Colonel Rick Flag
(1980s Yale/Ostrander take) (part 1)
Sequence
This profile is intended to be read as part of our series of Suicide Squad team profiles.
Here’s the page that lists these articles in order.
Furthermore
There have been multiple versions of Rick Flag in the history of DC Comics. So this profile ain’t about :
- Richard Montgomery Flag, who was active during the 1940s and 1950s. And also led versions of the Suicide Squadron and a Suicide Squad.
- The Silver Age Rick Flag, as he appeared circa 1960 as the leader of the Suicide Squad. The two takes on the character have markedly different character sheets, characterisation, etc..
- The Anthony Miller version of Rick Flag. I need to research that for scope, but not now.
Furtherfurthermore
To my enduring disbelief, this article is slightly too long to be comfortably presented in one go on some smartphones.
So it’s presented as two short articles. This here is the first half, and the second half is there.
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Background
- Real Name: Colonel Richard Rogers Flag.
- Known Relatives: Richard Montgomery Flag (father, deceased), Sharon Race Flag (mother, deceased), Richard Flag III (son).
- Group Affiliation: Suicide Squad.
- Base of Operations: Belle Reve Prison, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.
- Height: 5’11” (1.80m). Weight: 210 lbs. (95 Kg.).
- Eyes: Brown. Hair: Brown.
Powers & Abilities
Flag is a gifted, highly trained military pilot.
He then acquired years of experience as a top-shelf special operative, commando and military intelligence field agent.
He can operate a seemingly endless variety of vehicles, from paddleboat to stratofortress .
He can fight using nearly any modern weapon and several types of military hand-to-hand training.
Performance level
Colonel Flag is not a combat monster – nor a master of some exotic skills. But he is an exceptionally experienced operative with extensive training, and a good field commander.
In most cases he operates on a low cinematicThe level of power and (un)realism found in a spectacular action movie. level.
In DC Heroes TTRPG terms his Guilt Drawback means that he has to be careful with his Hero PointsDC Heroes RPG concept expressing narrative importance/immunity. spending. So most of the time it doesn’t looks like he has a solid HPs total.
He has twice given a solid account of himself against Batman (and once against the Bronze Tiger), for almost a minute of hand-to-hand combat each time. But this was done by uncharacteristically burning through his Hero Points.
Though he could land hits and take a remarkable amount of punishment, he couldn’t really hurt his nigh-invincible opponents.
But in most operations, Rick’s role isn’t to punch or shoot things. It’s to stay on top of the situation, coordinate and issue the right orders.
Other assets
Flag is smart. He can definitely come up with intricate yet effective plans.
He’s also good at leveraging the skills and powers of his teams.
His decades of intelligence experience mean that he understands stealth, manipulation, decoys and other subtle tools. He and Waller make an excellent pair of mission planners.
While he’s a bird Colonel, Flag doesn’t hold a command. However, he had full authority over the security forces at Belle Reve.
Equipment
His core gear is :
- A high-quality, compact Colt M1911 variant. The exact model in our game stats is arbitrary.
- Wrist radio used for communication among the field team.
Flag can pack mission-specific gear. But he prefers reliable basics and will not generally carry big-time equipment. His job is to command, not slug it out with superhumans. Classic picks include :
- Low-light binoculars.
- Uzi submachinegun. The older full-sized model with a wooden stock.
- Laser rifle. These laser rifles were only used to defend Belle Reve against superhumans. They are fragile and hold a limited charge, so they would be of little use in the field.
- The Belle Reve security team produced a few other weapons. These and the laser rifles above are detailed in the corresponding Suicide Squad article.
- Fighting knife. Flag produced a military fighting knife but once. It thus seems to have been a mission-specific backup weapon, presumably for stealth purposes.
In the one flashback to his Forgotten Heroes years, Colonel Flag is armed with a M16A1 and what I assume is a Colt M1911A1.
Some flashbacks set during the 1980s and early 1990s show him armed with a M16 rifle. But this wasn’t the case in the books actually published back then.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Soundtrack
Something from 1987, when this version of Flag appears, for those who want chronologically correct audial atmosphere.
It was the year of Sinéad O’Connor debut album The Lion and the Cobra, and this song in particular is a good match for Rick.
However it’s Sinéad, so you’ll want excellent sound quality to listen in it – even with YouTube encoding. Her voice is otherworldly, particularly back then.
History (part 1)
Richard Rogers Flag is the son of Richard Montgomery Flag. Flag, Sr. was the Commanding Officer of the Suicide Squadron during the 1940s and 1950s.
Rick Flag, Jr. lost his parents when he was but a kid. His mother sacrificed herself to save him from a runaway car. Then his father — deeply affected by the death of his wife — sacrificed himself to stop an enormous War Wheel from killing thousands.
These deaths were the continuation of a long trail of blood. During World War Two dozens if not hundreds of Suicide Squad soldiers sacrificed themselves so that others may live — and urged their comrades to carry on in their name.
Hardened by the loss of his parents and raised by his father’s lifelong buddy Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Rick Flag grew up determined to serve. He became a military officer and a fighter pilot as soon as possible.
Flag was one of the finest fighter pilots in the US during these years. He was noted for a rivalry with another best-of-the-best pilot, “Ace” Morgan. Morgan would later become one of the Challengers of the Unknown.
Tactical Air Command
Flag was eventually tapped by Gen. Wade Eiling as part of Project Eagle. The goal was to assemble a special forces team answering to Eiling alone. These commandos all were exceptionally driven men.
This Suicide Squad operated in Iran at least four times. Their local contact was archaeologist Dr. Raza Kattuah. Gen. Eiling then characteristically had Dr. Kattuah’s home bombed to eliminate a loose end. But Raza survived, and became Rustam.
Gen. Eiling eventually expended his Suicide Squad. A key informant of his was suspected of collaborating with Americans. Eiling sent his team to kill that man, then warned the target.
Flag’s operators were therefore ambushed and massacred. This made the informant look legit, throwing suspicions off.
However, Flag himself survived. The trail of blood went on, as the members of this Suicide Squad urged Flag to carry on in their name.
Flag realised that Eiling had sent them to die. But all Suicide Squad operatives had been implanted with post-hypnotic failsafes. With but two words, Eiling thus had Flag stand down and forget about the general’s treason.
Mission X
After he recovered, Flag was detailed to assist aerospace research as a top USAF pilot.
During this research program he met a military physician, Dr. Karin Grace. She was Flag’s great love.
A new, four-person Suicide Squad was soon assembled. This one wasn’t a special forces unit. Instead, Flag and Grace were joined by two scientists, Evans and Bright. What the military wanted was its equivalent of the Challengers of the Unknown.
As with the Project Eagle version of the Squad, all members had an uncanny level of drive and sense of sacrifice. But being driven by trauma also meant that, sooner or later, things would blow all to Hell.
The adventures of this Suicide Squad, its possible timelines, etc. are discussed in our big sequence of Suicide Squad articles.
Wait in the fire, wait in the fire
What happened between Col. Rick Flag and Dr. Karin Grace after Cambodia was never quite documented.
Flag visited Grace at the hospital after her breakdown. But the doctors asked him to stop as it made it difficult for them to treat her post-traumatic stress disorder.
Therefore, Rick never learned that Karin had given birth to their son.
It seems likely that he mashed the loss of two Suicide Squads and of his lover into one ugly neurotic hairball eating at him. Which also means that he subconsciously avoided Grace, even after she had somewhat recovered.
Freedom through vigilance
Rick Flag carried on as a solo operative for military intelligence. Presumably most of his work was for Air Force Intelligence and Gen. Eiling.
It seems that he sometimes worked with Captain Atom (Nathaniel Adams/Cameron Scott). The two may even have been friends. Flag did not appear to know Atom’s secret identity, though.
These years of intelligence and special operations work are mostly undocumented.
Forgotten Heroes
One of the Colonel’s last missions was to infiltrate the Forgotten Heroes. These old-school adventurers had been assembled by the Immortal Man in his eternal war against Vandal Savage.
The other Heroes were at that point :
- Congo Bill (in his Congorilla body).
- Rip Hunter.
- Dane Dorrance of the Sea Devils.
- Cave Carson.
- Animal Man (Buddy Baker).
- Dolphin.
Flag seemed to have been proud of his time with this team. They worked to prevent Vandal Savage from recovering fragments of the meteor that had empowered him millennia before.
This seemingly involved venturing through space and time, and clashing with the Forgotten Villains – a team that Savage assembled to oppose the Heroes.
The details of Flag’s infiltration mission — such as whether his backers were Vandal Savage agents within the US government — are unrevealed.
The Forgotten Heroes. That Flag looks older in this specific image is intriguing.
Danger trail
King Faraday of the CBI then recruited Rick Flag to help him recover the Bronze Tiger (Ben Turner).
Turner had been brainwashed into serving the League of Assassins. Faraday sought to deprogram him and reclaim the Tiger’s unbelievable martial skills for US intelligence.
Faraday, Flag and young agent Nightshade (Eve Eden) stormed a League of Assassins base. Flag held off the Tiger in hand-to-hand combat long enough for his allies to :
- Eliminate the other assassins.
- Pump Turner full of tranq darts.
The Tiger was brought back to the US. A newcomer to the intelligence world, Mrs. Amanda Waller, then broke his mental conditioning.
Continued !
The second half of this article has a tentative timeline. Plus what you’d expect — the rest of the History, the Personality and Description sections, the quotes, the stats, etc..
Source of Character: DC Comics.
Helper(s): Frank Murdock.
Writeup redone on the 31st of December, 2022.