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[[File:suicide_squad_8697.jpg|frame|"[[Sarcasm Mode|Always did want to die for my country]]."]]
A team of expendable criminals and damaged heroes in [[The DCU]] who are sent on missions expected to have a very high mortality rate.
The first Suicide Squad printed was a try-out feature in ''[[The Brave and
There was also a [[World War II]] team called the Suicide Squad, or possibly two of them. One was a feature in ''Star-Spangled War Stories'' from `1963-1966 fighting "The War That Time Forgot"; it was a top secret Ranger outfit trained to handle missions ordinary volunteers would not survive. The other was a [[The Dirty Dozen]]-style collection of military riff-raff and criminals assembled to handle [[Suicide Mission|Suicide Missions]]. It was retconned into existence to provide a through line from the World War Two version, through the Fifties version to the new [[Suicide Squad]] debuting in the 1980s.
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Other important personnel included:
* Captain Boomerang, depicted as the dirty coward's [[Dirty Coward]]. Master of the [[Precision-Guided Boomerang]], he had joined the team largely to get that shortened prison sentence, but his stay on the team kept getting extended because of his cowardice, constant engagement in criminal activities while on leave from the team, and disdain for Amanda Waller.
* Count Vertigo, an inbred noble with a [[Disability Superpower]]. The device used to correct his inner-ear problem allowed him to project nausea and loss of balance to others. At the time he was a member of the Suicide Squad, Vertigo suffered from manic-depressive behavior, and was something of a [[Death Seeker]].
* Deadshot, a [[Badass]] [[Death Seeker]], who (almost) [[Improbable Aiming Skills|never misses with a gun]]. The [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] of the series, Deadshot got his own spin-off miniseries during the course of the book's run, as the series moved the villain into full-blown [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] mode.
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* Enchantress, aka June Moone, who had a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] with strong magical abilities. Once activated, she would quickly become as much a menace to the team as to their opponents.
* Nemesis, a [[Master of Disguise]] who did a lot of advance work for the team.
* Nightshade, a [[Half-Human Hybrid]] with darkness-related powers and the ability to move herself and others through another dimension to effectively teleport.
* Oracle, a.k.a. [[Batgirl|Barbara Gordon]], who'd reinvented herself after her [[The Killing Joke|crippling]] at the hands of the Joker to become a computer whiz.
* Ravan, a Thugee (though his version of the religion was clearly stated as non-standard) and former member of the Jihad, the Suicide Squad's archenemies. He served very unwillingly, but liked the killing part.
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Eventually, the Suicide Squad's existence was revealed to the public and later the operation was shut down and Amanda Waller sent to prison for crimes committed while head of the team. She was later offered a pardon in exchange for performing services for the government (the poetic justice of this did not escape anyone) and the Suicide Squad was reformed as a private contractor, though still with the ability to recruit convicted criminals as needed. The series ended with issue #66 (June, 1992).
There were various incarnations of the Squad appearing in other titles for a few years, then a new Suicide Squad series began in 2001. Written by Keith Giffen, this version was headed by [[Sgt. Rock
The Squad has since been reformed under Amanda Waller's leadership, appearing in ''[[
A new series launched in 2011 as part of [[New 52|the line-wide revamp]] of [[The DCU]]. The series, written by Adam Glass and drawn by Marco Rudy, will star redesigned versions of Deadshot, [[
The Suicide Squad made an appearance on ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' under its original name of Task Force X, as the word "suicide" was considered off limits for the young audience. Therein the team consisted of [[Adam Baldwin|Rick Flagg]], Deadshot, Plastique, Captain Boomerang, and Clock King, working under the purview of Amanda Waller.
It has also been mentioned on ''[[Smallville]]'' as part of their version of [[Checkmate]].
In 2016 a [[Suicide Squad (film)|live-action film adaptation]] was released to less than stellar reviews and mixed audience reaction.
Not related to [[Monty Pythons Life of Brian]].▼
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: In the "New 52" reboot, the heavyset Amanda Waller becomes another skinny, busty comic book girl, much to fans' displeasure.
** Not to mention ''much'' younger. Especially jarring since Amanda virtually qualified for [[Cool Old Lady]] status, with one of her greatest moments being a time when she stared down multiple murderers while groaning how she was fat and menopausal.
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* [[Anyone Can Die]]
** And how. Lampshaded in one early arc where everyone comes home alive, prompting even the callous and selfish Captain Boomerang to smile at the thought. {{spoiler|Then the squad finds out they were on a decoy milk run, and the real job ended a failure with ten dead and one survivor, the bulk of the damage being infighting.}}
** Another run took the team to fight ''Darkseid''. Any other comic would have had perhaps a token death. The Squad loses several long-time members, including supporting cast.
* [[Ascended Extra]]: The series was well known for this with its few surviving members. Deadshot and Captain Boomerang were originally minor villains for Batman and Flash, rarely used and barely remembered as gimmick villains. Few people remember Deadshot was originally intended as a Batman nemesis, and Captain Boomerang is arguably the most famous and visible member of the Rogues.
** Arguably one of the best examples is with a Batman sidekick who was crippled in a mix of [[Canon Immigrant|Canon Immigration]] and [[Executive Meddling]], as Batman went from having a host of supporting cast to just Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and his girlfriend of the week. The character might have languished in obscurity if the creators of ''Suicide Squad'' hadn't decided to redress the damage. Over the next 25 years Barbara Gordon's past as Batgirl was almost entirely eclipsed in favor of her ongoing career as Oracle (until a universe-wide reboot put her back in the cape and cowl).
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* [[Badass Normal]]: Rick Flag.
** Also Amanda Waller, to the point where she's nicknamed "the Wall", and even her nominal allies and friends can't predict her.
*** Waller gets points for being one of the few people who fans celebrate as being able to stare down '''BATMAN''', and who once tried to shoot ''Darkseid''.
*** Ben Turner aka The Bronze Tiger one of the few men to take down [[The Batman]] in one on one combat.
* [[Bad Habits]]: The Penguin went on an undercover mission in Russia disguised as a Russian Orthodox priest.
* [[Batman Gambit]]: Unsurprisingly, Bats is not a fan of the squad, and infiltrates their headquarters seeking evidence needed to shut them down. He finds it, despite everyone looking in the wrong place. {{spoiler|And then Amanda Waller stares him down, revealing she's got his fingerprints, since he didn't wear gloves in his disguise.}}
** Referenced obliquely in the [[Justice League]] cartoon, when Batman threatens to expose her operations:
{{quote|
* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]: Played with. Apparently, Control, who would become a one-time nemesis of the Squad, arranged the Nedelin Catastrophe in retaliation for JFK's death.
* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Invoked by one of the Limelight Twins after Savant and Deadshot exchange harsh words: "Ugh, you two should kiss already."
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* [[Black and Gray Morality]]
* [[Black Helicopter]]: Sheba
* [[Blinded
* [[Boomerang Comeback]]: Captain Boomerang does it to Jaculi of the Jihad in the second issue. Surprsingly badass.
* [[Boxed Crook]]: The criminals were offered shorter sentences in exchange for their services--the "stick" was an explosive bracelet that would go off if the wearer got too far from the team leader, or at the leader's discretion.
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* [[Brainwash Residue]]: The reason why Bronze Tiger always declines to lead the Squad; he's afraid the brainwashing he received at the hands of the League of Assassins could kick in any time.
** Rick Flag consults him on how to avert this in ''Raise the Flag''.
* [[The Cape (trope)]]: A recurring problem for the Squad. Not only were most of their members supposed to be in prison, but the missions were often shady at best--not something you want a law-abiding hero to know about.
* [[Cardboard Prison]]: The official cover story during the early part of the series was that any operative seen in public had somehow escaped from Belle Reve, and coincidentally happened to deal with the emergency situation.
* [[Chessmaster]]: Amanda Waller.
** Also the General, which is why Waller finds it so satisfying to keep him under her thumb.
* [[Circle of Shame]]: Captain Boomerang experiences a hallucinatory one when Mindboggler unleashes his greatest fear in an early issue. He hallucinates that he surrounded by the superheroes who have defeated him the past; all laughing at him.
* [[Clingy MacGuffin]] / [[Instant Allegiance Artifact]]: The Thinker helmet. It has no will of its own, but it's suggested it amplifies the negative aspects of the personality of the wearer. Combined with the massive intellect boost, most people are likely to get very easily hooked. Amanda herself, not the most shining example of morality, wore it briefly to locate the second Thinker and began developing the addiction, and proposed using it as a piece of her personal arsenal. However, she was broken out of it by an old friend, who asked whether he was speaking to Amanda... or to the helmet. She was so ''pissed'' at being ''manipulated'' by a non-sentient ''thing'', [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|she shatters the helmet]], [[
{{quote|
* [[C
** Even then, nobody was safe. One arc memorably ended with the bulk of the supporting cast dead in a mission that was suicidal, even for the squad. {{spoiler|Only the goddamn Batman should try pulling a gun on Darkseid.}}
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Right around the time the 90s [[Dork Age]] was starting up, with overstylized costumes and ridiculous storylines, the book took this approach and made it work. The team became mercenaries for hire, saboteurs and spies, and lost the costumes entirely for upwards of 20 issues. The body count got higher, the crazy people got crazier, and none of it felt gratuitous.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Amanda. What's her reaction upon hearing Boomerang wants to quit?
{{quote|
* [[Death Seeker]]: Deadshot, Count Vertigo, and probably a few of the characters who died.
** Very clearly going on in Rick Flag's [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* [[Ethnic Scrappy]]: Captain Boomerang is this in-universe. Nobody, even his fellow Australians, seems to like him.
* [[Evil Albino]]: Harley has what she describes as a "...''skin condition''" along these lines, but it's probably just dyed.
** {{spoiler|Its not. Issue #7 reveals that the Joker threw her into the same vat of chemicals that bleached his skin. Both her skin and her hair are the result.}}
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]
* [[Exact Words]]: Deadshot had a problem with this, as seen above. Since these events, Deadshot has continued to abide by his ''very'' exact word, a trait that has continued into [[Secret Six]]. Everybody who works with him is rather irritated to observe their own orders thrown back at them with such flippancy.
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* [[Heel Faith Turn]]: Shrike, though her religious beliefs were...unorthodox. Resulted in [[Redemption Equals Death]].
** "I'm a-coming, Jesus!"
* [[Hey, You]]: Played with when Father Richard Craemer is appointed team chaplain:
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'''Craemer:''' 'The Reverend Hey You' has a certain ring to it, don't you think? }}
** He later acknowledges he's begun responding to "hey you".
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* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Deadshot, sometimes.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: The Squad over all its incarnations has had over a hundred members, enough to rival most other teams who've been around since the 60s. Granted, most of the members don't stay that way for long...
* [[Lodged Blade Recycling]]: [[W Hen]] they wound up on Apokolips, Count Vertigo is stabbed by Kanto; some time later, he turns out to have been playing possum and stabs Kanto in the back with his own dagger.
* [[Martial Pacifist]]: El Diablo is extremely loath to use his powers unless he believes doing so is in some way vanquishing evil. This includes refusing to defend himself from ravenous zombies until he has absolutely no choice -- because his attackers are innocents.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: In-universe example. Someone literally names her Duchess because they see her as John Wayne's [[Distaff Counterpart]].
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* [[Only I Can Make It Go]]: Briscoe and Sheba
* [[Outlaw Couple]]: Punch and Jewelee
* [[Pie in
* [[Playing
* [[Pregnant Hostage]]: In the second issue of the 2011 series, it is revealed that the [[MacGuffin]] the Squad is sent into the stadium to retrieve is a preganant woman. Although, this being ''Suicide Squad'', all is not as it seems.
* [[Psychic Nosebleed]]: Amanda gets one when wearing the Thinker helmet.
* [[Race Lift]]: In the first issue, Flo is white, with a slightly different hairstyle. She's retconned into being Waller's niece thereafter.
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: A somewhat less idealistic use of the trope.
* [[Redemption Equals Death]]: Pretty much the point of the series. Played for laughs with Dr. Light, who announced he intended to turn his back on villainy to be a true and noble hero. He's shot from a dozen angles in the next panel.
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** [[Foregone Conclusion|She already did]] in "New 52." And for some reason, [[What the Hell, Hero?|she put him in charge]]... ''[[Oh Crap|and gave him the control to the explosive microbombs]]''. {{spoiler|It turns out that the switch doesn't work and Captain Boomerang was sent in only as a bargaining chip to get the rest of the Squad to safety.}}
* [[Retirony]]: In Issue 6 of the New 52 version, Savant says that he is on his last Suicide Squad mission. In Issue 7, he accidentally [[Land Mine Goes Click|steps on a land mine]]. {{spoiler|In Issue 8, he [[Subverted Trope|survives]].}}
* [[Rhetorical Request Blunder]]: A shellshocked Rick Flag discovered a Congressman was trying to blackmail the Squad into ensuring his re-election with the risk of exposure, so he set out to kill him. Amanda Waller gave Deadshot (who was not exactly stable at this point) the order to stop Flag from killing the Congressman by any means necessary. Deadshot did so — [[Exact Words|by killing the Congressman himself]].
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: In the first issue of every run, ''somebody'' goes. {{spoiler|Mindboggler, almost the entire Injustice League, and Savant, though in the last case he wasn't actually killed and was a member of the team again later on}}.
* [[Sassy Black Woman]]: Amanda Waller. She also counts as [[Badass Normal]].
{{quote|
* [[Secret Test of Character]]: The first issue of the 2011 series. Savant doesn't pass.
* [[Shock Collar]]: The more villainous members of DC's [[Suicide Squad]] were fitted with these on missions. If they got ''too'' out of line, the collar could also be commanded to blow off their heads.
* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: The pie-throwing [[Running Gag]] ends just as an especially brutal conflict reaches the Squad. Vixen and Bronze Tiger's relationship is destroyed by Sarge Steel just before the LOA mess, destroying much of whatever light-heartedness ''[[Suicide Squad]]'' had at the time.
* [[Shout-Out]]: In an exceptional example of [[Mood Dissonance]], Dr. Light takes time out from an apocalyptic battle to quote [[Firesign Theatre]]'s Rocky Roccoco.
{{quote|
* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: More than once, the Squad gets around Boomerang's lack of interest in getting killed by drugging his drink and dragging him off; by the time he wakes up, fighting is his only option.
* [[Sole Survivor]]: Rick Flag, more than once; it takes an increasing emotional toll on him.
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** The first issue of the 2001 series ended with Major Disaster the only known survivor of the mission -- though it was later revealed that Cluemaster survived as well.
* [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]]:
{{quote|
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: Several series have, since the book's cancellation, been heavily inspired by ''Suicide Squad''. ''[[Thunderbolts]]'' (especially post-Civil War) and ''[[Secret Six]]'' exist mainly because of the popularity of ''Suicide Squad''.
** Especially the Secret Six, since Deadshot is one of its main characters.
*** [[Word of God]] says Deadshot's only in Secret Six exactly as long as he's not needed in a [[Suicide Squad]] book. Recently confirmed with the cancellation of ''[[Secret Six]]'' and the return of ''[[Suicide Squad]]''.
* [[Staged Shooting]]: Used to fake the death of radical agitator William Hell.
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* [[Villain's Dying Grace]]: Inverted. After the Apokolips debacle, Darkseid inflicted a particularly brutal fate to the Squad: returning them home so they could stew in their memory of the pointless deaths and how it could all have been avoided. This resulted in many cases of [[Survivor Guilt]], up to and including Amanda, who has since become near-suicidally reckless. Given what said [[God of Evil]] subjected them to...
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: When Deadshot {{spoiler|kills Senator Cray}}, his mind ''crumbles''. He's left with the belief he ''finally'' succeeded in his first killing - the death of his father, as commanded by his mother - with Flag as a stand-in for his brother, who he'd accidentally killed instead of his old man. His [[Ax Crazy]] persona kicks in then. [[It Got Worse|Things get worse]].
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Several people do this over the course of the series, mostly to Amanda Waller.
* [[William Telling]]: Deadshot does it to Captain Boomerang in an early issue as part of a plan to discredit a vigilante called William Hell. Boomerang was not pleased.
* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Kobra's plan to trigger WWIII. He gives some pointers to Dybbuk, as seen in [[Hannibal Lecture]] above: one, do something his makers ''really'' wouldn't want him to do. Two, see if said action can't wind up doing ''some'' good. Three: there's this old, ugly building which is preventing the most glorious temple for virtually every major Western religion ''ever'' from being built. Why not level it and see to the construction of the temple? How was that old mess called, anyway? The Dome of the Rock?
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