Warning: this article contains spoilers for Future State: Suicide Squad #1
Considering what readers have gotten from DC Comics’ Future State so far, it isn’t at all surprising that even the Suicide Squad should get a dark reimagining too. The superhero business has never been so twisted as it is in DC’s latest alternate future offering. With so many heroes dead or presumed dead, gone off-world, depowered, or simply locked up, there’s an awful lot of superheroing to do and not enough heroes to get it all done. The setting is perfect for Amanda Waller’s new team of coerced super-powered assets, which she has ironically named the Justice Squad. In the past, the Suicide Squad, officially known as Task Force X, has been a cadre of incarcerated super-criminals dragooned into risking their lives on clandestine missions to hopefully shave some time off their sentences. Now the team has taken on a different tack: impersonating the world’s greatest heroes.
What’s more interesting, however, are the uncanny parallels between the newest incarnation of the team and one of Marvel Comics’ past forays into sinister heroism: the Dark Avengers. The series began its original print run in 2009 and was created by famed writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato. For a bit of context, a power vacuum was created after the events of the Secret Invasion crossover event, which lead to none other than longtime Spider-Man arch-nemesis Norman Osborn taking over the premier team of Earth’s Mightiest heroes.
In writer Robbie Thompson and artist Javier Fernandez’ Future State: Suicide Squad #1, as fascist regimes and ideologies are creeping into every corner of the comic book world, readers are introduced to a twisted vision of the Justice League. William Cobb, aka Talon, the Court of Owls’ super-assassin, has donned the cap and cowl of the Dark Knight with sadistic delight. Golden Age Wonder Woman foe the Hypnotic Woman makes a surprising return dissembling the likeness of Diana of Themyscira herself. Another obscure villain, this one from Aquaman’s rogues’ gallery, a man known as the Fisherman has been taken over a mind-controlling alien entity and recruited him into the squad. The former Teen Titan speedster known as Bolt now wears the Flash’s lightning bolt, though she isn’t squeamish about amputating limbs. None other than the malleable Clayface has assumed the identity of Martian Manhunter. And finally there’s Superman. Luckily for Waller, she has an almost perfect candidate for the job: Connor Kent, who is not only a clone of the Man of Steel, but of Lex Luthor too.
On the other side, Osborn’s Avengers assembled an equally unstable bunch of evildoers looking for an opportunity to rejoin the world, either from exile or from inside a super-max prison: the Kree-empowered Moonstone became Ms. Marvel; longtime Daredevil enemy Bullseye put on the purple fighting suit of Hawkeye; Venom morphed into a black-suited Spider-Man; Ares replaced Thor as the team’s resident god; and Daken Akihiro filled in for his father as Wolverine. Osborn himself stepped into the shoes of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers when he became the Iron Patriot. The only missing element that would’ve made the comparison complete is if Lex Luthor—DC’s Norman Osborn—was in charge of the team. Alas, the reigns of the so-called Justice Squad remain in the iron grip of Amanda Waller.
Though the setup and context of both teams are eerily similar, the storylines certainly won’t be. By the end of the first issue, Future State’s Suicide Squad series promises fans a wild ride and an impending battle against a team of villains who aren’t hiding behind false identities.