Suicide Squad: An Underrated 80s Comic - Comic Tropes (Episode 10) 

It's strangely flattering to see you review a book I inked back in the day! Problem is, it's hard to look at old work without cringing a bit! lol 😵 Great channel, by the way...I watch often.

Ostrander is one of the most underrated writers ever. His name always sold me a book.

Why so many Firestorm villains? Because John Ostrander was writing Firestorm's book at the same time as Suicide Squad. He probably needed to coordinate the appearances of villains with their main books (i.e., when Penguin was on the Squad for a mission, Ostrander likely had to get permission from the Batbooks); a lot easier when you can just coordinate it with yourself, I'm guessing. Deadshot's inclusion is an interesting thing to look at, because it very likely could have never happened. Back in the late 70s, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers were signed on to do a six-issue run on Detective Comics. During that time, they did a Joker story, the now-class "Laughing Fish" story. The only problem was, Joker was ALSO set to appear in the main Batman book that same month. DC didn't want to have two Joker issues coming out at the same time, so Englehart and Rogers added a seventh issue to their run, bringing back an obscure, one-off villain from 1950, and giving him a redesigned costume. Then, about a decade later, when Ostrander was putting together the Suicide Squad book, he was flipping through DC's Who's Who reference guide. He saw Deadshot's entry, thought he looked cool, and added him to the Squad's roster. And he became one of the most popular characters in the entire book. All because DC didn't want two Joker stories to come out in the same month. (Would that they would show such restraint today...) But for that, Deadshot would have remained an obscure one-off Batman villain. Funny how things work sometimes. Ostrander and his wife/co-writer Kim Yale also didn't like the treatment of Barbara Gordon in Killing Joke, so they decided to do something about it, introducing a mysterious hacker named Oracle who was helping the Squad behind the scenes (not even Waller knew who Oracle really was), and who (obviously) was eventually revealed to be Barbara, in a role she would continue in until the New52 reboot. Another little thing that wound up become a big part of DC. And all because they thought the character was done a disservice. Not bad, really.

Other than the concept, this particular series of Suicide Squad might be best known for reimagining Barbara Gordon as Oracle after she's shot and paralyzed by Joker in Killing Joke.

Sorry, I don't condone the shooting of unarmed comic books.

WOW!! You called it with Slipknott!

This guy! He just went to a shooting range, with a TMNT t-shirt, hung a comic book and shot at it... I mean, I wonder what people were thinking as they saw him

Nice shooting, Chris. Would have been great if you were cosplaying Deadshot while shooting the comic. I never really read the comic but I like that whole premise of using villians to do government black ops. That issue just seemed too outlandish though...like the writer just made it up as he went along. Thanks for posting this!

I loved this one. This is one of my all-time favorite comic book series of all time! Ostrander's version was the best one hands down because they didn't use it as a tool to simply bring together.

As an Australian, I take personal offense at this comic's choice to spell "mate" as "myte". Great content though Chris, I'm a new fan of the series and I'm re-watching them all. Please keep it up! It's been great to get a better sense of artists, characters and comics through your earnest humour, so thanks heaps :)

Karin: I won't stop at anything until I've brought this bomb to the manager.

Lots of firestorm villains showed up and/or died because Ostrander wrote Fury of Firestorm for a while before he wrote Suicide Squad. He was very familiar with alot of those characters.

Captain Boomerang is A-List all the way.

"The movie could be alot of fun!" Ah. The optimism of days gone

Dude, you have brave and bold 25, wow!

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad will be based on the 80s run

Huh... the back even kinda looks like Boomerang's silhouette. You shot a mirror image of your target, good job!

The range footage was one of your best trope gimmicks. Loved it!

i thought he was talking about the Suicide Squad from Smallville,well darn it

I adored the 80's run of Suicide Squad!

It’s also the issue where one of the Female Furies joined.

XYZ-deium. Classic tropes right there.

Nice trope since the movie comes out on Friday. I never read any Suicide Squad comics but I've heard of them from Arrow, Batman assault on Arkham, Some RU-vid videos about them on comicbookcast2, and Lego batman 3

Damn dude can shoot . That's a nice group especially that you can't really see the shots landing with the comic background .

Wow.. you even kept the protective plastic cover and the cardboard backer on.

Nice shootin slick!

Original Suicide Squad run by Ostrander was DOPE! I collected it from the day Deadshot shot and killed the giant flaming Brimstone creature in Legends.

Gotta say, Waller is one of my favourite antiheroes. She's a force of nature.

It was so sad to see a movie with such great potential made into complete garbage. Damn it!

Oh man, I love your content BUT... firing the Suicide Squad #66 because it was boring? I think we have not read the same comic! It was a good comic and a decent ending for a masterpiece series, Ostrander's and Yale's treatment and development of the characters is unbeatable, and they took their time to do an interesting comic book, with very dark things, with politics, spionage, terrible crimes... and they made unknown and silly characters be pretty damn interesting and cool! Each one of this issues deserves to be read, and none of them are boring at all, at least in my opinion. If this was signed by other author and with other artists (until Isherwood the level was so discontinuous) this Suicide Squad would be one of the great comics of DC, much like what happens with Hawkworld miniseries by Truman and Alcatena.

Fun episode, also Nice shooting Chris!

Another trope with this era of the squad was someone getting pied by a mystery pie thrower. My two favorite characters from this run were Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, they both add a degree of coolness and comedy to the series. Captain Boomerang impersonates Mirror Master with amusing results. DC should think about reprinting the whole run in trade paperback form.

What was the second version at the beginning? Was there a TV show I missed?

And I see a perfectly good copy of the same issue still attached to wall.

You should totally have that a prize for a contest:)!!!

80s Suicide Squad was awesome! definitly MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE in the comics world. the helicopter SHEBA was sweet too.

Wow, that issue of Suicide Squad actually sounds pretty awesome. I'm going to have to get a hold of the arc.

I loved X-Men and some Avengers when first reading comic books ....My favorite comics that were Dc books .....The Suicide Squad and Infinity Inc.

Explosive bracelets aren't nearly as daunting as implants in the head/neck. Especially in a world where you could easily attain some kind of bionic appendage to replace your arm after you escape.

I love suicide squad I wish I have the graphic books and some back issues Imma purchase some

13:17 - And than the Suicide Squad movie turns out to be not fun at all (except for Harley Quinn and the design of the Enchantress).

I enjoyed the Ostrander/McDonnell run of Suicide Squad. Just started re-reading them in collections. Loved the 2 DC animated movies. The live action movie? Eh!

Can you do a second suicide squad video!? :)

Suicide Squad Animated Films >>>> Live Action Version

Dont shoot the comics!

In Ostrander’s Deadshot miniseries, Deadshot’s son gets molested and then strangled by goons hired by Deadshot’s very own mother!

Surely Deadshot gets every woman pregnant that he is with?

Ngl I thought slipknot was invented for the first film, yet here he is in t.f.x in 1983

it's great especially the late 80s to early 90s

comic tropes secret identity deadshot!?

I think an Inglorious Bastards take on sucide squad could be grate

Actually Slipknot didn't die here he was saved and I think either got a prosthetic arm or just didn't have two arms either way he didn't die until way later

Thats my LCS

I read it from issue #1 (1987) but I stopped because it petered out.

Yup Boomerang is a jerk. I once read an issue when I was a kid where they're going over a mission and he said something to a female team member to the effect of we need your nice round jiggly talents! I was absolutely apauled and hooked!

Aww, didn't have the JLU(cartoon) Suicide Squad in the beginning. :(

May I suggest some 7.62mm ammo for the next run!

What a concept. Villain protagonists? Like Lobo? Or a government using criminals for wet jobs? Because the Nazis did arm and release violent criminals from the camps against the Red Army. And let's not forget Operation Gladio.

Still not sure about you yet...but getting there

Still haven't watched the movie. Should I?

Chris, who's your favorite artist/writer on the new SS series?

The ending was mean spirited

Love DC 🥰🥰🥰🥰 And also Marvel.

shoot me shoot me

As much as people on the bandwagon hate on the movie, it's still pretty fun and on par, if not better than many other comic movies in both of the main universes. It's "lass oh," not "lass ooh."

Ah, the glory days, when it was still possible to believe the Suicide Squad movie was going to be good...

my issue with the film is that the characters did not look and act natural. it looked forced.

I love Suicide Squad ...i am so appreciative of this video .....years ...later 1. Bronze tiger can beat batman in hand to hand combat ... 2. To this day Amanda's still plotting.. 3. Deadshot is my favorite character in the DC comics.. Hes not will smith or this little game they kill the Justice League really he isnt .... 4. Bring back black orchid and enchantresses lol . 4. Too much movies...its written already just make the movie no need for changes just make the fucking movie. 5. When all fails they are d/e villainns ( but they are not ) be a good fucking writer..stick to the script

It was 1987, not 1982. Do some research. I like your stuff, but your research frequently leaves a lot to be desired.

Destroying media for a gag is kinda shitty, despite how much i love the criticism and insight of the show.

Never expected such pretentious sensitive people in a comic book breakdown lol

No guns, please. It's not even funny

As a school teacher, I am upset by your casual use of firearms. I desired a legitimate critique of culturally significant media. What I saw was a glorification of gun culture. Maybe the comic portrays violence as a virtue, but should the critic follow suit? I am sorry to say that I cannot continue viewing your content.