Warning: The following contains spoilers for Suicide Squad #8 by Tom Taylor, Daniel Sampere, and Adriano Lucas, on sale now.
The current Suicide Squad series has dropped more than a few bombs during its short run. A few issues ago, writers revealed that one time Blue Beetle and all-around nice guy Ted Kord has actually become a megalomaniac supervillain behind the Task Force X program. Suicide Squad #8 details Ted Kord's plan as well as provide the origin story of one of its newer heroes, The Aerie.
Having regrouped on El Rucio, the Suicide Squad sifts through the information they downloaded from the Squad's hard drives. The heroes realize that Ted Kord is behind everything and his plans are worse than they first thought. No longer the good guy, Ted Kord has been on a "massive global power grab." His ultimate goal is the island of Badhnisia, which Kord discovered is sitting on top of the world's largest oil deposit. Tapping the island's oil reserves would result in the destruction of the island.
The Aerie, one of the newer anti-heroes on the Suicide Squad, was created by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. They first appeared in the first issue of the current Suicide Squad run. Suicide Squad #8 provides a deeper background for The Aerie, who once lived on the island of Badhnisia. The Aerie explains how the discovery of the massive oil reserve put Badhnisia on the global map. Despite how much money could be made from selling the oil, The Aerie explains that they are an island "surrounded by a rising sea." If they were to start drilling for that oil, the island would be destroyed.
Five years ago, The Aerie was kidnapped from their home. Aerie's mother was the president of Badhnisia and the kidnapper said they would be returned only if their mother agreed to trade talks about the oil under the island. She refused the kidnapper's demands "and chose her country over her child." The Aerie never blamed their mother's decision. The Aerie explains, any other decision "would have been a betrayal of everything she taught me." No longer having Aerie as a bargaining chip, their captors sold Aerie to the Post-Human Project group. This organization performs experiments on people in attempts to create superpowered human beings.
The test subjects of the Post-Human Project have various powers and features. The Aerie wound up with wings, Wink is able to teleport, and the T.N.Teens, appear to be human bombs. After Kord takes T.N.Teen Lola, The Aerie, Wink, and the remaining T.N.Teen Javier make a daring escape.
Wink is unable to teleport at great distances, so the plan is to teleport as far as she can, and then The Aerie will use their wings to fly them away. Wink and The Aerie develop a relationship while captive on the island and their feelings for each other become apparent as they kiss for the first time after narrowly escaping. Up to this point, the name of The Aerie is still unknown. In fact, The Aerie's real name isn't even known. Wink calls them "The Aerie" after they swooped down and caught Wink before they crashed into the ocean. This prompted Wink to call them "The Aerie," which means "above it all... and safe."
The Aerie is one of the newer characters in the DC Universe and promises to play a big part in the taking down of Ted Kord.