Impel trading cards series: Task Force X part 1 of 4

Once in a while when I'm trolling around on the internet looking for Suicide Squad related stuff I come across these cards. I thought it might be cool to find as many as I could that were of characters who have served as part of  Task Force X. So far the art work for the Nightshade and Vertigo cards are my favorite. But there's more, so be back here in a couple of days for part 2. Every two days I'll have the next part to this posting series up.

Left click to enlarge

Take a trip down memory lane or get up to speed with this very informative and comprehensive ifanboy article that runs through John Ostrander's Squad history all the way up to the 52 relaunch, highly recommended!    

http://ifanboy.com/articles/dc-histories-the-suicide-squad/

Suicide Squad #10 review: Ok, I'm loosing my patience with this shit now

REVIEW: Basically, The Squad responds to a hostage situation in Seattle that Basilisk had going on. Only later in the issue we discover the hostages were just a rouse for some unknown reason. The only thing of any real interest going on in this issue to me is that we find out that Waller knew King Shark was going to eat Yo-Yo (#5) but let it happen anyways in order to test a theory she had about Yo-Yo possibly being indestructible.
On a general note about Waller,. in the old DCU she was tough and had to be a bitch once in a while as a matter of practicality. This rebooted Waller just seems to be a bitch for the sake of being condescending most of the time and it's starting to get on my nerves. There's something to be said for an Amanda Waller who understands subtly and using a little "carrot n' stick" strategy when dealing with hard cases like the members of the Squad.

Here we go with some straight talk about how I'm feeling about this title right now. When they rebooted the Justice League it's not like they substituted a bunch of the mainstay leaguers with the characters like the Wonder Twins or Plastic Man. So really I don't know why Adam Glass had to go and fuck with the Suicide Squad so drastically!? Now don't get me wrong because there are characters on The Squad I really do like ( Harley, Black Spider, Diablo etc.) and want to see continue on the team. But I'm at a point now where I really want to see some familiar faces from the Ostrander series too. Chief among them is Captain Boomerang and Bronze Tiger but Rick Flag, Count Vertigo and Nightshade would also make for welcomed additions.
Truth be told although I really did like this book at first but there's been some shit that's been bugging me for a while. First they introduce Boomerang and then take him out of the picture again right away and we haven't seen him again since. Then they have Vertigo on the cover of Resurrection Man #9 but otherwise no where to be found. Checkmate, which is part of Task Force X has only had a mere mention in what's been 10 issues now. The new guy Iceberg has the lamest look since Boomerang's original costume in the old DCU. A black guy with a white fur coat and a white mohawk along with some Bono like yellow spectacles gimme a break! Also, are we ever gonna see Bronze Tiger in the new DCU much less in this book!? Plus I think it's getting to the point where the writing on this book is relying too heavily on Harley's constant mental instability. And yeah I still fucken hate the name Basilisk.

We've talked to death now on this blog the merits for the rebooted Squad to look more like the Ostrander series or less so. I don't need this series to be a slavish carbon copy of the old DCU Squad but to put it succinctly I do indeed want it to look something closer to it then it does now. I'm not gonna try to rationalize or other wise justify my feelings on that any more then I would about why I like checking out hot women in high heels and mini skirts. That's just what I like and that's what I want to see. Same with this book. I'll keep picking it up for now but that will change if Adam Glass doesn't take things in a different direction soon.

Cool Hero Clix staged scene of the Suicide Squad vs Kobra

Left click to enlarge

I took a little break this weekend from brooding time to look for some previews of Suicide Squad #10 which comes out next week and has The Squad going up against Bitchalisk again. Can't say I was too thrilled with what I saw thus far of the issue but I did also come across a nice surprise as well. I don't know dick about the Hero Clix game but I've seen the figurines around. Some of them look pretty good, others are kinda lame. But I've always loved models and diorama scenes and I think that totally rocks that somebody out there set this up. Although I have to admit I cheated a bit here I used photoshop to add Multiple Man into the photo image and then make multiple (sorta no pun intended) copies of the first much like how the actual character does. I also added Dr Light for the Hell of it. You can see the original set up before I tweaked it here: http://toychop.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/capture-the-flag/the-suicide-squad-vs-kobra-2/

By the way, Young Justice this weekend and last weekend kicked ass again. The real Roy Harper has finally been found, some post relationship tension comes to a head between Ms. Martian and Superboy and we discover that Aqualad hasn't turned evil but has been on a highly secretive deep cover assignment. Did anybody out there catch that "If your up for it" comment by Cheshire to Red Arrow last weekend? I think there was an inside joke there.

On hiatus until further notice

Sorry folks but I'm kinda distracted right now by a series of mounting problems since earlier this year I really need to get sorted out sooner then later so I can finally have some degree of peace of mind. Can't give you all a time frame when I can get back to all this Blogger stuff as of yet. You might want to just check back here once a week to see if anything has changed.

Ok Dale, here's my sorta gay posting

I just realized that I've hardly ever talked about the back ground characters of the Suicide Squad title which was largely made up of Belle Reve's staff that also acted as support personal for Task Force X. In all there's been close to a dozen or so. Probably the most notable of the group was Sheeba's (high tech voice controlled helicopter assigned to Task Force X) pilot Briscoe, Flo Crawley (Waller's niece), heavy transport pilot Karen Grace and the prison shrink Dr. Simon LaGrieve. Others included the head of security "Murph", from the IT dept. John Economos, the prison chaplain Father Cramer, infirmary chief Mary White (Waller's older sister) and Dr. Simon La Grieve's assistant Marnie Herrs. There's probably a couple more I'm not thinking of but that just about covers em all except for the head of vehicle maintenance Mitch Sekofsky. I applaud Ostrander for adding a sense of realism to the original Suicide Squad by touching on a subject that wasn't quite as mainstream in the late 80's as it is these days. Left click on clip art to magnify.

Granted, Mitch Sekofsky was not a primary character in the Suicide Squad title but despite his limited appearances Ostrander was able to make him the focal point on a lot of hardships facing many members of the gay community outside of overt homophobia. However, this was still years before all the same sex marriage drama would become such a hot political topic.

Among other things it's stuff like this that made Ostrander's writing so compelling on this series. Having grown up mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area I can say I've known members of the gay community who have gone through exactly what this clip art is speaking to. Rather it was Flo Crowley's infatuation with Ben Turner (Bronze Tiger), Karen Grace's major chip on the shoulder over the bad history between her and Rick Flagg or Marnie Herrs's lack of professional detachment from Lawton ( Deadshot) Ostrander managed to create a supporting caste of characters that added to the richness and drama of the Suicide Squad story lines.
Let me digress a bit here. I saw the movie Haywire recently which featured MMA (mixed martial arts) champion Gina Carano. As far as the movie it's self goes I thought it was just all right but Carano alone made it worth while to watch. Nothing hotter then a hot woman who kicks the asses of tough guys all over the movie screen. Carano is another great candidate to play a live action version of Duchess a.k.a Lashina from the Female Furies.

Here she is fighting Michael Fassbender (but not as Magneto).  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeuarppF2jk&feature=related

Young Justice episode Salvage - More Awesomeness!

As of this weekend's episode of YJ I feel like I'm finally getting more of a grip on the future tense story line. But that's not to say it hasn't been good and with no shortage of surprises such as Aqualad having turned into Black Manta's evil protege. It's just taking some getting used to but with the Roy Harper clone back in the picture it's starting to get really interesting. It so blows me away how this side kick archer character has become such a compelling character to follow.
He's like watching some kind of horrific traffic accident in slow motion. Tragic as it is you feel forced to keep watching as you hope for the best but bracing for the worst as far as how it's going to end up. Don't you just love the bangs and 5 o'clock shadow he's sporting in this episode? I think the 5 o'clock shadow is now the universal bench mark indicator for when someone is officially a burn out.
Needless to say the Roy Harper clone is once again wrestling with all sorts of issues I'm not going to go into in this posting cause it would take forever to write about and I spend too much time as it is on these blogs. Just go to Youtube and watch the episode! I talk so much about YJ I outta just make this a Suicide Squad-Young Justice blog.

Unfortunately I only have a few comic book issues today that have Roy Harper a.k.a Speedy. Two of which are Suicide Squad 13 and 14 in which Roy helps the Squad take down a Colombian drug cartel. As you can see from the clip art it seems that it's been decades now that Roy has been the "glass is half empty" kinda guy. But you all know that already of course. I gotta tell ya folks it scares me sometimes how much I can relate to his character. I mean I never had his drug problems but tell me his cynical outlook on life isn't a sign of the times when you see things like this shitty economy, the Wall Street Occupy Movement and even the Tea Party?

 Speaking of drugs, anybody out there remember or have this one shot special from the early 80's. Back when I was in 3rd grade numerous copies of these were being distributed around grade school campuses including mine. I remember thinking how cool it was that my school was actually giving my friends and I free comic books.
This was part of the Nancy Reagan "Just say No to Drugs" campaign. Drugs had been around for decades prior to the 80's of course but it seems like it was around that time that the "War on Drugs" came into the forefront of the American conscience. This was also around the time that the HIV virus (aids) emerged as a real public national health issue. Prior to that it had largely been thought of as a "gay problem" but among other things learning that it was also being spread by intravenous drug users helped to change that kind of thinking. By the way folks, Dan from IADW apparently doesn't watch YJ because of some attention deficit disorder I can't sit still long enough kind of bullocks. Please give him some shit in the comments section! The episode links are below.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdEHiubGjV0&feature=related

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChfEb5Fh5c&feature=relmfu

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWliWLNV78&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY7f8cUeYME&feature=relmfu

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9iPyFgY-Tg&feature=relmfu

Suicide Squad 2 Raise the Flag mini-series re-covered

Just something I put together in photoshop using some elements of the original cover art and some of my own past Suicide Squad fan art both digital and hand drawn. The original cover art (left) was done in 2007 by Javier Pina. If you're going to suggest I send this to the re-covered blog I already did. Although he's posted my stuff in the past he was being an asshole about this one as well as another submission (see today's ROM blog posting) so I decided to post it here for obvious reasons.