Lashina cosplay

Julie Wilhelm

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I remember when I first saw this Starfire bonus pin-up page back when I was a kid in the mid 80s. It was in the back pages of some issue of Ambush Bug (#2) which I was browsing at for reasons that I can't remember since I never had any interest in that character. I remember being so sprung at the time to see something like this in a comic book by a main stream publisher like DC.
But ofcourse by today's standards this is quite tame. Especially when you consider how the character has been re-imagined in the DCU reboot. At the time I was tempted to buy the issue just for that bonus pin-up page alone but just couldn't bring myself to paying the cover price for an issue of Ambush Bug. I've seen that same issue in $1 boxes a couple times recently but it's just as well to have found this Starfire bonus pin up online.

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.

Duchess vs Lashina

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Well it's about time! Never thought I'd ever come across any Suicide Squad specific fan art from the John Ostrander era. Not to mention it's good too, I rather like the . . .details. This one comes to us from a U.K. artist that goes by the deviant art handle adamantis.

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Here's something else I found on deviant art by an artist who goes by the handle SketchMcDrawpants. First off it's an excellent drawing. But I would imagine most of you don't know or remember much the Karen Grace character who died early on in the series during the whole Millennium Manhunter DC story line in the late 80s. We meet her in the first issue and right away we learn she and Rick Flag have some past history as both team mates and lovers that left her bitter and resentful with him. Just what the Squad needs right? Later in the series we learn she had a child that Rick only later finds out he fathered. We later see in the 2008 Suicide Squad mini-series Rick struggling with the question of his responsibilities for a son he didn't even know about. He however opted to leave "his son" in the care of others who could care for him better.

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Comic characters you got into from the animated movies & TV shows

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Lately I've been really enjoying watching Owlman video clips from Crisis On Two Earths movie. As far as I can tell he's nothing like the rather offish and generally uninteresting Owlman (lame costume too) from what I remember of DC in the 80s. I like his sense of cynicism, his fatalistic attitude while always maintaining a calm  demeanor.
Then you've got Roy Harper from Young Justice and you all know how much I like him. Prior to Young Justice I knew very little about the Roy Harper character. I had only read a couple of early Suicide Squad issues he guest starred along with a Teen Titans one shot anti-drug issue that was given out as freebees at my elementary school back in the day when we still had dinosaurs. My knowledge of Cheshire was even more scant for that matter.
As for the Red Hood I had heard that name here and there with the travesty known as the New DC 52 never payed it any mind. That is until I happened upon some clips of Batman: Under The Red Hood on Youtube. Instantly I felt like I stumbled across a character I really felt like I could relate to. And that's not to say that there have not been other characters from animated films and TV shows that didn't strike a cord with me or that I otherwise really enjoy but the ones I mentioned here I just identify with on a more personable level.

Hey Dale sorry I didn't really get back to you when you first posted this clip art on my face book page. But yes you were correct there is something very very Duchess like about her. Although I think the likeness is almost certainly coincidental, where is this from again? Some kind of Suicide Squad from the new 52 tie-in?
In the mean time let's take a trip down memory lane of one of those moments in awesome as Duchess a.k.a Lashina deliver some impromptu disciplinary measures in the field to Count Vertigo and Captain Boomerang who were attempting to carry out a little mutiny during a mission. Although we find out later she had ulterior motives.