Today, we see how the Suicide Squad tore Rick Flag's whole IDENTITY apart.
In Abandoned an' Forsaked, we examine comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent).
The Suicide Squad goes back a lot further than you might know, as the team first debuted in The Brave and the Bold #25 (by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito). The concept of the series was that there was a team, Task Force X, that was called in for the craziest, most outlandish missions that the government had. They were dubbed the "Suicide Squad" due to how dangerous their missions were.
They were led by Rick Flag, a fighter pilot from World War II, who was the only survivor of his bomber squadron...
That was also the deal with the team's medic, Karin Grace, who was the only survivor of an ambulance plane (the last two people left after the crash was Karin and her lover, Steve, who realized that he was forcing the wreckage of the plane that they were on to sink and so he intentionally let go of the wreckage so that Karin could survive). In other words, these were some DAMAGED people. The funny thing, though, is that Kanigher also had Karin and Rick have this sort of weird romance where they would refuse to get together because of their devotion to the team, so there was ALL sorts of pathos involved and yet Kanigher really didn't seem all that interested in exploring it. It was kind of weird.
Oh, and there was also physicist Jess Bright and astronomer Dr. Hugh Evans on the team, but let's be frank, no offense, Jess and Hugh, no one cares about you.
Years later, Rick showed up again working alongside the other heroes on Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane's SUPER meta-fictional team, the Forgotten Heroes (basically, heroes who used to have their own features and then lost them).
Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened and John Ostrander relaunched the Suicide Squad for modern times. He wanted to keep Rick Flag on the team, but in 1986, you couldn't very well use a World War II vet on your team, so in Secret Origins #14 (by Ostrander, Luke McDonnell and Dave Hunt), that tragic World War II story was transplanted to Rick MONTGOMERY FLAG...
Ostrander cleverly put the original Flag at the head of another old Kanigher team set in World War II, which were now dubbed the "Suicide Squadron," as a forerunner to the modern Suicide Squad.
Flag then had a son, Rick Flag Jr...
Rick's mom died saving him from a car accident and then his dad died destroying the War Wheel (as you do). Rick entered the military in honor of his father and so in the Post-Crisis continuity, it was now the JUNIOR who led the original Suicide Squad...
It was also Junior who was on the Forgotten Heroes (how odd was it that they survived into the Post-Crisis continuity?).
And then years later, led the newer, super villain version of the team, as well...
A while back, I explained how Rick Flag Jr. sacrificed himself to destroy one of the main villains of the Squad (after he got messed up in the head by Karin Grace coming back into his life, turning out to be a traitor, then sacrificing herself to redeem herself, then Batman telling him how disgusting the Squad is and then some government dirtbag trying to blackmail Amanda Waller over the Squad) but then he turned out alive in the 2007 miniseries, Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag.
When Flag had "died," General Wade Eiling had been his commander before the Squad and the guy who brought him on board. Eiling had long since transferred his mind into the body of the indestructible android known as the Shaggy Man as the new supervillain known as the General (Eiling was dying of cancer), as you do. Well, while looking through his files, Amanda Waller discovered a shocking fact which she then told Rick himself in Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #4 (by Ostrander, Javier Pina and Robin Riggs). You see, there never WAS a Rick Flag Jr.! He was a soldier who was brainwashed into BELIEVING he was Rick Flag Jr!
Rick confronted Eiling about in the following issue, but he discovered that Eiling had also put in a mind control back door in "Rick"s mind...
Eiling could now force Rick to do anything for him, something that Eiling planned to keep in his backpocket as Waller had enlisted Eiling to serve as part of the Suicide Squad...
However, in the final issue of the series (by Ostrander, Pina and Riggs), Rick outfoxed Eiling (by blocking his ears so that he couldn't hear Eiling's trigger word) and blew the General's brain up...
Of course, since the General was in an indestructible android body, it was more of a symbolic gesture, but still, while the General couldn't be KILLED, he COULD be HURT, so at least blowing up his brain messed him up a lot.
Rick was then confronted by the chance to meet his "Real" family as Anthony Miller, who were told that their son had been killed in combat...
He turned down the chance. He was Rick Flag and he will ALWAYS be Rick Flag....
Dark stuff.
I assume that Ostrander waned to finally break Flag away from the set point in time of his father having been a World War II veteran. Ostrander had previously made it a point to not make Flag a Vietnam War vet, but having a father who fought in World War II would have eventually made things awfully weird for Rick, so I get the idea behind dropping the connection, but I dunno, I think I would have gone with just removing the World War II connection myself (give it to a grandfather and just keep pushing it back as need be).
Thanks to my pal, Alan, for suggesting this one!
If anyone else has a suggestion for Abandoned an' Forsaked, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!