Pimp Daddy Darkseid

As far as I know Darkseid has only made 2 appearances in the original Suicide Squad series. But o boy were they some classic Darkseid moments. This posting has been a concept I've had for quite a while now but it's always given way to other posting ideas for some reason. But because a friend of mine who is going through some bullshit right now that I am all too familiar with I finally decided to get to it. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth to that whole "nice guys finish last" cliche. In order to make certain your the one in the driver's seat instead of the one being taken for a ride on the highway of love it requires you exert a certain amount of "assertiveness" at times. Being kind of emotionally distant often works well and I've talked about that before on this blog in regards to Rick Flag and Ben Turner a.k.a Bronze Tiger. But Darkseid really has the whole schtick down best. Here he is giving a mission briefing to the Female Furies when one of them actually is stupid enough to question his wishes ( Suicide Squad # 3).
Ya see that? No explanation required. It's a simple matter of what Darkseid wants discussion over. In this next bit of clip art we see what happened after a rather climatic battle between Task Force X and "friends" against the forces of Granny Goodness on Apocalypse (Suicide Squad # 37) . As you all should know by now Lashina kidnapped many members of the Squad, Barda, Flo and even Waller herself and took them to Apocalypse to be used as cannon fodder while she tries to win her place back as leader of The Female Furies. As you see here that in and of it's self wasn't her biggest mistake.
Do you see that "oh shit!" look on her face? I think this is the first time that Lashina has ever displayed fear. We've seen her pissed, frustrated and even delighted from time to time. But scared? Well who wouldn't be if they were about to be "pimp slapped" by Darkseid's Omega Beams. So guys, when your feeling troubled by the ambiguous behavior and mixed messages by members of the opposite sex in the treacherous arena of dating just think to yourself, what would Darkseid do?

I'm adding a quick update here on Thursday morning CA. Pacific Time. The latest Task Force X retirement files couldn't have been posted at a more perfect time! Check it out: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/03/task-force-x-retirement-files-024-028.html

I believe in miracles . . Amanda Waller, you sexy thang

I stumbled across one of the most ingenious comic book covers ever conceived. I had seen this issue before many many years ago and thumbed through the pages but it wasn't until I came across the cover online a few days ago did I remember about it. Hopefully, none of you out there are scratching your heads over why I say this cover is so clever and cool. Because if so, your heads may be some place they shouldn't be. As far as I know there is nothing supernatural about the story line here. This has to do with Waller helping the Blue Beetle (the late Ted Kord R.I.P.) over come some sort of mental conditioning. The clip art I provided isn't Blue Beetle suddenly coming down with a case of jungle fever (not consciously at least) it's just that things got a bit out of hand at one point just like in the movie The Exorcist. In fact, Waller ends up giving the Beetle a bit of a beat down in order to subdue him and keep working on "debugging" him. That's pretty much all I remember from the issue please if any body else out there knows more share it with the rest of us.
Now, here's something else I came across on the internet as it pertains to Amanda Waller. This bit of clip art is from the pages of Checkmate that shows Waller in a way we don't really get to see her often. One of the things I always liked about the art work in Checkmate is how they drew Waller. They stuck to the basic concept look of the Amanda Waller character but feminized her quite a bit. Which I actually think was kinda nice. I mean just because Vixen is a hot supermodel does that mean only she is allowed to change her hairstyle in the last 20 years? I think the White Queen should be allowed to change things up a bit too if she feels like it. And although as far as I know Waller has never had a love interest who's to say that she doesn't need some companionship from time to time. But I'll tell ya what Amanda Waller being made bit easier on the eyes doesn't take anything away from her as the bad ass that she is.
If I had the rest of the page this panel went to you'd see that the White Queen has already gotten the drop on a Kobra agent who snuck into her hotel room. When she concludes her phone call she determines that interrogating the wounded would be assassin is unnecessary and proceeds to conclude the Kobra agent's visit by casually popping a few caps in their ass. All hail the White Queen!

General Eiling, "Your one ugly mutha @#$%&$!"

Doesn't the mutated Eiling here kinda remind you of the Predator minus the dreads? If you've watched enough episodes of Justice League Unlimited you will no doubt have come across the anti-meta human general who seems to think superheroes are more dangerous then al-qaeda and nazi germany. In JLU he breaks into Cadmus and steals some highly classified version of a nazi super soldier serum and goes after the Justice League. It was a really good episode check it out if you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmIF0s-POE And just like in the comic he had a serious hard on for Superman especially.
So I'm sure most of you know that Waller coerced Eiling into being a part of Task Force X after his mind was transferred into the body of The Shaggy Man who happened to be one powerful son of a bitch with a healing factor even more rapid than Wolverine's. Questionable judgment on her part even though everything worked out in the end. In the JLU he was mostly a misguided patriot who got corrupted by power. You know that old expression,"the path to Hell is paved with good intentions". But in the comic version Eiling was a much more sinister kind of character with a near pathological hatred of Waller. Not too mention it turns out he had done some serious brain washing on Flag some years back which he attempted to make use of as part of his grand plan to kill Waller and wipe out Task Force X. Of course as we all know that didn't quite work out and he got the back of his head blown off for his trouble even though it didn't kill him.
Eventually Eiling would go back to work for Waller and even mix it up with the JLA as he did even before he was with Task Force X. Ruthless yet intelligent and an excellent tactician as befitting a high ranking military man. "The General" is someone to be reckoned with from everyone from Superman to Amanda Waller. J.K. Simmons plays the voice of General Eiling in the JLU cartoon. He's been in a ton of movies and TV spots over the last 7 years but you probably know him best as J. Jonah Jamison in the Spiderman films. A role we all hope he will continue.

Crickey! finally some bleedn fan art for this blog

I big thanks to Aliera for sending . . . . or as Dan would say, flippin to me this lovely drawing. Hands down the world's biggest Captain Boomerang fan hails from Portugal! This is the good Captain in a very passionate embrace with Meloni Thawne. Her back ground is kinda complicated but apparently she's the mother of Owen Mercer and subsequently passed down her gene for super speed to him. Bravo to Aliera for showcasing the first bit of fan art on the world's only blog site devoted to the Suicide Squad. So cmon folks, I know there's at least a couple of others of you out there who have some artistic talent.

The great cartoon debate continued & the messed up personal life of Red Arrow

So to those of you who read my comments in the previous posting you know full well my opinions about Young Justice & The Justice League Unlimited vs. The Teen Titans and Batman The Brave and The Bold. Today I decided to have a second look on Youtube the Titans and BnB and oh man it was just painful. Just the animation alone makes want to turn away from the screen. It's just not right that the only appearance of Bronze Tiger in a DC cartoon had to be in the BnB series. It's just not right. I mean really folks just look at the difference in the clip art I provided above. It's kinda like back in the 80's the difference between the animation in the Gobots cartoon verses the Transformers.
On a side note you'll notice that Speedy a.k.a Roy Harper is in most of the DC cartoons. I know he was in at least one JLU episode called Patriot Act (on Youtube) even though I didn't provide any clip art samples here for it. Although never an official member, Speedy was also in on an early mission of the Suicide Squad in which they were sent to South America to bust up a big time drug cartel. You can read up on the details in the latest Task Force X retirement files posting: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/02/task-force-x-retirement-files-016-019.html
Bronze Tiger wasn't on that mission but he and Speedy (now Red Arrow) would have a brief encounter years later in JLA #18 (2008) when the League and the Squad had a skirmish over the Salvation Run operation under Waller and Rick Flag. Even though Red Arrow bitches a lot in Young Justice he seems to at least know his shit when it comes down to business. Plus, I find his over all pessimistic out look on life reassuring largely because in that way he kinda reminds me of . . . me. But this guy has had a rough life. He's lost a daughter, an arm and struggled with drug addiction and impotency of all things.
I see that Young Justice is on Sunday nights just in time for me to start following the series on TV tomorrow. Youtube only has the first 6 or so episodes I hope I didn't miss too much of the series already.

Task Force X retirement files now available to the public by Canadian hacker Siskoid

Do you feel sometimes that even this blog doesn't give you quite enough of that Suicide Squad fan boy or fan girl fix that you crave every week? Well then I may have just the thing for you. I present you with Siskoid's Task Force X retirement files. It's pretty much what it sound like although the the term "retirement" is kinda open ended if you know what I mean. But basically this series catalogues all the former Task Force X members who have concluded their tour of duty with The Squad. So far it's been pretty fun much in part to Siskoids sarcastic sense of humor and meticulous attention to detail. The sample entry you see here to the left can be magnified for easier reading by left clicking, or just go directly to the 3 postings so far in the series. Look tomorrow for the 4th installment of the retirement file series. You can find Siskoids Blog of Geekery here in the blog role in the right hand column.
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/01/task-force-x-retirement-files-001-003.html
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/02/task-force-x-retirement-files-008-011.html
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/02/task-force-x-retirement-files-012-015.html



Just found out some sad news today. Dwayne McDuffie who was one of the main writers, editors and producers of the the Justice League Unlimited cartoon just died in some manner of surgical complications. My deepest condolences to his friends, family and all his fans. The Justice League Unlimited cartoon was probably the best ever TV animated series based on a comic book title. I love it that the writers didn't leave Task Force X out of the series. There was at least one episode based on a Task Force X mission and numerous others that guest starred Amanda Waller, Captain Boomerang and Deadshot. And I'd like to say that they were all portrayed quite well and faithfully to the comic. Not too mention I've used Youtube episode links and clip art from the series for several postings to help enhance this blog site. Dwayne McDuffie has made his mark on this blog as well as in the comic book industry and in the hearts of millions of people around the world I suspect. In a rather bizarre twist of fate McDuffie passed the day after his birthday (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011) and was born in Detroit Michigan just like me.

Maxwell Lord, I love ta hate this mother fu$%&#!

This posting isn't the Maxwell Lord Wikipedia page so I'm not going to get into a whole lot of detail about the origins of the infamous Maxwell lord. Besides, most any body who reads this blog knows pretty much all about this son of a bitch. Max went from being the slick used car salesmen like PR specialist for the JLA to one of the most profound villains of the DC Universe in about the span of 20 years (since 1987). To be honest, I'm not sure about the specifics that lead up to him usurping Checkmate and becoming it's absolute ruler as Black King. But there he was, up until he fucked with Wonder Woman one too many times. How about that Wonder Woman folks!? That gorgeous Amazonian is a real head turner ain't she! Thank goodness she put him down even though she caught a lot of unnecessary shit from the JLA for it. Just try to imagine Nick Fury becoming some sort of Charles Mansion like sociopath taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. I think what sets Max Apart from other DC villains is his unwavering smart ass style of arrogance. But he was crafty, shrewd and quite capable of manipulating people easily even with out his "Jedi mind trick" like powers.

By the way, notice the Task Force X logo among others on the monitor at Checkmate HQ? Ok, so who out there has seen the movie Firestarter (1984) with Drew Barrymore? Well I'm gonna tell you all something that is gonna blow you away. David Keith, who played Drew's father had powers too if you remember. He was able to control peoples minds as long as he could make eye contact with them. Well anytime he used his power it caused what was described as "pin point hemorrhages" that resulted in nose bleeds! Sound familiar? Ironic here how Waller calls him a "liberal weasel" back during the Alien Alliance Invasion in which Waller and Lord were forced to make nice and work together. As Black King he ran Checkmate with such brutal efficiency that even dictators in the Middle East would have been envious.
Now as you all know Max is back thanks to this whole Blackest Night/Brightest Day stuff and unfortunately my knowledge about that is vague as of yet. So for those of you who do know any details please do share with the rest of us. One of my favorite shows is 1000 Ways To Die which showcases all the various ways people have managed to get themselves killed from everything like swallowing a tape worm larvae in order to lose weight to using dynamite to go fishing. So I can think of a lot of ways I would like to see Maxwell Lord die many times over. It was too fast the way Wonder Woman killed him he deserved worse, much worse. The list of heinous acts committed by Maxwell Lord is longer then my . . . arm. And chief among them was Ted Kord's (Blue Beetle 1) murder. But at least Blue Beetle went out in style with "Rot in Hell Max!" as a response to Lord's final ultimatum. For some helpful insight on Maxwell Lords resurrection you might want to check out: http://idol-head.blogspot.com/2011/02/2009-black-lantern-maxwell-lord-design.html