Go on a Suicide Squad mission with four members, you'll probably be fine. Twelve, well...

I think I'm blogging this one just because it had a double cover! I've been buying comics for decades, yet don't think I've had more than a handful of those. From 1989, Suicide Squad #24, "Slings and Arrows" Written by John Ostrander and Kim Yale, penciled by Luke McDonnell, inks by Karl Kesel. There were two members I didn't recognize on said cover, which isn't usually a good sign for them...

Entering the second year of the title, and Amanda Waller is testifying before Congress about the Suicide Squad and their alleged illegal activities. To avoid having to answer where the Squad members were, she opts to send them on a mission, so she can dodge answering as "it would violate national security." While the team had a deeper roster than usual, they would be short one: Nemesis, who quits. He had been abandoned in Russia, and only rescued against Waller's orders by Flagg, who was gone, and Nightshade, who wants to quit herself. Waller attempts to bully Nemesis back in line, and he's not having it. Nor does the rest of the team leap to her defense.

Attempting to restore order, Waller tells the Squad they can leave or go back to their cells, no difference to her. Also, the rules had changed, to the effect that no one would get 'time served' for just one Squad mission anymore; which sounds like moving the goalposts. She sends the team to Africa, to rescue a captured nun. I'm sure that'll go over about as well as most of their missions...Waller was also starting to see even more blowback towards her managerial style, as she refuses to accept help from the mysterious Oracle, and some of her former supporters take other jobs and leave.

As for as the two Squad members I didn't recognize, I looked them up: one was Shrike, the other Ravan. One of them might've made it through this mission, maybe.