Today, we look at how John Economos was depicted in the Suicide Squad comic books as opposed to his depiction on the Peacemaker TV series.

This is "Glimpse of a Story.", a feature that looks at the comic book version of a character who was adapted into film or TV as really just a "name/look" only adaptation, as opposed to my "Written in the Book" feature, which features more traditional adaptations of comic book characters and stories.

RELATED: How Peacemaker's Missing Suicide Squad Character Died in DC Comics

WHAT WAS JOHN ECONOMOS' ROLE IN THE DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE?

We first met John Economos, played by Steve Agee, in last year's James Gunn written and directed film, The Suicide Squad. He 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 Ecocnomos and the others then went back to assisting the Squad in killing Starro.

At the end of the film, Economos and Emelia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) 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 Peacemaker series, Economos proved his mettle on numerous occasions, including killing a Super-Gorilla with a chainsaw...

john economos on peacemaker killing a gorilla

Still, he's mostly a comic relief character, just one with some depth. How about the comics, though?

RELATED: How Peacemaker's Harcourt Took Over the Suicide Squad From Waller in the Comics

WHAT WAS JOHN ECONOMOS' ROLE IN THE DC COMICS?

As opposed to being a general support staff member in the comics, John Economos is actually the warden of Belle Reve prison, home of the super criminals that the Suicide Squad uses for its membership and also the secret home of the Squad itself. We first meet John in Suicide Squad #1 (by John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell and Karl Kesel) giving a spiel to reporter Vicki Vale, while of course hiding the Squad's secrets...

The clever part of this interview is that Economos is just challenging enough to Vale to make it seem like the story here IS whether it is ethical to keep a prisoner in a constant state of near unconsciousness...

This makes Vale think that any caginess is over that and not the fact that he is also secretly hiding a whole secret government black ops team consisting of supervillains!

In Suicide Squad #9 (by Ostrander, McDonnell and Bob Lewis), we see him address Waller as "Mrs. Waller" and they don't seem to have that much of a relationship...

However, in the next issue, we see that there is something more there. There obviously are not a whole lot of people in this world who can tell Waller that she's making a mistake, and yet Economos just sort of casually chides her for her unwillingness to work with Colonel Rick Flag, who Waller doesn't trust in part because he was assigned to the Squad with her, so he was not "her" guy...

At the end of the issue, though, after Flag stood up against Batman (who had broken into Belle Reve to investigate the Squad and expose it, until Waller countered his moves by threatening to expose his secret identity, which they could discover from testing the gloves he used as part of his costume as a prisoner to get into the prison), Waller agrees to give Flag the leader gig again...

Economos' state as "just a regular guy" in the middle of all of this craziness was often used to have him be comic relief, like when the Squad went rogue to rescue one of their captured teammates and the team awaited Waller's wrath and John joked about how they probably wouldn't have them killed...

Five issues later, when they were debating adding Doctor Light to the team, John mocked the villain, before tipping his chair over too much...

The key here, though, is that while John embarrassed himself, it was more of the sort of relatable screw-up as opposed to him just being a buffoon. He was a capable guy, but he was still just a guy and sometimes you tip your chair over too much.

In Suicide Squad #22, Waller was dealing with a government fink who planned to use his knowledge of the Squad to blackmail Waller into using the Squad to help get a Senator re-elected. The problem was that Rick Flag went rogue, not knowing Waller was coming up with a plan to deal with things. Of course, she never TOLD Flag any of this, because she doesn't tell anyone anything...except John, of course...

As Waller awaited heading to a government hearing over the Squad, John lightened the mood by noting that the then-current alien invasion (as part of the Invasion crossover) might lead to them all dying before she could be forced to testify...

In the next issue, we see that John actually handles the debriefings, showing that he really is an integral part of the operations of the team...

After some reshuffling, Sarge Steel was put in overall charge of all of the government superhuman groups, including the Suicide Squad and so in Suicide Squad #34 (by Ostrander, Kim Yale, John K. Snyder and Geof Isherwood), John filled Steel in on what was going on after half the team was kidnapped to Apokolips...

Bronze Tiger was putting together a team to go to Apokolips to get their friends back and he had to warn John not to tell Steel about his plans anymore...

Sadly, one of John's closest friends, Flo Crawley, died on the mission on Apokolips and John took it hard...

Nightshade, a former member of the Squad who quit in disgust at Waller's various machinations, agreed to hang out for a bit to help John...

And when she left, you could see that John was such a good guy that even when the Squad members hated Waller, they never held a grudge against John...

Eve Bronze Tiger didn't hold a grudge against John for ratting him out to Steel, even as Tiger went to go face his punishment.

Two issues later (in Suicide Squad #39 by Ostrander, Yale, McDonnell and Isherwood), the government shut the Squad down. John was so sad over Flo's death that he decided he was probably going to get out of the business. Perhaps the best sign of how awesome John was was that throughout the series, he kept Flo's hopes of possibly being with Bronze Tiger romantically alive, and yet, John remained close to Bronze Tiger AND Bronze Tiger's girlfriend on the team, Vixen, to the point where they tell each other they love one another...

That's a really impressive guy to have that kind of loyalty in these situations. Sadly, when the Squad reformed, Waller took it private and Economos has not really been involved in the comics since. Maybe now that the Peacemaker series is such a hit!

If you have any suggestions for future Glimpse of a Story installments, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!

KEEP READING: Was the MCU's Most Controversial Black Widow Scene Based on Marvel Comics?