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Origin/1st app of Suicide Squad (Col. Rick Flag, Jess Bright, Dr. Hugh Evans, Karin Grace); Ross Andru cover/art
Starting out from their humble beginnings in Brave and the Bold #25, the Suicide Squad has undergone myriad iterations throughout DC’s history into the modern era, culminating in two feature films that had huge box office draw. The original team from the Silver Age was comprised of Rick Flag, Jess Bright, Karin Grace, and Hugh Evans, these characters were relatively standard human beings, with scientific and military training, whose first mission involves a giant red wave that is hurtling across the ocean causing havoc to everything in its wake. It is soon revealed that an enormous, powerful creature was inside the wave and an Atomic Age kaiju style battle ensues, playing right into the popular cultural obsession of the era with sci-fi and monsters. The first Suicide Squad was featured a handful of times in the pages of Brave and Bold, but the concept behind the team would prove to have staying power. Being retooled again and again throughout the following decades, the squad would evolve into a ragtag cohort of villains who were sent on dangerous missions with very little chance of survival. The basic concept is that of the film “The Dirty Dozen,” gather a group of dangerous criminals and send them to their doom, if they manage to survive, reward them with their freedom from captivity. The team would go on to include some of DC’s finest bad guys over the years including Deadshot, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Cheetah, Harley Quinn, and the omnipresent Rick Flag. After two films, a spin-off series, and others in the works, the origin issue of Suicide Squad is sure to continue to rise in value.


Artist Information

Ross Andru was an American comics artist and editor. He is best known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and The Metal Men, and for having co-created The Punisher. During Andru's long career he also worked on Sgt. Rock, the Suicide Squad features in the Brave and the Bold, Rip Hunter, Time Master and Sea Devils at DC. At Marvel Andru contributed to Marvel Feature (where he drew the 1st appearance of The Defenders) and Marvel Team-Up among others.