| Amanda Waller | |
|---|---|
 Amanda Waller as depicted inSuicide Squad vol. 5 #8 (February 2017). Art byGiuseppe Camuncoli (layouts), Francesco Mattina (finished art), and Hi-Fi Design (colors). | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Legends #1 (November 1986) |
| Created by | John Ostrander Len Wein John Byrne |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Amanda Belle Waller (née Blake) |
| Species | Human |
| Team affiliations | National Security Agency United States Army Suicide Squad Agency Checkmate A.R.G.U.S. Shadow Fighters Team 7 |
| Abilities |
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Amanda Belle Waller (néeBlake), also known as "the Wall", is a fictional character featured in someAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. The character first appeared inLegends #1 in 1986 and was created byJohn Ostrander,Len Wein, andJohn Byrne.[1] Abureaucrat with a distaste for conventional crime fighting, employs more hardline methods, and is an expert tactician and political operator, the character serves as both an ally and an antagonist to the superheroes of theDC Universe. Waller is often depicted as a non-powered, high-ranking government official and the leader ofTask Force X (known as the Suicide Squad), a secretblack-ops group composed of super-villains, current or former, undertaking high-risk missions as expendable agents for commuted prison sentences in return.[2][3] Additionally, she is also commonly associated with several government agencies such asCheckmate, theDepartment of Extranormal Operations (D.E.O), andA.R.G.U.S.
The character has been adapted into other media on a number of occasions, notably voiced byCCH Pounder in her animated debut in theDC Animated Universe, withPam Grier originating the character in live action on the TV showSmallville. She first appears in film played byAcademy Award-nomineeAngela Bassett inGreen Lantern. Most prominently, she has been portrayed by Academy Award-winnerViola Davis in theDC Extended Universe series of films and TV shows, starting inSuicide Squad (2016), acting as one of the franchise'smost prominent recurring characters. Her portrayal continued into the rebootedDC Universe, beginning withCreature Commandos.
Amanda Waller's earliest appearances were shaped by writersJohn Ostrander andKim Yale in 1987, during the first volume ofSuicide Squad and shortly after being introduced in theLegends crossover storyline.
Amanda Waller was established as a widow who escapedChicago'sCabrini–Green housing projects with her surviving family after her two eldest children and her husband were murdered.[4] Waller excelled in political science and became a congressional aide. During that time, she discovered the existence of the first two incarnations of the Squad. Taking elements from both, she proposed the development of its third incarnation to the White House and was placed in charge upon its approval.
Amanda Waller formed the agency to serve as a small, quasi-independent branch ofTask Force X.[5]Valentina Vostok brought formerNYPD LieutenantHarry Stein into the agency as an operative. Amanda Waller later promoted Stein to the command position and demoted Vostok. Harry Stein would later reorganize the Agency and name itCheckmate.
Waller's tenure as the official of the third Suicide Squad was tumultuous and controversial. Despite many successes, she developed a habit of defying her superiors in Washington to achieve legitimate and personal goals on more than one occasion. The earliest conflict between her and her superiors revolved around the leadership of the Suicide Squad. Although she wanted theBronze Tiger—a martial artist she helped recover after he had been brainwashed by theLeague of Assassins—to lead the team, he was relegated to second-in-command, andRick Flag Jr. was made the leader instead. Waller resentfully presumed the situation to be racially charged, related to her status as a black woman and Bronze Tiger's skin tone. However, the Tiger himself did not believe this was a factor, considering this resulted from mistrust due to the brainwashing imposed upon him by the League of Assassins.
Her relationship with the squad itself was one of mutual dislike. Most of the team's criminal members did not take to Waller's methods (most notablyCaptain Boomerang), and even the team's heroes were often at odds with Waller. Waller's inability to deal and compromise with her troops led toNemesis's departure from the team and the death of a US senator, which indirectly caused the death of Rick Flag Jr. These types of conflicts, however, were not only limited to her superiors and her team but also extended toBatman, who opposed the forming of the Suicide Squad (although he would later help to reform it). Nonetheless, the team remained loyal to her, often choosing to side with her instead of the government.
It was revealed that Amanda Waller kept heroes such asNightshade around for them to act as her conscience. Throughout her first run with the Suicide Squad, her actions became increasingly erratic as she fought to retain control of the squad. This was heightened by the public revelation of the Suicide Squad and Waller being officially "replaced", although her replacement was, in fact, an actor, and Waller remained the team's director.
Even that secret would eventually be revealed, and Amanda Waller would be imprisoned. During this time, the squad also became involved in an interagency conflict in a crossover between theCheckmate andSuicide Squad titles called theJanus Directive.
One of the field missions is against her will, as many members of the squad, Waller included, are forcibly kidnapped and taken toApokolips. This is because team member Duchess remembered her past asLashina of theFemale Furies instead of pretending to be amnesiac and wished to return home with suitable sacrifices. The squad suffers fatalities battling Apokolips' forces, with Waller personally confrontingGranny Goodness. However, the confrontation ended with the deaths of Dr. Light and one of Waller's nieces, and Count Vertigo was near-fatally wounded.
She eventually found herself serving prison time for her pursuit of an organized crime cartel based inNew Orleans called the LOA and killing its leadership, using squad operatives Ravan,Poison Ivy andDeadshot in the process.
Waller is eventually pardoned and released a year later to reorganize the Suicide Squad as a freelance mercenary group at the behest ofSarge Steel to deal with a crisis inVlatava,Count Vertigo's home country. Afterward, the Suicide Squad performed a variety of missions, often treading dangerous political terrain when dealing with Soviet and Israeli interests. Most notably, the Squad helped destroy the plans of a shadow organization to throw Qurac, Israel, and the US into political disarray.
During her renewed tenure with this team, Amanda became closer to her operatives, even accompanying them on their field missions. This allowed Waller and her team to bond more effectively, although she retained her dominant and threatening personality.
Waller quit after a later field mission, in which she took down the immortal dictator of a minor South American island nation. As it turned out, he was mortal, but had immense psychic power. By tricking him, Waller merely provided a form of assisted suicide.
Soon after, Amanda Waller organized theShadow Fighters to confrontEclipso. Again, she encountered Sarge Steel. Her first attempt at a team formed with the assistance of Bruce Gordon and his wife, Mona could have gone better. Most of the group were killed while infiltrating Eclipso's stronghold. Her second attempt with a much larger team had much more success.
During the "Bloodlines" event, the President sentGuy Gardner to fetch Waller from her island 'retirement'. She leads a multi-hero affair that destroys the alien parasites.[6] She rejoined federal service, initially as the Southeastern regional director for theDepartment of Extranormal Operations. She was then promoted to Secretary ofMetahuman Affairs as a member ofLex Luthor's presidential administration.
Lex Luthor's brief tenure in the office leads to Amanda Waller being jailed for a short time before being released by Luthor's successor, Jonathan Vincent Horne, who orders her to take command of the secret agent organizationCheckmate. The organization had been shaken up due toThe OMAC Project debacle and the related murderous leadership ofMaxwell Lord, with whom Waller has had previous history. Waller takes the rank of Black King until the United States and United Nations decide what to do with that organization. In the latter issue of52, Waller is shown commissioning the imprisonedAtom Smasher to organize a new Suicide Squad to attackBlack Adam and his allies. This ends with the death of Squad memberPersuader and the expected public relations turn against the Black Marvel family.
In the revampedCheckmate series set in theOne Year Later continuity, Waller is shown to have been assigned by the UN to serve as Checkmate's White Queen, a member of its senior policy-making executive. Due to her previous activities, her appointment is contingent on having no direct control over operations.[7] Regardless, she continues to pursue her agenda, secretly using the Suicide Squad to perform missions in favour of American interests[8] and blackmailingFire.[9] It is also implied that she may have betrayed a mission team in an attempt to protect her secrets[10] and facilitated an attack on Checkmate headquarters for her gain.[11]
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She is then in charge of OperationSalvation Run, an initiative involving the mass deportation of supervillains to an alien world. When the rest of Checkmate discovered this, she was forced into resigning as White Queen in exchange for their delay in revealing what the US government was doing.[11] She continues to run the Suicide Squad and has been implanted with nanotechnology to allow her to controlChemo during missions directly.[11]
During theSuperman/Batman storyline "K", it is revealed that Waller has hoardedKryptonite and used it to power an anti-Superman group called the Last Line and aDoomsday-like creature codenamed "All-American Boy", who has Kryptonite shards growing out of his body. All-American Boy (real name: Josh Walker) was deceived into an experiment using Kryptonite to bond cell scrapings taken from Doomsday to a human host, battles Superman, and devastatesSmallville. With the help of Brannon, the Last Line's leader, Batman locates Josh's parents, who convince him to stop. Waller is forced to pay towards repairing Smallville in return for her dealings in the AAB project to remain secret. 'Last Line' itself rebels against Waller because of her deceptions.[12]
In the eight-issue series ofSuicide Squad: Raise the Flag, Waller is again seen leading the Suicide Squad at some point when the General returns to Earth after his exile and is promptly drafted into the Squad with unique explosive implants grafted into his arm and brain to make him compliant with Waller's demands. Here, she uses technology devised byCliff Carmichael to gain a measure of control over Chemo, allowing her to use it for the Squad's benefit. Rick Flag is revealed to have survived the events at Jotunheim and was returned to Waller, who admitted to him Rick Flag Jr. was never anything but an alias, and that he was a brainwashed soldier remade into Flag to serveWade Eiling's ends.
She leads, as Chemo, an attack on a Dubai supercorp intending to release a deadly virus. However, Carmichael, with Eiling and part of her team, betrays her as part of Eiling's plan to benefit from the release of the virus, and she is nearly killed when Eiling orders a compliant Flag to use her pen, a transmitter, to detonate her explosive implant. Instead, Flag, tricking him, detonates Eiling's own, releasing her and rejoining the Squad, refusing the chance of everyday life.
She later attempted to forcibly return several members of theSecret Six (Bane and Deadshot) to the Suicide Squad. When her plan backfired due to the events ofBlackest Night and the defiance of the Six, she was shot by Deadshot and privately revealed toKing Faraday to be their new secret leader, Mockingbird. When Faraday questioned the need to be informed of the situation and even the need to bring the Six under the banner of the Squad when she already controlled them, Waller merely shrugged it off. Faraday then questions Waller, "does your right hand even know what your left hand is doing?". Waller responds with, "Only on a need-to-know basis", implying that Faraday is also on a "need-to-know basis."
InThe New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Amanda Waller is shown to be in direct command of theSuicide Squad, choosing its members and having the final say over when and if their implanted explosives are detonated. It is revealed she requested command of a unit she could send to their deaths without regret after an operation she was involved in resulted in the deaths of all other squad members, including several she had personally recruited. She was also involved withTeam 7 in some capacity while serving in theUnited States Army as aCaptain, which led to her temporarily leaving the spy business. Also, this version of Amanda Waller is re-imagined as a young, thin woman in contrast with her original design.
Amanda Waller later formed the Justice League of America, which is separate from the main Justice League, where she is shown as the Director ofA.R.G.U.S.[13] She recruited James Gordon Jr., who was alive despite his apparent death at the hands of his sister Barbara while saving their mother. However, it is shown that James Jr. only agrees to join as he is in love with Waller.
During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Amanda Waller is shown atBelle Reve trying to getBlack Manta to join the Suicide Squad whenDeathstorm andPower Ring infiltrate the prison.[14] Waller later contacts Deadshot to get the Suicide Squad back together.[15] Later clues point to an imposter Waller causing trouble behind the scenes.[16]
Amanda Waller returns to her original design with theDC Rebirth initiative. WhenBarack Obama confronts her about Task Force X, she convinces him the Suicide Squad needs to exist to deal with threats neither the President nor theJustice League can be aware of while conceding to nominate a non-criminal field leader to carry out her directives during missions and keep the convicts in line. She visitsRick Flag inGuantanamo Bay, where he had been imprisoned for disobeying direct instructions to save his teammates, and tries to convince him to work alongside supervillains for the greater good; she succeeds, releases him, and makes him the field leader of Task Force X.[17]
In issue #11 ofSuicide Squad (2016), as a part of DC Rebirth, Amanda Waller is shot and killed. Her death is confirmed in issue #12. However, issue #15 revealed that she faked her death with the help of Deadshot, who fired a bullet at her heart, and Enchantress, who magically moved the bullet to the most reparable part of the human heart. Because of this, she can use Deadshot against the villain Rustam and the international shadow organization known only as the People. DuringInfinite Frontier, she went toEarth 3 after herSuicide Squadfought against theCrime Syndicate of America in order to rule that world.
After the events ofDark Crisis, where the Justice League is resurrected, Amanda Waller approaches the Council of Light with a proposal to target metahumans for the danger they pose to humanity.[18][19] After the events ofKnight Terrors, the world fears superheroes and Waller gains more power. She steals the Nightmare Stone andDoctor Fate's helmet to create Doctor Hate.[20]
InTitans: Beast World, Beast Boy transforms into aStarro to battle the Necrostar, after which Doctor Hate erases his memory and causes him to spread mutagenic spores around the world. Amanda Waller andChunk destroy Beast Boy's body, but the Titans recover his spores and use them to reconstitute his body. In the aftermath, Waller takes control of the Hall of Justice and frames the Titans for the events.[21]
It is revealed that Amanda Waller started to develop hatred for metahumans because a serial criminal known as Candyman killed her daughter and husband. The Crisis events as well as her experience in Earth 3 made her jaded and cruel. InAbsolute Power, Waller works withBrainiac Queen andFailsafe to build an army ofAmazos known as Task Force VII and drain the powers of metahumans.[22][23][24] Waller is ultimately defeated and sentenced to life imprisonment in Belle Reve, whereNia Nal manipulates her memories to prevent her from accessing crucial information that can be used against the Justice League.[25]
Not long after, Nia Nal,Jon Kent andJay Nakamura discover that Waller has somehow vanished while in prison. The three are forced into an uneasy alliance withCatman,Deadshot, andBlack Alice to find Waller and reclaim her locked knowledge, forming a new incarnation of theSecret Six.[26]
Waller is considered a capable analyst and leader whose knowledge inespionage, management skills, and ability to make difficult moral decisions makes her a prime candidate in roles of leadership within government agencies.[27] Often employing ruthless tactics and willing to sacrifice almost anything for an agenda, she is also an intimidating figure, is often highly influential politically,[28][29] and specializes in dealing with super-powered beings.[27] Despite her unassuming frame, she is proficient in hand-to-hand combat and firearms.[2]
Amanda Waller appears in media set in theDC Extended Universe (DCEU) andDC Universe, portrayed byViola Davis.
Amanda Waller appears in theBatman: Arkham franchise:
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