Suicide Squad

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Context

The Kim Yale  /John Ostrander  version of the Suicide Squad is the concept that would eventually make big money as a big-screen movie.

Said movie featured such highlights as Margot Robbie, or… Margot Robbie… and… Margot Robbie. Anyway, Margot Robbie was in it.

As you remember, the Yale-Ostrander Squad :

New school

The Ostrander-Yale Suicide Squad stories were notable as :

Organisation

Full Name:
Suicide Squad.

Purpose:
To conduct military, intelligence, counter-intelligence and law enforcement special operations that :

The Squad has also occasionally been deployed to advance personal or political agendas. Primarily Amanda Waller’s.

Modus Operandi:
Superhuman/near-superhuman raids and covert operations.

Depending on the op, these may draw methods and protocols from military or intelligence engagements.

The Squad’s methods are ethically debatable. One imperative is therefore to maintain secrecy about methods, operations and operatives.

Relationship to conventional authorities:
The Squad was personally authorised by President Ronald Reagan. It is a Federal agency.

However, the vicious infighting for resources and influence among the US intelligence alphabet soup meant that collaboration with other agencies often was dismal.

The Squad is attached to a revived Task Force X agency. This new version of TFX oversaw the Squad, plus an intelligence agency. At first this was Valentina Vostok’s Agency (which included Project Peacemaker), then Checkmate.

In practice, Task Force X and Amanda Waller were essentially the same.

Extent of operations:
Worldwide. The Squad has occasionally operated in other dimensionsOther realms of existence that are not our universe..

Bases of Operations:
Belle Reve special prison, Terrebonne Parish in Louisiana.

Major Funding:
US Federal budget.

Known Enemies:

Known allies:

Membership

Organisational structure:
The Squad has three main components :

Originally, one mission would mean that all time had been served. After the Invasion, each mission would only mean a set amount of time being converted to time served.

Roster (ground crew):

Roster (trusted field personnel):

Roster (wretched hive of scum and villainy):

Membership requirements:
Amanda Waller conducts most recruitments.

Soundtrack

Something to evoke 1987…

One of this era-defining pop albums, Prince’s Sign “☮” the Times, is from that year. And the titular song from everybody’s favourite decadent, purple musical genius is a good match for the Squad in both tone and technique.

Sign “☮” the Times is a perfect and bizarre song. It’s kinda like a sombre blues, but with hard funk guitar riffs and a sparse, hollowed-out composition programmed on a Fairlight synthesiser.

Here’s a live variant wot features harder guitar riffs, the aptonymously nicknamed Cat (Catherine Glover) dancing and some Sheila E.-led batucada-style drumming from the band to close.

 

Bonus

In case YouTube removes it, here’s a non-live version.

Equipment

The most common equipment is what is issued to the corrections officers at Belle Reve. It is not used during operations, but was deployed when the prison was attacked.

It includes :

A 2007 flashback shows the guards using riot gear. Vest, joints protectors, helmet with back-of-the-neck flap and polyprop visor, tonfa, clear shield.

This is, as far as I know, anachronistic – riot cops and corrections officers didn’t have that during the 1980s. But it wouldn’t be absurd for guards in the DC Universe’s super-prisons to have started experimenting with body armour earlier than in the real world.

Explosive bracelet Mk1

The bracelets are keyed to a radio carried by the field commander. They detonate in three situations :

One variant doesn’t have an explosive charge. Instead, when remotely activated, it flashes red and emits a shrill, loud “BREEP BREEP”.

This variant is used as an aggressive pager  for prisoners that are allowed to take leaves in New Orleans.

A bracer was only detonated once, on Slipknot. This established a clear precedent that the Squad higher-ups could and would use them, and so no further use was necessary.

Explosive bracelet Mk2

(Incidentally, the mark numbers for the bracelets aren’t in the material. They’re just assigned in this article for clarity).

In 1989, tactical radios were retrofitted into the bracers. Therefore, all members were wearing identical-looking bracelets. It’s just that the trusted members’ didn’t have explosives in ’em.

Explosive bracelet Mk3

In late 1989, corrections head J. Daniel Murphy designs — presumably with Professor Callendar’s help — a prototype bracelet.

This variant could deliver up to two high-intensity electric shocks to the wearer. This provided an intermediary response, rather than the choices being explosives or nothing.

During the L.O.A. affair, Amanda Waller apparently had three such next-gen compliance bracers.

These didn’t seem to have been produced at scale before the Squad was shut down.

The earliest strike team, deployed against Brimstone.

Explosive cranial implant

Some prisoners are covertly equipped with an explosive implant at the base of the skull.

Amanda Waller carries a short-range remote detonator disguised as a pen. It can read secret codes in her prisoner fiches. Perhaps by reading a barcode, which was a well-trod tech back then.

This only shows up in one flashback, apparently set in 1989. Though Waller loudly claims that every single person within Belle Reve has one, she later tells Economos that it was a bluff. Only some prisoners have such an implant.

So it likely was experimental, with just a handful implanted within prisoners with a specific profile. 100% expendable, rebellion-prone and/or able to easily neutralise the bracers as Mister 104 once did.

If so Waller likely picked the prisoners most likely to cause trouble, to give her a chance of making an example pour encourager les autres  .

SS-1 transport jet

This plane was described in the article about the Silver Age Suicide Squad.

There’s enough cargo capacity to carry a field team, plus some support personnel, plus Sheba (which probably weighs close to nine tonnes with her full ordnance).

The SS-1 could do transatlantic flights.

In 1988, it was retrofitted to become VTOL-capable.

After Grace and Flag died, it was Briscoe who became the SS-1’s pilot.

Memories-destroying machine

This is a Dr. Moon invention. This is used the force criminals to forget about the Suicide Squad, if the constitute a security risk.

Application is particularly painful, and definitely constitutes torture.

It seems to have only been used once, against Plastique.

“Baby Huey”

This kit-bashed motorcar was a weird mix of hot rod, swamp buggy (with gigantic rear tyres – perhaps from an agricultural tractor) and bayou fanboat.

It was packed with “xyzedium”, an extremely high-powered, none-too-stable experimental explosive. The charge was set on a timer, and the blast was apparently near-nuclear in intensity.

A less… four-colourSomething goofy from over-the-top early comic books. approach would have been a tracked, amphibious swamp carrier with a 9-tonnes fuel-air explosive tank.

Other air transportation assets

The Squad has access to government planes that are entirely unregistered. Though I’m not sure how that would work re.: air control and the like.

The one that was glimpsed was used for domestic flights and resembled the Boeing 367 prototype  . One suspects that it was a Checkmate asset.

F-15E Eagle

A F-15E Eagle jet fighter  was once used to rapidly ferry a Squad operative.

It presumably was a USAF asset. Especially since this F-15 variant had only recently entered service.

The F-15 presumably was based at the Barksdale AFB  , about 370 miles (600 km) from Belle Reve. So it could be scrambled and reach Yeager airfield (see below) within 35-ish minutes, assuming perfect conditions.

Skywedge

During Operation Firebreak, the Squad was issued an experimental “skywedge” flying platform. It could carry a half-dozen persons at an unrevealed speed, and was hover-capable.

However, the skywedge handled poorly and wasn’t stable enough in the air. It mostly hampered operations, then was shot down by Firestorm.

Unspecified jet fighter

As an USAF colonel, Flag once requisitioned an unspecified jet fighter at Yeager.

So the zoomies occasionally station crafts at Yeager. But I don’t know enough about Chair Force procedures to hazard a good guess.

The mechanics crew at Yeager has a good reputation. So perhaps the USAF sends planes there for maintenance when the crews at Barksdale are too busy.

Other equipment

The Task Force X budget is usually sufficient to deploy operation-specific assets. Say, fake cop cars and fake ambulances during the William Hell case.

Tactical radios were also available before these were retrofitted in the bracers. But they’re not used as much as you’d think, since on most ops the commander wants their unreliable operatives to be close by and clearly monitorable.

Headquarters

The Belle Reve prison is in the Terrebonne Parish, LA. It is 50 miles (80 km) SW of New Orleans and 10 miles (16 km) SW of Houma.

It once was dominated by the cruel Dubois plantation. But Isaiah Dubois died in troubled circumstances in 1897. All subsequent attempts to turn a profit from the land failed, giving it a reputation as a jinx.

Furthermore, the nearby swamp kept expanding. It eventually swallowed most arableSuitable for growing crops. land.

Prisonnier de l’inutile

During the 1970s, the government took over the plot. A new max-security prison was built, meant to detain the emerging metahuman criminals.

But the budget line was axed. That apparently occurred before the prototype prison could begin its operations.

(“Belle Reve” means “beautiful dream”. It’s not correct in French-from-France (that would be “Beau Rêve”), but for all I know it’s correct in Cajun French).

Amanda Waller discovered Belle Reve during her early 1980s research.

Twelve different construction teams were hired, to avoid anybody having too complete a view of how the prison worked. It then became the Suicide Squad’s base.

Facilities

Corrections

The prison has 84 cells.

Of these, 60 are normal ten-by-ten (9m²) cells with a small toilet and a padded cot. Plus a screen for those who have TV privileges – which can also be used as an in-building visiophone. These cells can be occupied by individuals without abnormal capabilities.

They hold some of the Squad’s operatives, plus a trickle of other prisoners. These are people deemed too dangerous for genpop (often hitmen, serial killers and the like).
Usually, these prisoners do time at Belle Reve as they are being transferred from one max-sec security to another.

The other 24 cells can hold superhumans. Belle Reve teams led by Prof. Callendar design and build specific counter-measures for each inmate. These are then installed using the modular architecture specific to these cells.

These cells were uncommonly successful. There were zero escapes from the superhuman cells during that era. It seems that Prof. Callendar often goes for keeping subjects in a stasis or near-coma.

Belle Reve is particularly picky as to which prisoners it’ll accept. Some profiles (gadgeteersTechnnologist who builds comic book devices like those Batman uses., most psychics, escape artists…) will likely be immediately rejected as they pose too much of a security risk. Ditto for prisoners whose abilities aren’t well-known quantities.

Another kind of prisoner unlikely to be transferred to Belle Reve are dangerous, repeat offenders for whom special procedures have been designed.
For instance, Arkham Asylum has extensive experience with its repeat customers. So it’s best to let them handle those.

These precautions are because one prisoner escaping could easily expose the Suicide Squad and its methods.

Architecture

The prison is roughly a square, 110 yards (100m) long per side. Three of the corners are occupied by seven-stories high towers.

Between the towers are two suspended three-story wings. Which are where the cells are.

The walls are made of specially-reinforced concrete. The security is some of the best you could build circa 1975, though a lot of upgrades (particularly to electronics) were done in 1985.

Elite operatives can penetrate Belle Reve security. Though it took Black Thorn (Elizabeth Thorne) and a Checkmate Knight (Gary Washington) combining their skills and gear to gain entry.

The grounds are ringed with motion detectors, infrared sensors, sound detectors, searchlights and the like. The sole access road is also heavily monitored over its final five miles (8 km).

The building has humidity issues, with moss infiltration and the like causing damage to walls, pipes, etc.. One imagines that there are efforts to gradually repair the damage from ten years of neglect in the bayou, but that’s a tall order.

In 1989, construction of a second building began.

Continued !

The second part of this article has compact recaps of all the Suicide Squad engagements during that span, plus the TTRPG stuff.

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