Suicide Squad - Amanda Waller's Task Force XI, Explained

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League: No Justice #1 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Josh Williamson and Francis Manapul, in stores now.

For years it was believed that the "X" in Task Force X, the team better known as the Suicide Squad, was simply a letter. However, in 2016's Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, it was revealed that the X was actually the Roman numeral for 10, and that Amanda Waller was also putting together a new team called Task Force XI (11). For the next year and a half, all we knew was Maxwell Lord was a member, but in 2018's Justice League: No Justice, the answers are here.

Essentially, Task Force XI is Waller's group of psychics who are used to take out powerful enemies from afar. In No Justice, she puts them to work against Brainiac in order to gain access to his mind and download the Coluan's memory banks. By attacking the villain, she hopes to gain all the information he has gathered about the universe, this way the US government can be better informed about the multitude of threats out in the cosmos.

Task Force XI proves to be an incredibly effective new weapon for Waller to use against threats too powerful to confront in person. Just as Brainiac is prepared to lead his teams of superheroes and villains against the attack of the Omega Titans, he is overwhelmed. The combined might of a dozen psychics proves to be too much, and Brainiac's head literally explodes. This leaves the new Justice League teams without their tactician, and it could bring doom on the universe at large. In short, Waller may have created a monster -- but more on that later.

Welcome to Task Force XI

The reveal of Task Force XI finally tells us who is on this new team. Given that Lord was recruited into it against his will, even more so than the regular Suicide Squad members are, it's likely that they are all forced into service here. They are hooked up to special psychic enhancers and do not even seem to be conscience during the attack. The entire operation also seems to put them in danger, so it's unlikely any of them enjoy being here. Longtime fans of DC Comics should be familiar with a group like this. During the events of Final Crisis, the US government brought the world's greatest psychics together in order to fight against Darkseid's assault.

The members of Task Force XI are not the superstar villains we see in the Suicide Squad. There are no A-list Batman villains, no world class assassins, and no powerful sorceresses who just starred in a live-action feature film. Instead, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, and Francis Manapul have elected to recruit out of the most obscure places in the DC Universe. Maxwell Lord is front and center, but the rest need something of an introduction.

Among the members of Task Force XI are villains like Hector Hammond, Psimon, Manchester Black, Doctor Destiny, Multi-Man and Psi. Each of these people are criminals who have seemingly been taken into custody and repurposed in order to serve their country. Hammond was recently defeated by Hal Jordan, Psimon was taken out by the Titans, and Manchester Black was defeated by Superman. The rest have not been seen for several years.

There are a few others who don't appear to be villains in the traditional sense of the word, meaning Amanda Waller has either kidnapped or manipulated them into serving in this capacity. Though he was depicted as a villain in the Supergirl TV show, Jemm is typically depicted as the heroic leader of the Red Saturnian race. Dubbilex is a genetically engineered psychic who has allied himself with Superman in the past. Mento is a former superhero with the Doom Patrol whose mental powers caused him to go crazy.

Interesting, one of the team's members appears to be Brainwave Jr., who is actually a former member of Infinity Inc. from the '80s, and is considered to be an ally, though troubled, by the Justice Society.

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What is commonly referred to as Task Force X in the DC Universe, has a long history of dividing resources up depending what the threat happens to be. In previous continuity, Task Force X was initially divided into the Suicide Squad and Argent, which took care of domestic issues during the Cold War. This team previously seen in Justice League: New Frontier, and the recent "Secret History of Task Force X" storyline in Suicide Squad brought it back into continuity.

Amanda Waller has seemingly continued this tradition by splitting up her resources among different squads whenever she needs a new power set on the board. She already has the Suicide Squad under her thumb, but when they are up against an incredibly strong opponent, Waller called in Task Force XL. Debuting in the pages of Damage, this group is primarily made up of heavy hitters like Parasite, Solomon Grundy, and Giganta, who might be better suited against giant destructive monsters.

Now we see that Task Force XI is her own personal team of gifted psychics who are forced into mentally attacking targets that are deemed dangerous by the US government. As effective as this group seems to be in the pages of No Justice, you have to wonder if this is giving Amanda Waller too much power. If she can take out someone as powerful as Brainiac, how long until she brings out a specialized team of radiation users who can directly effect Superman, a group of fire wielders to take out Martian Manhunter, or a specialized force that can compete with the Flash? We all know Waller is dangerous, but she may have finally gone too far.

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