...but instead of a pleasant enough little one-and-done guest-starring Ghost Rider, we've chosen to go with the fourth chapter in an eleven-issue crossover, the Janus Directive. Now, I know I was reading Manhunter at the time, but it only crossed over for one issue. (The last issue with that Doug Rice art that I loved; how he wasn't a bigger name I don't know.) The crossover would run for four issues each in Suicide Squad and Checkmate, the latter of which I've never read an issue of. It appeared to feature today's cover boy, Peacemaker. Erg, that's not a good sign.
Chased by ninjas, spies Cherie and John manage to get a call out, I believe to Sarge Steel, warning "The eggs have hatched!...the word you are looking for is anaconda." They are then beaten down and captured. Meanwhile, at Belle Reve prison, Amanda Waller would like a good goddamn answer how a Checkmate operative was able to infiltrate and nearly kill her. The explanation, it's a prison, it's supposed to keep stuff from breaking out, not in; doesn't hold a lot of water with her. Getting the Medusa Mask out of storage, Waller is about to take a squad at Checkmate, to kill Megala. I vaguely remember him from maybe the first issue of Captain Atom, in which he resembled a not-unfriendly Davros.
Two hours later, in the damaged Koning Industries building, Peacemaker is fighting it out with Major Force. The Checkmate organization's upper echelons (including Harvey Bullock!) are scrambling to perform damage control, when today's Suicide Squad shows up: Duchess, Vixen, Count Vertigo, and Shade the Changing Man! (A brief aside: the first time I saw Count Vertigo was in Legends #4, and I thought he was just a one-off created for that series! I had no idea he had appeared before, so I always expected him to get super-killed in Suicide Squad.) While Vertigo and Shade are able to bring down the unstable Peacemaker, I didn't think the lot of them would stand a chance against the Major, but Duchess is more than willing to throw down with him. Vixen countermands Waller's order to kill Megala, though: "If the Wall wants Megala dead, she can pull the trigger!" Which, yeah, I could see Vixen going through all the trouble of wheeling him down there, just for Waller to shoot him in the face right in front of her.
This part's a little unclear, since it's cutting between it and the Duchess/Major fight that Peacemaker is crawling to get into; but Vertigo seemingly has Megala captured, when the wheelchair-bound scientist explodes! Shade manages to save Vertigo, although he's injured. Vixen proclaims "Megala" as a fake; loudly, within earshot of none other than Lois Lane! Vixen gives her a terse "no comment," and while she wasn't going to give up the story, it didn't appear there was enough space here for Lane to get into it: she probably could've asked why a former Justice Leaguer was working with known criminal Count Vertigo, for one thing.
Elsewhere, General Eiling tries to call in the cavalry, Captain Atom. Who, quite refreshingly, tells him to blow: he could see on TV that Major Force was already there, and had no interest in bailing them out. Eiling is then held at gunpoint by hitwoman Black Thorn, who tells him to make a phone call. Captain Atom is somewhat concerned about Megala, when he's visited by Nightshade and King Faraday, who are likely about to drag him back into this thing kicking and screaming. Finally, we return to Cherie and John, as they are brought before Kobra! And his groupies. I can't decide if they're undermining his menace or improving his rep...
OK, one chapter out of a crossover like that is going to leave more questions than answers. I think the titular Janus Directive was supposed to be some form of oversight for meta-powered intelligence agencies, but was somehow co-opted by Kobra...then profit? I'm missing a step of plan there somewhere. That may have been a recurring theme in Suicide Squad, though: the notion of accountability and transparency, vs. Amanda Waller's "bite me and let me do my job."
Nice, solid art here. Peacemaker's catch phrase always killed me, I mean Killing for peace is like fucking for celibacy. Not the best way to get the desired result. I'm just surprised it never caught on long enough for DC to put it on a t-shirt and sell it.
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