Today, we take a look at the comic book version of Harcourt and how she took over the Suicide Squad from Amanda Waller (and how Waller got it back). Spoilers for last year's Suicide Squad film, the Peacemaker TV series and the Suicide Squad comic book.
This is technically a new feature called "Glimpse of a Story." I say technically because I retroactively changed some older features so that they would be in this category, as well. You see, I had a feature called "Follow the Path," where I spotlight changes made to comic book characters that are based on outside media, as well as characters who entirely came from outside media. Nowadays, there are so many comic book films and TV series out there that we can spotlight examples of TV and film adapting specific and less famous comic book stories to other media (so no "Spider-Man lifts up debris" or stuff like that, I mean more obscure stuff). I called that feature "Written in the Book." But I was thinking that a lot of times, characters are only VAGUELY adapted, and it is hard to really call them "adaptations" at all. Like a recent one I did on White Dragon in the comics. The similarities to the one on the hit Peacemaker series are really slight (basically the visuals, that there is a Suicide Squad connection and that the guy was a neo-Nazi), so now we have this feature, where I spotlight the comic book version of a character who was adapted into film or TV as really just a "name/look" only adaptation.
That, of course, brings us to the case of Emelia Harcourt.
WHAT IS EMELIA HARCOURT LIKE IN THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE?
We first met Emelia Harcourt, played by Jennifer Holland, in last year's James Gunn written and directed film, The Suicide Squad. She was one of Amanda Waller's operatives who help direct the Squad in the field...
Later in the film, when the Squad members decide to stop Starro from taking over Corto Maltese, Waller wants them killed for disobeying her orders of just walking away. She even tries to blow up the bombs in her head, but one of Waller's operatives, Flo Crawley (played by Tinashe Kajese), knocked Waller unconscious and Harcourt and the others then went back to assisting the Squad in killing Starro...
At the end of the film, Harcourt and John Economos (Steve Agee) are punished for their role in the mutiny (since they didn't actually hit Waller, they were not arrested) by being forced to work with Peacemaker on a mission...
During the recent Peacemaker series, Harcourt grew to become a leader of the team...
When last we saw her, she was recovering from being severely wounded during the final battle of their mission. Okay, that's how Harcourt is in the films/TV series? How about in the comics, though?
WHAT IS EMELIA HARCOURT LIKE IN THE DC COMICS UNIVERSE?
We first met Emelia Harcourt in 2016's Suicide Squad #2 (by Rob Williams, Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair), as an NSA agent who uses the Suicide Squad for a mission to get to a cosmic object to keep it from the Russians...
We learn in the next issue that the Russians are operating their own version of the Suicide Squad under the direction of someone named "Karla," but the Squad succeeded in getting the cosmic object that they were looking for, which was a Phantom Zone projector keeping General Zod prisoner.
We see that Harcourt is willing to use General Zod as a weapon...
After the events of the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad miniseries, Amanda Waller was in a bit of a rough spot with the government...
So Harcourt took control of the Suicide Squad in Suicide Squad #11 (by Rob Williams, John Romita Jr., Richard Friend and Dean White)...
This Suicide Squad series was set up in a novel way where there were two stories in each issue (initially so that Jim Lee could do the book), but while originally the back-ups were more traditional back-ups, they soon just became sort of distinct chapters in the main narrative, and in the second part of Suicide Squad #11 (by Williams, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira and Adriano Lucas), Amanda Waller is murdered...
Deadshot turned out to have been hired by the bad guys to kill Waller. The Squad member known as Hack, though, figured out that there was a traitor in the Suicide Squad and that it was Harcourt all along (as shown in Suicide Squad #13 by Williams, Barrows, Ferreira and Lucas)...
Although it was Captain Boomerang (who had temporarily cut a deal with the bad guys) who actually kills Hack...
However, things get crazy when Waller shows up alive in Suicide Squad #14 (by Williams, Barrows, Ferreira and Lucas)...
It turns out that Deadshot killed her on her own orders, with the plan that the Enchantress would then bring her back to life...
In Suicide Squad #17 (by Williams, Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, LeBeau Underwood and Tomeu Morey), Harcourt is finally revealed as a bad guy as she plans to blow up the Squad headquarters...
Waller, though, actually made her THINK that she could blow up Belle Reve because she thought that she would make a connection with her boss, "Karla," and she was right...
She taunted Waller with the fact that Waller likely assumed that Harcourt killed Hack, but she didn't. She was about to tell Waller when, of course, Boomerang then murdered Harcourt...
So that it for the comic book journey of Emelia Harcourt, Russian spy who works for the mysterious "Karla," but she at least DID briefly take over control of the Suicide Squad from Waller, which is more than most people can say. The DCEU version of Harcourt is cooler, though, I think.
If you have any suggestions for future Glimpse of a Story installments, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!