Spy, assassin, heroine, secret agent. This Brazilian babe is smoken hot in so many ways!

I wasn't going to write any more postings for the rest of this month but then I just got inspired toward the end of the weekend to say a little something about Fire ( Beatriz De Costa). This is a character that has caught my eye in recent years for a number of reasons. At a glance one might think of her as being something along the lines of DC's

version of Firestar or some manner of Human Torch knock off. The green hair n' lips and hot body aside take a closer look at Fire and you'll see a pretty complex character which I have discovered of the last few years in the pages of Checkmate, The Omac Project and even the Justice League Unlimited cartoon series. Some of the things we know about her is that before she was ever with the JLA or an agent of Checkmate she was a spy for the Brazilian government and had what was described by Amanda Waller as a "killer instinct" which hints at a past filled with some moral ambiguity. Later in Checkmate, she would become a field operative and the Black King's knight which meant she basically was a body guard to the highest ranking official in Checkmate's field ops department. Personality wise she's tough when she has to be, but is also compassionate at times and in general seems to have a good moral compass and even a sense of humor. Because of the complicated and often tenuous relationship between Checkmate and the Task Force X division she has fought with and against members for the Suicide Squad such as Deadshot (seen above). As you can see when she's in full on "Fire mode" she has the appearance of being engulfed in flames (albeit green flames) like the Human Torch with out managing to burn off her clothing. Which is a shame since she is Brazilian which means this photo to the left is probably what she looks like during Carnival. The sound quality in this JLA video of Fire scenes isn't great but it's good enough to hear her thick Brazilian Portuguese accent. It's kinda cheesy, yet oddly arousing at the same time. Go figure?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT8WGx-RfgA&feature=related

Monday Nov. 29
I just found out today about the passing of the actor Leslie Nielsen. Hardly anybody over the age of 30 who likes comedy, sci-fi or horror has not seen one of his films. Dan at IADW created a wonderful tribute posting on Nielsen's behalf. Please take a moment out of your day to stop by. http://itsadansworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/leslie-nielsen-1926-2010.html

Members of the Squad drawn together part 2

It's funny how it always takes me longer to draft something then it does to color it. You can enlarge this one also by left clicking on it to get a better look. I'm really happy about the community that seems to be forming here and I really enjoy finding new ways of making the members have more of a personable experience here. I'm not sure yet but this may be the last posting for November since I'd like to have some drafts ready to go for December. But you never know, especially lately it seems when I'm just about plum out of ideas something just seems to come up and presto, there's another posting.
One other thing for those of you who who may be a bit surprised about why I had so much apprehension for starting this blog. Dan ran survey for a week on IADW asking about who would like to see a Suicide Squad blog. By the time that week was up only 7 people had replied (counting myself) with at least one person voting something to the effect that they didn't give a shit about the Suicide Squad. I ran a posting on my other blog about it and only got a few responses. So not the most encouraging signs for sure but never the less I woke up one day and said f@#% it I'd rather just do it and see what happens rather then keep wondering if I should. This is the same attitude I have when it comes to asking women out. I don't know if it's a confidence thing or what but you just get to a point in your life where you rather face rejection as opposed to not ever knowing what could have been. We all love Marvel's What If issues but in the real world that shit'll drive you crazy. Sometimes a little bit of chutzpah goes a long way.

The members of the Squad, drawn together part 1

In all the years I've been drawing and painting I've done all kinds of scenes and characters from my favorite comic book and sci-fi genres. But I've never done anything of the Suicide Squad for what ever reason. But with the weather being so shitty today I decided to just stay in most of the day and with all this Suicide Squad buzz going around I got motivated to start sketching something. Ya know i gotta tell it's not until you sit down and draft something you have pictured in your brain do you realize how hard it would be to be a comic book artist. Truly these people are so talented to be able to do just that day after day drawing everything from crazy action scenes to to simple scenes like two people having a conversation in an office. Either way they always have to find innovative techniques and angles to make their drawings look interesting and dynamic. It's gotta be tough, especially those days where you just can't seem to get on paper the way you want a scene or figure you have visualized in your head. Anyways, it took me a few hours to draft this drawing which is about 12 inches wide. Can you imagine having to do a 22 page comic? I'll probably tweak it a bit and then go over certain parts with a fine point graphic pen. Then I'll be ready to lay down the water colors but I wanted to share this with you all while it is at this stage. My next posting will have the finished product which I hope will inspire some of you out there to do something of your own that in turn you may want to have posted here too. You can left click on the image to enlarge it.

MY THANKS TO ALL THE FANS OF THIS BLOG . . .

. . . . you all really made this happen! Even though this blog hasn't been running for even a month I felt it was time to express my appreciation to all of you who have participated in the social forum for this site. I've been so delighted with the conversations and exchange of information and opinions I've read. Dan from IADW will tell you how for weeks I was waffling on the idea of starting this blog not being sure if there was a sufficient fan base for the Suicide Squad out there to justify the time and effort that would go into a blog site. But so far it has been worth every second of time and effort I've put into it.
Some of you carried over from my ROM Spaceknight blog but many of you are new names ( all cool people) that have been appearing in the comments sections in the last week or so. One of those new names is a really cool lady who hails from Portugal. My first European to commentator on either blog sites actually. Apparently aside from the Suicide Squad she is also a Captain Boomerang fan and found this blog by coincidence when doing a search on Google for Capt. Downunda. That prompted me to wanting to see what you will find on Google as far as my blog goes with certain key words. And I'm happy to say even though it's not at the top of the list yet it would seem this blog has already made it's mark which I know is largely thanks to all the traffic this site has garnered thus far.
I just want you all to know that I'm working really hard to come up with more stuff for you all to enjoy despite having a work schedule right now flanked by two jobs. Some postings are pretty spontaneous from things that just fall into my lap and other ones come along from ideas I have rolling around in my head for awhile until I get time to do them. I do already have other drafts completed of postings with every thing from some original art, to surveys, humor based stuff and more character profiles and what not. I'm just kinda on the fence at the moment about releasing them now or saving something for next month. Thanks again everybody all of you rock like an 80's power balled. Almost makes me want to rename this blog to "Blog site for Suicide Squad fans who aren't dicks". by the way

Way cool wallets made from Firestorm comic pages

When I see stuff like this I always say to myself 'oh man why didn't I come up with this first!?" But hey, just cause I didn't come up with it doesn't mean it's not pretty damn cool. As you can see here someone made an actual and functional wallet out of the pages from issue 64 of Firestorm that so happens to have featured the Suicide Squad whom the U.S. government is looking to apprehend. And why? Because he wants to rid the world of nuclear weapons. So of course he must be stopped cause what the world needs now is another Cuban missile crisis or a nuclear arms race in the calm and stable Middle East as opposed to someone riding the world of all that none sense. Your tax dollars at work folks in DC land. Fortunately I'm just talking about DC Comics and not Washington DC. Although we all know things get every bit as much ridiculous there as they do in the fictional world of comics. Anyways, for more photos of other comic book page wallets, information on the artist and how you can get one of your own go to:
http://firestormfan.com/2010/11/15/firestorm-wallets/comment-page-1/#comment-6283

Toward the end of Firestorm #64 the Suicide Squad preps and launches an assault against Firestorm (and Firehawk) in the middle of Times Square. Firestorm annual #5 picks up the story line in which the JLA enters the fray and things get even more problematic when some bureaucratic idiot named Derek Toliver (who Rick Flag later pumps full of lead in service of his country) orders the release of the Parasite which both teams, Firestorm and Firehawk all struggle to contain. The conclusion however ends with a "blast" following the show down between Firestorm and a Russian nuclear powered foe in which Prof. Stein finally succumbs to his fatal condition. I actually used to have these two issues but I can't remember what the $%#&! happened to em.

When a Martian meets a woman

This is cool how wildly popular Vixen is turning out to be with so many of the people who actually spend time out of their busy lives on this blog for what ever reason. And I noticed that the dude who runs the Martian Manhunter blog http://idol-head.blogspot.com/2010/11/1996-martian-manhunter-oil-painting-by.html has become a pawn recently. In keeping with the Checkmate theme I call the followers of this blog pawns so just bare with me folks. So that all has inspired me to share one of my favorite moments between two great DC characters who at a point and time found themselves on different teams during a confrontation while in Russia. But instead of a fight between The Martian Manhunter and Vixen we are treated to a rare heartfelt moment between these two who obviously have a lot of love for each other. Not a romantic or sexual kind of love despite how cool and kinky that would be but more of a Kirk and Spock kinda love. You may have to left click and then magnify the image to read the text clearly.
By the way, did you know that the voice actors for the Martian Manhunter and Vixen on the Justice League cartoon were Carl Lumbly and Gina Torres? You may know Lumbly from the short lived sci-fi TV series called M.A.N.T.I.S in which he a paraplegic scientist who wore a exo-skeleton suite and fights crime. Torres you may know from the sci-fi TV series Firefly and a movie based on the show called Serenity in which she played this hot ex-military type turned mercenary on a pirate space ship kinda like the Starjammers in the X-Men.

Also take note of the cool cover art that was used for the covers of the JLA and Suicide Squad issues that the confrontation between the two teams takes place in. Notice it's the same scene just drawn from different angles for each cover. Quite ingenious I must say. I can't think of any other time this sort of creativity for a cover was ever utilized.

"Gentlemen prefer blonds", but I prefer my women to be from the Suicide Squad

I've been meaning to get around to doing a post for all the Squad ladies both good and bad I hadn't been able to cover yet on this blog. First we start off with Vixen. There's just not enough good things I can say about this rising star in the DC Universe. All I can say is that Bronze Tiger was a real idiot to not ever have closed the deal with her during Vixen's run in the pages of the Suicide Squad. It's hard to say if Vixen will ever get a live action appearance in the future like Amanda Waller in the upcoming Green Lantern film. Ironically Angela Bassett would be my first pick to play her. I've always admired and loved that super cut body that Bassett has and if you don't know what I'm talking about check out "Whats Love Got To Do With It". Vixen is one woman Ike Turner better think twice about before he raises his fist. But rather we ever get to see her "in person" there certainly has been no shortage of her in the pages of the JLA in recent years (looking better then ever I might add) and also in the Justice League cartoon which handled her character really well. As one of the few non-convict members of the Suicide Squad Vixen often played a leadership role on missions but eventually left the squad largely because of her differences with Waller (gee what a surprise) and the drama between her and Bronze Tiger.

Night Shade (Eve Eden) has been with the team since the beginning and has been a regular all the way to the "end". She possessed various supernatural shadow powers among which were what I can only describe as creating mystical worm holes which allowed the squad to travel from one place to another instantly. This was especially important when it came to needing quick get aways. Ive always found Night Shade to be a more likable then interesting character per se. But there's no doubt she played a key role on the squad both on missions and as a pseudo-love interest for Rick Flag. Also a non convict member like Vixen, she too had her differences with Waller but ultimately chose to continued working with her.

I'm sure you all know by now about the tragic assault on Barbara Gordon at the hands of The Joker that left her in wheel chair as told in "A Killing Joke". Which happens to be one of the all time best Batman stories ever told written by Allan Moore & penciled by Brian Bolland. Due to her disability Gordon turned to fighting crime in the streets to fighting crime in cyberspace. She first started to assist the squad anonymously under the hacker name of Oracle. But that led to a psychotic tech. enhanced killer (Cliff Carmichael a.ka. the "Thinker", more on that bugger later) tracking her down and nearly finishing her off if not for the timely intervention of Amanda Waller herself. That led to her having had a new sense of purpose by joining the squad as the HQ coordinator in field operations and in general as all around i.t. support.




And moving on to another beautiful red head but this time one of a more sinister nature Poison Ivy. Ivy is a walking poison and toxins factory that includes chemicals that kill, or subject the victim to mind control. To be honest the Poison Ivy character has never been much more then eye candy for me but in the pages of the Suicide Squad she has had her moments. This scene from the "surprise vacation" the squad goes on to Apocalypse compliments of their concierge Lashina. Poison Ivy is one gal you don't want to rub the wrong way.



Now here is a squad member that has been with the team since the beginning. And by beginning I'm talking about the Suicide Squad appearance in the pages of John Byrne's Legends. The Enchantress is a supernatural being that must use a human host when on Earth much like Thor with Donald Blake. With an awesome array of magical powers and a mean spirited f&*% every body attitude she's just as likely to turn on her "team mates" as on whom ever the squad is fighting against. But we've seen that a skull grazed bullet (Deadshot) or a well applied vulcan nerve pinch (Bronze Tiger) seems to work wonders with getting her back under control. At least for a while anyways.