DUCHESS versus BLUE BEETLE

Battle Lines (DC)
Where: Suicide Squad #13 When: May 1988
Why: John Ostrander How: Luke McDonnell

The Story So Far...
A covert operation in the Soviet Union makes enemies of The Suicide Squad when they're discovered attempting to liberate a famous author imprisoned as a dissident.

The arrest of Thomas Tresser, aka; Nemesis, becomes a world headline when the Soviet government attempts to bait the Squad into a return mission by publicly accusing him of an unprovoked attempted kidnap.

Its bait field-leader Rick Flag is all too happy to take -- igniting internal conflict with Task Force X head Amanda Waller! Faced with the prospect of exposure and a further international incident, she has no choice but to advise the President to commission the Justice League International to stop the rogue invaders!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Lashina 5 (Super-Human)
Intelligence: Blue Beetle 5 (Professor)
Speed: Lashina 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Lashina 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Blue Beetle 2 (Average)
Fighting: Lashina 6 (Warrior)
Energy: Blue Beetle 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Lashina 27 (Metahuman)

The inevitable faceoff between Justice League International and the Suicide Squad goes off not with a bang, but rather a series of precision key matchups.

Duchess gets the fight started when she recognizes JLI's Mister Miracle. She does this because she is in fact Lashina: former field leader of Darkseid's loyal Female Furies. She was betrayed by one of her teammates while on mission to capture Mister Miracle, leaving her stranded on Earth, and in the care of Task Force X.

As Duchess she doesn't have access to her trademark steel whips, instead relying on high-powered customized weaponry like the cannon used against Major Force in a later battle. She also possesses natural attributes of super-strength and durability as a New God raised on Apokolips under Granny Goodness.

These attributes put her in a class above Blue Beetle, but you can never entirely count the resourceful hero!

Ted Kord is the second Blue Beetle, carrying on the legacy of Dan Garrett by using a natural acumen for science and inventing. With the resources of his father's company, Kord Industries, he created The Bug airship, and an arsenal of non-lethal weaponry, including his trademark compressed air gun, and bug drones.

On the surface it looks like Blue Beetle is fighting way above of his weight class, but like Batman or Green Arrow, he's a non-powered hero capable of causing an upset. JLI are some of his sillier days, but will he do it? Let's find out...

The Tape: Duchess Ranking: Duchess (#194)

What Went Down...
Duchess points a finger of confused, accusing recognition at Mister Miracle when Blue Beetle approaches to pacify the situation with a stern warning: "You take on one member of the JLI and you take on them all."

The erstwhile Lashina is all too happy to accept the challenge, but finds Blue Beetle more capable than he first appears. While unsuccessfully petitioning Mister Miracle for help -- he handles the situation with with an improvised arm drag.

Booster Gold finds great amusement in his friends' 'great touch with the ladies' and earns the ire of the slighted New God in the process.

In a fury she rips a door from a nearby prison cell and launches it at the chuckling hero. His futuristic power suit takes care of it though, protecting him from the steel bars while reducing them to tiny pieces of broken and bent steel.

The attack proves to be the inciting blow.

Batman coldly orders his team to pick a foe and watch out for shrapnel. They all peel off with a fight partner, but Blue Beetle's opponent has already chosen him. 

Duchess charges furiously, but the Beetle nimbly vaults over her and insists he doesn't like hitting women. "... And I'm not sure hitting you would do any good!"

He resorts to his gun, holding it to Duchess' head as the melee erupts all around them.

The super-humanly strong Duchess manages to keep Beetle off his feet with a single extended arm, but the pistol packing hero regains his footing and squares off with his target.

He unleashes the full force of his patented non-lethal arsenal -- a high-powered burst of compressed air finds it mark with Duchess' imposing torso, but fails to have any effect on the powerful New God!

A quick switch in tactics unleashes Beetle's secondary dazzle light at point blank range!

The blistering white flash succeeds in temporarily blinding Duchess.

With his opponent staggered and fuming mad -- Blue Beetle closes in to strike with a "patented" karate chop to the neck.

Robbed of her sight -- the New God doesn't even realise her mortal opponent has struck!

Blue Beetle clutches his wrist with sounds of agony suggesting the blow did far more to hurt him than its intended victim!

Duchess quickly turns the tables, grabbing Beetle by the leg to lift him off his feet. He bumps his head on the ceiling before crashing down onto his keister -- still in the grip of a very angry Duchess!

It's only the diplomatic intervention of Martian Manhunter that saves the Beetle from being squashed! He lets out a relieved sigh at the news a truce has been brokered between team leaders, ending the conflict - for now.

The Hammer...

For all intents and purposes it looked as if Duchess was about to take control and finish the fight, but we'll never know for certain. Blue Beetle survives an inconclusive result, with a little help from his friend Booster Gold early on.

The conflict is part of a hotly anticipated confrontation between the Justice League and Suicide Squad: Two teams that were positioned as pillars of the post-Crisis DCU coming out of the reconstruction phase of Legends.

The internationally minded League and their black-ops counterparts were steeped in global political intrigue, but behind their differing approaches to diplomacy with Russia, and other world actors, lies a good old fashioned conflict over morality, superhero ethics, and a general disdain for each others methods.

By nature of The League's operations, Batman was drawn a little closer to the light, but his role as a tactician keeps him to a privileged periphery, exposing him to as few people as possible, while he gathers intelligence, and maintains the mystique of an urban myth bubbling up from Gotham City's shadowy underbelly.

It was from the shadows that the inter-team conflict was set-up when Batman went undercover in Bell Reve Prison to investigate the rumored existence of the villain-based squad. His infiltration ultimately laid bare Amanda Waller and Task Force X personnel, giving us a taste of things to come when The Squad was sent to stop him, and he duked it out with Rick Flag and others.

Batman was already eager to get closer to the situation involving his former ally Thomas Tresser when President Reagan approached the UN sanctioned league, but once it's clear the rogue "American villains" they're working to intercept are the Suicide Squad he's even more motivated to throw them to the dogs.

Face-to-face in a Soviet gulag, the two teams break off into pairs, giving us a rematch between Batman and Rick Flag, and the first fight to breakout from the ensuing skirmish - which is also our featured fight for today.

I would be remiss to overlook our featured players, but what you see is mostly what you get. If you know anything about the JLI era, it's probably Blue Beetle's role as cackling comedy relief. It's evident in his obvious mismatch against the raging Duchess, but I do appreciate that he and his arsenal are still shown to be fairly credible in a fight. There's levity, but this isn't wholesale mockery.

Even so, fans of contemporary DC Entertainment, or the upcoming Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League video game, might not find what they're looking for in this iconic battle between the brands. For one thing: this is a mostly bloodless affair, lacking the apparent contempt DC has developed for its own iconic properties. I can't help but think positioning the heroes as figures for contempt while the players control villains is horribly tone deaf on multiple levels, but I digress...

The original match-up contains the battle within a pleasingly straight-forward single issue, while Justice League International #13 offers an enhancement tie-in that sets up the specifics of the collision with optional relevance. That said, there's also a lot of intrigue accumulated from the details of previous issues of Suicide Squad and JLI, informing a nuanced conflict steeped in concepts and character motivations.

Four of the combatants don't even actually engage in violence! Martian Manhunter and Vixen revisit their recent history together and resolve their opposition with a meaningful embrace, while Captain Atom and Nightshade keep their romantic ties on the down low by faking a mock struggle somewhere off to the side. Tickling is quickly nixed by the squirming Nightshade, but that's all the analysis we have.

You might expect a fight-monger like myself to deride this kind of thing, but I'd take a good story with intuitive use of characters over a lazy fight any day of the week. I actually quite like these characters and don't want to see them murdered in the name of fleeting thrills, or some psychopath's idea of "realism".

This remains a fantastic period of DC Comics with surprisingly enduring relevance and better balance of the things that make superhero comics enjoyable than a lot of more recent examples, or adaptations that are built on this foundation.

I will almost certainly be returning for more individual match-ups, but if you'd like to get ahead of the reading you can find JLI #13 and Suicide Squad #13 both collected in Justice League International Book One: Born Again or Suicide Squad Vol. 2: The Nightshade Odyssey. Use Amazon purchase links provided below and you'll not only get yourself a good deal -- you'll help support the site at no cost!

You can find more related materials to these characters and stories by following links throughout this post, or by infiltrating the Secret Archive for a complete index of every featured fight in order of publisher, series, and issue number.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured well over 650 battles and ranked in excess of 1,000 characters! If you'd like to help me continue creating more entries consider becoming a patron on Patreon. As a thank you you'll unlock extra updates, content, and options to sponsor your favourite topics in future articles.

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Winner: Inconclusive
#162 (+32) Lashina
#480 (new) Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
#650 (+237) Booster Gold [+1 assist]

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

RICK FLAG versus BATMAN

Up Against The Wall (DC)
Where: Suicide Squad #10 When: February 1988
Why: John Ostrander How: Luke McDonnell

The Story So Far...
There's something not quite right about Belle Reve Prison and it's newest inmate: Matches Malone. Neither is what they seem and they're about to collide in a clash of wills!

Malone is in actual fact The Batman: Deep undercover, and intent on exposing what's really going on within the fortress stronghold of the Lousiana prison! Elementary for one of the world's greatest detectives and escape artists!

Having acquired the information he seeks, Batman stages his exit, but not without raising the alarm. Having faced down the female fury of Duchess and the gun scope of Deadshot - freedom is in sight, but the Suicide Squad have one more taskmaster to throw at him! Enter: Colonel Rick Flag!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 5 (Marathon)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnastic)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)


Colonel Rick Flag is a career soldier with ties to the original Task Force X and Suicide Squadron. The exact details of his early military career are unclear, but his unwavering dedication to the job, and years of experience, were evidenced in his role as field leader of a new Suicide Squad.

Created under Amanda Waller's Task Force X; The Suicide Squad forced Flag to accept command of a team of convicted super-criminals who accepted black-ops missions in exchange for an expunged record. His personal recruits included the deprogrammed assassin Bronze Tiger, and cavalier mercenary Deadshot.

We saw Flag bravely provide a guiding hand to Deadshot during the team's first field mission: A takedown of the burning behemoth Brimstone [Legends #3], who was an unstoppable living weapon sent to Earth by Darkseid!

Flag's role was strictly leadership, but thanks to the division's superior intel, his group succeeded where the Justice League of America had failed [Legends #2]! Had the mission required, he could've called upon expert hand-to-hand and firearms combat training. His two offensive options against the likes of Batman!

When it comes to tactical and combative expertise - few are better than The Dark Knight! We've seen Batman put on hand-to-hand clinics with renowned opponents like: Captain America [Marvel versus DC #3], Bullseye [DC versus Marvel #1], The Knight [JLA: Classified #3], Slam Bradley [Catwoman #22], Victor Zsasz [Detective Comics #796], and Killer Croc [Batman #621]. He's even relied upon fighting skills to face super-threats like: Amazo [Batman #637], Captain Marvel [Superman/Batman #4], Scorpion [DC/Marvel: All Access #3], and New God of evil himself - Darkseid [Superman/Batman #42]!

Suffice it to say: Rick Flag is up against steep odds! He does have a tactical advantage in this particular situation, though!

Batman has infiltrated the secret Belle Reve headquarters of Task Force X. To do so, he's already had to run a gauntlet of armed guards, new recruit Duchess (formerly of the Apokolips Female Furies), and old arch-enemy: Deadshot! It's a strategy Bane famously used to run Batman ragged before securing supreme victory - the famous "breaking of The Bat" - in Batman #497!

Granted, Bane's approach involved releasing dozens of the deadliest inmates from Arkham Asylum. That forced Batman into an exhaustive chase across Gotham City. In Belle Reve Prison, his shortlist of opponents are all in close quarters. That means less leg work, but more intense action, and a home field advantage where the lockdown security of the prison could force Batman into an unwinnable situation!

The Math: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...
Leaving a trail of defeated operatives, Batman sprints through the shadows of Belle Reve Prison. Approaching the main gate, he hears an apologetic voice...

Colonel Rick Flag dive tackles Batman from behind! The impact takes his legs out from under him, sending both to the floor.

Flag leans into his fist as he extends over The Dark Knight Detective's shoulder, pressing the advantage. Batman reverses the position, throwing his elbow back directly into Flag's exposed jaw!

The Batman uses the opportunity to rise to his feet. Both men hunching over, the pair of fighters square each other off at breaking distance. They move in!

Batman and Flag both lead with the backside of their left fist. Their forearms collide in a firm stalemate. Batman rockets his right fist into play, but Flag is able to curl his left arm up to block and sweep away from his face!

They lean into each other -- foreheads pressing like the locked horns of two bulls! Flag throws a probing right hand in the rib direction of Batman's body. The Dark Knight opts instead for a fist full of t-shirt. He pulls Flag toward him!

The gambit gives Batman the opening he needs to nail Flag with a devastating uppercut! The blow sends the Colonel sprawling to the ground! As he scrambles on all fours, The Batman leaps - cape extending like a giant living shadow!

Just as it seemed the fight was entering the end game - a volley of gunfire rings above both men's heads! They stop in their tracks!

The shots come from the gun barrel of Amanda Waller! Backed by Duchess, Deadshot, and the Belle Reve Warden and personnel who were taken out earlier - she challenges The Dark Knight!

He questions her methods. She draws parallels. Batman invokes the tax payers who unwittingly fund her squad of unreformed criminals. She trades a secret for a secret: The Batman had to go under deep cover to infiltrate the prison facility. He wasn't wearing gloves the whole time. She'll keep his secret identity if Batman agrees to keep theirs. The begrudging bargain brings Batman's excursion to an end. He's free to leave.

The Hammer...
While it looked as if Batman was getting the upper hand in the fight, we have no choice but to call this battle a draw!

For their role in bringing about a neutral conclusion to the outcome: Amanda Waller, Deadshot, Duchess, bespectacled John Economos, and moustached guard J. Daniel "Murph" Murphy have earned an assist.

I tend to think of the outcome in terms of the first Rocky. Just going the distance with Batman is as good as a win for Rick Flag.

If you thought he'd be happy about his team's intervention in the skirmish, though, you've got another thing coming!

It's one of the interesting dynamics of the Suicide Squad team. Flag may be a career soldier with trouble in his past, but he isn't worlds apart from Batman when it comes to judging the covert employment of his super-villains teammates. He respects Batman, touting The Dark Knight's valor over the self-serving moral ambiguity of his team. An ally 100% committed to his team, even if he doesn't really like them.

Batman is a welcome presence throughout the issue. His break-in under the guise of frequent alias Matches Malone is a lot of fun. The way Amanda Waller uses it to turn the tables -- threatening to uncover Batman's secret identity through his need to go gloveless -- a great power play!

Did Batman really expose himself so carelessly? This isn't quite the invincible, omnipotent planner that Batman would become, but it is a tough ask to accept that he didn't have some kind of plastic fingertip covers, or the like.

His infiltration sets up an action-heavy escape for most of the issue. He runs through the guards, Duchess, and Deadshot, before being jumped by Rick Flag in the featured fight. I'm sure we'll aim to revisit the issue for those other fights. The battle with Duchess (aka; Lashina) is definitely one we'll need to document!

My only real complaint of this milestone issue is that the action seems to get away from penciller Luke McDonnell. It falls apart particularly in the Flag fight, which suffers from indistinct actions in a broken down, blow by blow battle.

It's no doubt the layouts are supposed to show the inching strategy and effort of the two fighters. An attempt to demonstrate Flag's ability to match Batman hand-to-hand, at least for a while. The exact movements are just a little too hard to discern from the artwork. The repeating, thin panels perhaps better replaced with a more dynamic impression of a short fight. I'm not sure.

McDonnell does great work throughout the early issues of Suicide Squad. I think his stylized photo-realism really creates an iconic look for the series. It's of the same cloth as Kevin Maguire's pencils, but lays on heavier shadows and slightly less super-heroic dynamism in scenes. This plays out well when "Matches" is setting his plan into motion in the empty prison. The way Batman slinks down the corridors and toward the reader in a two-thirds page reveal - awesome!

Want to see the whole issue for yourself? Pick up the collected edition by using the Amazon link provided for your convenience to the right! Like the tax dollars that fund the Suicide Squad, your purchase helps keep the wars infinite!

August is Suicide Squad month on Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. Check back for Friday Night Fights and Hero of the Week updates featuring the characters from the movie and beyond! You can find even more features by infiltrating the Secret Issue Index!

Winner: Draw
#1 (--) Batman
#370 (+125) Rick Flag
#95 (--) Deadshot [+1 Assist]
#406 (+61) Amanda Waller [+1 Assist]
#497 (new) Lashina (Duchess) [+1 Assist]
#498 (new) John Economos [+1 Assist]
#499 (new) J Daniel Murphy [+1 Assist]