SUICIDE SQUAD versus PEACEMAKER versus MAJOR FORCE

"Death Game" (DC)
Where: Suicide Squad #28 When: May 1989 Why: Kim Yale & John Ostrander How: John K Snyder & Karl Kesel

The Story So Far...
A conspiracy known as "The Janus Directive" has ignited a secret war between rival covert military departments: Task Force X, Project: Atom, and Force of July.

Each suspects the other of plotting the attack, but the first shots were fired by Amanda Waller, whose pre-emptive counterstrike decimated The Force of July at the hands of her Suicide Squad. An act that arouses the suspicions of her allies in Checkmate.

The intelligence agency deploys Peacemaker to intervene in an assassination plot to safely detain Dr. Heinrich Megala of Project: Atom. Now their headquarters in the Koning Industries building is ground zero for a meta-human frontal assault as Project Atom's Major Force and the Suicide Squad launch separate attacks!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Major Force 6 (Invincible)
Intelligence: Lashina 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Vixen 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Major Force 6 (Generator)
Agility: Vixen 5 (Cat-Like)
Fighting: Lashina 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Major Force 7 (Cosmic Power)
Total: Major Force 32 (Super)

Usually battle lines can be drawn between two sides, and indeed this fight does start as a one-on-one encounter, but the intrusion of a definitive third-party has led to a Secret Wars on Infinite Earths first -- a three-way conflict!

The Suicide Squad are: Vixen, Duchess, Shade the Changing Man, and Count Vertigo. They're charging into the middle of a violent showdown between Project: Peacemaker's top man, and the sadistic military powerhouse of Project Atom.

Peacemaker is a bit of an ironic moniker. Christopher Smith was imprisoned for war crimes when he was directed by erroneous military intelligence to massacre a village of innocents. He was paroled on the condition he join Project: Peacemaker - an elite, secret anti-terrorism police force.

The son of an Austrian Nazi war criminal; Smith is haunted by visions of his father that compel him towards extreme acts of personal success. He channeled this into atoning for he and his father's crimes, using his family fortune for philanthropic charity work, and to fund his activities as the extreme soldier Peacemaker. He's working as a freelance agent of Checkmate at the time of today's battle.

Major Force is another cast-off of the military-industrial complex. US Air Force Sergeant Clifford Zmeck was court-martialed and convicted of murder & rape, but found a reprieve from a life sentence via Project: Atom. After their failures coating another test subject in alien metal and exposing him to a nuclear blast, they gave Zmeck a triple layer and attempted the experiment again.

Zmeck also appeared to perish in the blast, but was actually caught in the same Quantum Field that claimed Nathaniel Adam, thrusting them both into the future whilst fusing their bodies with the alien metal, granting them flight, super-human strength, speed, durability, and quantum energy blasts.

The Suicide Squad should be able to pin down the gun-toting, jet-packing Peacemaker, but Major Force represents a major challenge for all parties involved.

Duchess, who is in actual fact the New God Lashina, might be able to withstand his strength and power blasts. Vixen can also add extra muscle by channeling the strength of an elephant & rhino like she did when defeating the Russian super-spy Stalnoivolk in Suicide Squad #43.

Shade the Changing Man and Count Vertigo attack perceptions by projecting a vision of fear, and disorienting sonic pulse, respectively. Peacemaker's helmet might be able to repeat Batman's method for blocking out Vertigo's powers, but Shade's M-Vest could prey upon his visions. We'll just have to see how either interacts with the quantum powered Major Force!...

The Tape: Suicide Squad Ranking: Vixen (#74)

What Went Down...

In the wreckage of the Koning Industries building, Major Force gleefully awaits the attack of Peacemaker. He's coming in hot -- jet-packing through the sky with high-powered blaster at the ready!

Peacemaker hones in like a heat-seeking missile -- blasting Major Force through the air with gun blazing!

Major Force rolls with the blow, regaining his footing with a sadistic smile as he charges both hands with dark quantum energy and delights at the prospect of a new "playmate".

He slams his hands together, sending bursting shocks blasts into the sky, but Peacemaker manages to rocket above the danger and remain focused!

Before Peacemaker can make good on his threat to kill Major Force -- the Suicide Squad arrives to pacify the conflict with extreme prejudice!

Vixen orders Count Vertigo and Shade the Changing Man to target Peacemaker, who doesn't immediately open fire on the unknown assailants.

He quickly gets an answer to their status when Vertigo engulfs him in a disorienting field that causes him to lose his bearings and head into a downward spiral!

Shade keeps the pressure on Peacemaker as he crash lands into the wrecked Koning building. His strange M-Vest projects a warped vision of Wolfgang Schmidt in SS uniform -- the imaginary picture of his father that haunts Peacemaker!

Rattled by the sight, Peacemaker is defenseless as Shade swoops around him and extends a massive projected fist from the cackling Nazi!

Duchess follows Vixen's direction to target Major Force, keeping him distracted by stepping up with a powerful hand cannon of her own devious design.

The Major welcomes the weapon, confident his alien metal shell can withstand the blast.

Force absorbs the almost point blank blasts straight to the torso, laughing as each of three rounds does almost nothing to impact him.

He takes great delight in taking his "shot", first punching Duchess in the face with a straight right, then delivering a side kick to the stomach, and finishing the combo with a close range uppercut!

Duchess wipes her mouth with a forearm and tosses away her gun. She tells her teammates to proceed with their mission while she takes care of her "meat".

"Hah! I finally found someone who won't break the first time I hit him! Okay worm -- let's match fists!"

A wild right hook checks Major Force across the jaw with a KRAK!

Lashina follows with a high kick -- maybe a roundhouse -- unaware that across the battlefield Peacemaker is watching.

Crawling through the wreckage, he imagines his father's chastising. It spurs him onward, first to his knees and then back toward his gun. He'll prove his isn't a weakling by lining up both his enemies and making the shot!

A massive explosion erupts a blaze around the battlefield as it blasts through the crumbling Koning building and topples Duchess, Major Force, and even the weakened gunman -- but was Peacemaker really responsible?!

His two awesomely powerful targets are first to stir. Major Force tries to get off the ground, cracking wise: "Oof! What was in that last punch, baby?"

Duchess doesn't take credit for the blast, but finishes him off with a rabbit punch!

Vixen and Shade emerge from the raging inferno carrying a badly wounded Count Vertigo. Turns out he caught a face full of explosion when the Squad's true target -- the diabolical Doctor Heinrich Megala -- blew up. A suicide-doppelganger!

The forcefield of Shade's M-Vest kept Vertigo from being fatally wounded, and allows the rest of the team to walk away having won the battle, if not the war.

The Hammer...

The Suicide Squad clearly emerges victorious -- even if their ultimate objective to detain Doctor Megala wasn't achieved.

Per the standard format we could have reviewed this as the Suicide Squad against mutually hostile targets Peacemaker & Major Force.

I generally prefer to keep the battelines drawn down two sides, but in this one it just felt a bit more interesting and honest to acknowledge a three-way conflict. Peacemaker and Major Force never even inadvertently collude, with the former lining up his shots against MF and Duchess right until the end.

It's actually a key plot point that everyone's at each other's throats: The Janus Directive is an 11 issue crossover weaving through the pages of Suicide Squad, Checkmate, Manhunter, Firestorm, and Captain Atom. It's a paranoid superhero-thriller that turns DC's various military and intelligence agencies against one another in a private war.

If you're acting under the misapprehension that any era of comics was apolitical, the post-Crisis DCU will be a particularly rude awakening. These comics were rife with political intrigue and commentary, and there were plenty of politically motivated and analogous agencies to get involved in The Janus Directive!

The first shots are fired when Amanda Waller fingers either The Atom Project or The Force of July for planning a violent power play against their departmental rivals at Task Force X: overseer of the Suicide Squad.

She doesn't know which agency it will be, and seeks to recruit Checkmate and Project: Peacemaker as part of a pre-emptive counterstrike led by the Squad.

"The Wall" refuses to reveal the source of her information, and the extreme nature of her actions arouses suspicion from Checkmate, turning them against her as the conflict escalates -- and with good reason, too! She's actually enacting plans revealed by a doppelganger who was supposed to have replaced her!

Waller initiates the Janus Directive to avoid alerting the conspirators that she's thwarted their replacement attempt, while also using covert resources, such as Manhunter, to uncover the mastermind behind it all: Kobra!

It might sound a little complicated, but it's a testament to the complimentary relationship between the various DC series involved, many written by John Ostrander, and the value packed into each issue at the time. This is a certainly crossover that enhanced each series it overlaps with, injecting colour and extra excitement into sometimes more sedate worlds.

Suicide Squad is and was a jewel in the crown of the time, and I find myself coming back to it regularly with greater appreciation. A lot of its strength is in the ebb & flow of A & B plots, accumulated reference, and the flexibility of the material to blend espionage, costumed super-heroics, and everything in between.

It's kind of awesome that we're looking at an issue that casually brings together a gun-toting earthbound New God in camo pants (Duchess, aka; Lashina), a Charlton acquisition (Peacemaker), and an oddball Steve Ditko creation (Shade the Changing Man). Fruits of earlier stories and a little happenstance.

I hope to take a closer look at some of these characters in the future, but if you'd like to draw your own conclusions you can find the entire crossover collected in the Suicide Squad Vol. 4: The Janus Directive.

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Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 600 battles and ranked well over 1000 characters! You can find them all by diving deeper into the Secret Archive: a complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue number. Or follow links throughout each post to discover more from your favourite characters, creators, and subjects!

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Winners: Duchess, Shade the Changing Man & Count Vertigo
#191 (+370) Lashina (Duchess)
#348 (new) Shade the Changing Man
#366 (+266) Count Vertigo
#617 (new) Doctor Megala Imposter [+1 assist]
#73 (+1) Vixen [+1 assist]
#959 (new) Major Force
#960 (new) Peacemaker

BRONZE TIGER & VIXEN versus STALNOIVOLK

The Phoenix Gambit: Part Four Black Queen's Mate (DC)
Where: Suicide Squad #43 When: July 1990 Why: John Ostrander & Kim Yale How: Geof Isherwood

The Story So Far...
The Suicide Squad have been dissolved, and Amanda Waller imprisoned, but political unrest in the Eastern European nation of Vlatava has forced the powers that be to reactivate their expendable black-ops force!

Now operating as a fully autonomous outfit under Waller's command; a team, partially reassembled by The Batman, infiltrates Vlatava under the guise of going freelance to a global market!

Russian General Kaligari agrees to hire Waller under strict conditions, working to expedite hardline aggressions against the deranged Count Vertigo, and his Vlatavian resistance. In truth, the Squad work against the Russians, aiming to bring in one of their toughest agents -- the man wanted in connection to an assassination in Gotham City: Ivan Illyich Gort - Stalnoivolk!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Stalnoivolk 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Bronze Tiger 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Vixen 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Stalnoivolk 6 (Generator)
Agility: Vixen 5 (Cat-like)
Fighting: Bronze Tiger 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Draw 1 (None)
Total: Stalnoivolk 25 (Champion)

It's a classic case of speed and skill against brute strength! The martial arts mastery of Bronze Tiger is unleashed by Amanda Waller with a mission to prove that even an invulnerable man can succumb to the right technique!

Bronze Tiger's target is a Secret Wars on Infinite Earths newcomer: Ivan Illyich Gort, aka; Stalnoivolk - translated as "Steel Wolf"!

Gort is the product of Soviet experimentation during the Second World War. He was born in the early 1900s, but his aging was drastically retarded by the process that also granted him phenomenal super-human strength, endurance, and stamina.

He could have been the first of many, but Stalin ensured his Steel Wolf would hunt alone. The fiercely loyal Soviet super-soldier participated in hostilities in Ukraine, only to be exiled to Siberia after the war. He was eventually recalled to action by the cold and calculating Major Zastrow, to participate in his covert super-human group Red Shadows.

Today we find Stalnoivolk operating under Zastrow to suppress rebels in Count Vertigo's homeland of Vlatava. He's best known for confronting the suspected nuclear threat of Firestorm, and covert operations of the Suicide Squad. As it so happens -- today: he is the Suicide Squad's covert operation!

Bronze Tiger is fighting master enough to challenge most strong-man types, but it's fair to say there's an air of mismatch when he goes up against Stalnoivolk.

It also doesn't help that Ben Turner isn't in the best of mental states, having been severely rattled under interrogation from Sargent Steel, before the Suicide Squad were officially disbanded as a government operation. The cold control he exhibited fighting Ravan in Suicide Squad #2, or taking care of Enchantress in Legends #3, is replaced with a recklessness that could prove dangerous.

His former lover Mari McCabe, aka; Vixen, secretly has his back, but in his current state The Tiger has no desire to call upon her assistance. She isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of offering it, either. The Ben Turner she once loved is a memory replaced by a man haunted by past misdeeds.

Which is a shame, because Vixen is arguably the better match-up for Stalnoivolk. Her ability to channel the morphogenetic field through her tantu totem means she can emulate characteristics of the strongest animals. That allowed her to go it alone against Professor Ivo and his androids in her own moment of darkness [Justice League of America #261]. She's also gone toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman in JLA: Classified #3, and Volcano Man during Justice League of America (Vol. 2) #15!

If Bronze Tiger and Vixen can get on the same page, they should be able to match the brute force of Stalnoivolk. If they don't, there's a real danger they'll just get in each other's way! The combined stats favour the Suicide Squad duo, but do not count out the simplicity of Stalnoivolk's power!

The Tape: Bronze Tiger & Vixen Ranking: Bronze Tiger (#79)

What Went Down...

Walking the streets of Vlatava; Stalnoivolk receives a call summoning him back to Red Shadow headquarters. It sufficiently distracts him from the figure leaving the shadows behind him. The mystery man strikes with deadly precision!

The blow to the base of the skull manages to send Stalnoivolk to his knees! The attacker is Bronze Tiger -- and he doesn't believe in true invulnerability!

Stalnoivolk defiantly digs his fingers into the concrete sidewalk beneath him and hurls the rubble at his looming attacker! He manages to catch Bronze Tiger by surprise -- momentarily blinding the martial arts assassin!

The Russian powerhouse rushes to capitalize on his gambit, but the Tiger can sense his movements. He vaults over the hulking super-soldier, buying enough time to regain his vision!

With clear sight on his target - Bronze Tiger responds with a furious flurry of targeted strikes! He hits a knee, the jaw, the back of the skull -- all in an effort to bring the "steel wolf" down!

The Tiger finishes his combo by thrusting both feet at Stalnoivolk's face -- but the Russian super-soldier catches him by the ankles! He's getting annoyed!

Luckily for Bronze Tiger, his Suicide Squad teammate and ex-lover Vixen has been following him. She leaps from the rooftops above and summons the charging power of a wild rhinoceros - targeting Stalnoivolk's steel back!

The super-human sneak attack involuntarily arches Stalnoivolk's back, releasing his grip on Bronze Tiger! The martial artist spills to his back, but wastes no time reorienting to capitalize on the unexpected assist!

Vixen channels a stampeding elephant into her punch as she strikes the wolf of steel's skull for the umpteenth time! At that same moment: Bronze Tiger thrusts his heel into Stalnoivolk's chest at full force!

The Russian finally falls! Invulnerable, but not undefeatable!

The Hammer...
At last we can answer the riddle: How do you defeat an invulnerable Steel Wolf? With the pure power of a stampeding elephant, and the striking ferocity of a tiger, of course!

After deep diving into Black Panther's origins last month; it might seem as if we're keeping up a theme of featured feline fighters. It's mostly a coincidence of what I've been reading lately, and maybe a little bit of influence from the recent Winter Olympic Games. I saw a whole lot of foulplay from Russians during the games. What's with that, any way?

The thought occurs that Bronze Tiger would be a very interesting opponent for Black Panther, should we ever get another round of DC versus Marvel fantasy fights! He's kind of a fusion of the physical discipline and mastery of Bronze Tiger, and the animalistic spirituality of Vixen!

Fans have often posited Black Panther works well as a counterpart for Batman, but there's no shortage of those. Who could resist a "cat fight" between two hand-to-hand masters of Black and Bronze?... Speaking of which: we really will have to get to Bronze Tiger's famous fight with Batman sometime soon!

As noted: I've been busied with the pages of Suicide Squad of late, reliving some of their classic conflicts from the back-half of the memorable run.

The Cold War was basically deemed done & dusted by this time in the series, but with a character as fun as Stalnoivolk, who wouldn't want to go back for another round of Soviet espionage and hostility? Facebook trolls and nudging speed skaters pale in comparison to the man dubbed Steel Wolf!

Regular readers know I love a good, simple second tier villain, and the bushy moustached Stalinist fits the bill perfectly! He's a great no frills kinda bad guy! A WWII relic who almost serves as a Russian counterpart to a 1940s Superman.

Stalnoivolk is a "man of steel" from behind the iron curtain - just as capable of leaping tall buildings, or out-pounding the powerful surf, as early era Supes! Like classic era Superman, he also doesn't do much more than take a good punch - or deliver one! The presentation is more austere, but that's both part of its charm, and the effectiveness of the character as a threat of will.

John Ostrander apparently created Stalnoivolk as a Firestorm villain, but he's arguably at his best as a threatening presence stalking the periphery throughout his Suicide Squad run. The Russian shows up pretty early as a continuation of threads from the first year's mission to Moscow [which went poorly]. 1990's "Phoenix Gambit" may come at a time when Cold War tension was losing topical relevance -- but it was the showdown readers had to have been waiting for!

The fight described is an action-packed moment of triumph for two of The Squad's best heroic characters, but it also shows the breakdown of their one-time romantic relationship.

The modern Bronze Tiger is fairly inseparable from Suicide Squad, but their mutually shared arc also did a lot to move Vixen forward after the final days of the Detroit era Justice League [see; Vixen versus Professor Ivo]. She goes into the Suicide Squad an emotionally broken hero, and comes out of it stronger. An inverse to the Bronze Tiger story, which finds him broken by Sarge Steel's grilling amid the governmental dissolving of the Squad in the previous story arc. It also plays to his earlier days brainwashed by the League of Assassins.

Ostrander [and Yale]'s Suicide Squad is a great time just about anywhere you might drop-in, but as I'm finding out while I fill in gaps, it's much more satisfying read in its entirety!

The accumulation of character development, sub-plots, and high concepts is really fantastic. In many ways, the content feels very relevant to our present world. Yet I'm not entirely sure if the long form spread would lend itself to the more timid aspects of our present pop culture.

If you've enjoyed dipping a toe into Suicide Squad with today's featured fight, you can currently seek out trade paperback collections for most of the original run. Using the link provided [right] will even help support the site at no extra charge to you!

As always, you can find plenty more action by following your curiosity to links littered throughout this post, tags down the bottom, or by plunging into the Secret Archive for an index of every fight organized by publisher, series, and issue number!

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Winners: Vixen & Bronze Tiger
#48 (+31) Bronze Tiger
#69 (+49) Vixen
#845 (new) Stalnoivolk