.
Now over to The Suicide Squad that I know, this clip art of the antagonistic exchange between Rick Flag and Captain Boomerang comes from the only annual surprisingly the original series ever had. The cynical nature of it accurately reflects my feelings about what we probably have to look forward to in 2014 when it comes to all things DC. 
I was watching a Youtube clip of "Bronze Tiger" and "Roy Harper" and I've at least seen some images of  "Amanda Waller" on Arrow. Some body get me an air sickness bag please! Well DC I've got "you're ace up the hole" right here and the same goes to cartoon network. But what I don't have is any money, time or patience when it comes to your TV shows or your new books. Oh, I almost forgot to throw in the obligatory Happy New Year slogan into this posting.

This is The Suicide Squad, accept no substitute

Boomerang and Vertigo silhouette style fan art

Left click to enlarge

Here's some recent cool and unique fan art I came across on deviant art.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie

I was just looking at some clips from this movie by chance on Youtube and holy shit does this ever look awesome! Like Batman: Under The Red Hood I think this one will be worth buying if I happen to find it somewhere. As you can see here with Captain Boomerang the animation is top notch. Unfortunately there's no real Suicide Squad stuff going on in it as far as I can tell but there is something in it for fans of The Rogues. There are a lot more scene clips available but here are just some of my favorites that I found on Youtube . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IVYNUREI-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfLxXoLAI08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi3Xnb3s8l8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOpiSt-7kw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6qYgAW0jbc

A refreshing taste of the old DCU from down under

I just made a nice little score yesterday of some old school Suicide Squad nostalgia. When photos alone won't do . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTPoLV7s96c

 Here's my local comic shop where I found the Captain Boomerang statue right after I left the theater from seeing Iron Man III. Convenient huh?

And so ends the Adam Glass inspired suck fest in Suicide Squad#19

Just posting this as a reminder that this week's Suicide Squad #19 was the last issue written by Adam Glass. I remember when I first announced I was dropping this series after #10 and how some of the readers of the title that were still hanging on urged me to stick with it for a while longer. Even Glass himself paid a visit to this blog and promised me that good things were just around the corner for this title and to hang in there.
And in a sense there was some truth to that with the reappearance of Captain Boomerang in issue #12. Well in case anybody hasn't noticed other then a flash back sequence in #16 we haven't seen Captain Boomerang since the opening pages of #14. That means Captain Boomerang has basically been absent in the pages of the Suicide Squad for the last 5 issues! WTF!? And true to form Glass's final issue ends on yet another uninspiring note of predictable or other wise uninteresting "plot twists" and banter between characters that I hardly care about anymore. See what I mean: http://tessatechaitea.blogspot.com/2013/04/suicide-squad-19.html

The new writer for the series Ales Kot has been quoted as saying "Alternately, we will build off the original, still magnificent Suicide Squad run by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell and co. while also remembering what happened in the recent run and playing with the threads in a fashion that will be inviting to new readers and rewarding to those already on board. Simultaneously honoring the old and bringing in the new."

I sure hope so cuz Glass sure didn't go with that formula! He really seems to have had some kind of aversion to using old school Squad characters outside of Deadshot.

The Rogues vs The Secret 6 and other cool happenings

Left click to enlarge

To see the full skit go to: http://dbsuniverse.blogspot.com/2013/04/so-who-would-win-rogues-vs-secret-six.html

I'm updating this posting with this other action figure single panel skit I just found at http://random-happenstance.blogspot.com/

Left click to enhance image : )

Let me add one more thing to this posting before I return this JLA (Ed Benes, Dwayne McDuffie,) trade paper back to the library I checked out a couple of weeks ago. I just can't let this book go with out saving one of my favorite panels from the issue that comes from this heart to heart moment between Mari and Ben from JLA#22.