Suicide Squad: What the Tell?

Suicide Squad (Vol. 1) #4
“William Hell's Overture”
Writer: John Ostrander
Penciller: Luke McDonnell
Inker: Bob Lewis
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Editor: Robert Greenberger

I've read some “Suicide Squad” comics here and there, mostly in the New 52 and Rebirth eras. But I recently picked up several trades from the original Ostrander run in the '80s and offered my services for a recent episode of the Source Material Live podcast in discussing volume 1, “Trial by Fire.” Mark Radulich didn't have a better offer, so off we went.

(Here's the link; I should warn there's some language, although Mark tried his darnedest to censor himself.)

I'd heard good things, and those first eight issues (plus the history of the original Task Force X, Col. Rick Flag and Amanda Waller in Secret Origins #14) didn't disappoint. But one story stood out to me for its sheer, only-in-comics weirdness.

Issue 4 introduces a new Central City vigilante, William Hell, who dresses like a medieval archer and uses a crossbow to stop criminals. My immediate reaction was to text my friends who had recommended Ostrander's run and ask how they had forgotten to tell me this character existed, knowing my love of puns.

William Hell's approach to crimefighting is not as goofy as his name: Minority offenders are detained for the police; Caucasian crooks are instructed to join the Aryan Empire.

Hell's secret identity is W. James Heller, who is sort of like racist Bruce Wayne. His family was killed in a race riot, and he was raised by his grandfather, who was suspected of helping out the Nazis during World War II. Heller founded the Aryan Empire and uses his vigilante activity to help them recruit.

This didn't strike me as a job for the Suicide Squad, but Waller instructs her black ops team of soldiers, spies and incarcerated super villains to discredit Hell/Heller without killing him. They start by setting up Captain Boomerang and Bronze Tiger, disguised as a villain called Wipeout and sounding like a caricature. Since Bronze Tiger is Black, he's dumped for the police while Boomerang, who has no trouble spouting bigoted comments, gets an invite to the A.E.

Boomerang is on stage two nights later at an Empire rally, where Heller is giving a speech about the evils of the civil rights act and minorities' detrimental effects on society. His childhood pal and Squad member Deadshot bursts onto the scene dressed as William Hell and tells the disgruntled white guys in the crowd their real problem is people in power pitting them against other ethnic groups. Heller goes backstage, changes into his William Hell costume and calls out the impostor.

They decide to settle their differences by taking a page out of William Tell's book and shooting an apple atop Captain Boomerang's head. Deadshot nails it because that's what he does. Hell misses because … the Enchantress and Bronze Tiger use the villain Chronos' time-delay machine to alter his shot.

A stunned Heller is unmasked by Deadshot and declared the fake. Then a disguised Flag shoots Deadshot with a blank but makes it look like Hell is mortally wounded. The plan is broken down as the crew reconvenes in an ambulance, and Bronze Tiger acknowledges that even though Heller may be released because there's no body, he's been convicted in the court of public opinion.

The mechanics of this story border on the absurd, made even moreso by the serious nature of the subject (and Heller's rhetoric doesn't exactly sound like the relic of a bygone era). But Ostrander doesn't lean into the weirdness or go for meta-level humor. He just presents it as a well-orchestrated espionage caper happening in a sci-fi/superhero world.