Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Today: Amanda gets the band back together, the Tiger's true face, and Batman blows up a church.


I don't have a huge run of it, so when I find a mess of random issues for fifty cents a piece, I have to grab them: from 1990, Suicide Squad #41, "The Phoenix Gambit, part two: Embers" Written by Kim Yale and John Ostrander, art by Geof Isherwood.

Even though he's supposed to be manic-depressive, Count Vertigo sounds more like he's tripping hard, as he leads Vlatavan troops against Soviet forces. While riding a bronze statue in a park...don't those usually have riders? It's also a very conveniently located statue, since he's actually still in position to lead there. Vertigo is slowed down a bit when super-strong Stalnoivolk throws explosive Molotov at him--the latter name's a bit on the nose, then. Meanwhile, Amanda Waller recruits Vixen, who wants to find the MIA Bronze Tiger. And a small South American country is on the verge of open rebellion against its ruling general "and his whore!" Which isn't very nice, but said whore is none other than Poison Ivy, who wanted to control the general and the country. She's about to bail, when Batman arrives with an offer: help out Amanda Waller, or he'll leave her for the rebels.

In a dive bar in East Africa, Waller and Vixen find Ben--or rather, Bronze Tiger, since he claims Ben never existed. He had been brainwashed before, by the League of Assassins, so it's unclear how much of who he was remained. Having remarkably little tolerance for tomfoolery, Amanda makes him "wipe the gunk off" his face.

Next, they head to a South Pacific island where Waller had stranded the traitorous backstabbing "Boomerbutt," Captain Boomerang. Boomerang had built a giant well, boomerang, the kind he used to hassle the Flash with, and planned on using it to escape the island. Vixen launches it without him and it flies straight into a rock, so Boomerang opts to join Waller's squad.

Finally, in London, Batman visits a "cyberchurch," which is actually "a front for a murder-for-hire organization." Ravan claims each of their murders delays the arrival of Kali for a thousand years, but Bats blows up the church and hauls Ravan off for the Squad. And the issue ends with Deadshot, hired to kill Amanda Waller...

So much of this book was tied to the time, but still a lot to like there. Now if I could find that last issue...

4 comments:

SallyP said...

Ostrander's Suicide Squad was...amazing.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

It definitely was. I have the previous issue to this, and now I'm wishing I had the rest of the Phoenix Gambit chapters. Batman blowing up a church? Sold!

Ron Hogan said...

I like to imagine the Michael Caine Alfred shouting at Batman after that: "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Ron Hogan: LOL!