WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Suicide Squad #10, on sale now from DC Comics.
The Suicide Squad has always featured the deadliest supervillains and antiheroes of the DC Universe. However, Task Force X Director Amanda Waller has drastically upped the ante during the Infinite Frontier era. Extending the Squad's mission to encompass the entire reborn multiverse, Waller has steadily been recruiting some of the most powerful characters Task Force X has ever seen. However, Waller's latest recruit is likely a step too far.
Waller's recent ambitions led her to send the Suicide Squad everywhere from Earth-3 to take on the Crime Syndicate of America to the fiery depths of Hell. The Squad's latest mission saw them investigate the ruins of the Green Lantern Corps' headquarters on Oa, leading them into a cosmic showdown with relatively new Green Lantern Jo Mullein.
As the Suicide Squad endures the otherworldly horrors on the other side of the DCU, Suicide Squad #10 (by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Dexter Soy, Marcelo Maiolo, Allen Passalaquia and Wes Abbott) has the team recruit the true target of their deep-space mission: Black Hand.
In the Sciencells where the Green Lantern Corps locked away the DCU's most nefarious criminals, the Suicide Squad finds Black Hand, presumably wearing a power-dampening costume to prevent his escape. And while the Suicide Squad is able to securely extract Black Hand and place him in stasis for the long voyage home, they have willingly drafted the worst member in Task Force X's shady history.
While Black Hand was a longtime enemy of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, he has recently become a threat to the entire DCU. Working in service to Nekron, the personification of Death, Black Hand headed the Black Lantern Corps, an army of undead monsters hunting the living for their raw emotional energy. This came to a head in the 2009 crossover event Blackest Night (by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis) where Black Lanterns nearly overwhelmed the DCU's superhero community.
The legacy of Blackest Night and the Black Lantern Corps has loomed heavily over the DCU in recent years. During Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's 2020 crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal, an undead Batman became a Black Lantern and commanded the dead to rise against the Batman Who Laughs. At the start of the Infinite Frontier era, Roy Harper returned as a Black Lantern.
Even before recruiting Black Hand, Waller had her own hands full, heading up an iteration of the Suicide Squad that steadily plotting against her, especially long-time members Rick Flag and Peacemaker. With Black Hand now at her command, Waller has a supervillain capable of plunging the entire DCU into eternal darkness, but she may have inadvertently obtained the instrument of her own destruction along with all life in the universe.
The battle lines are forming against Waller and her leadership over the Suicide Squad, and further conflict is a near certainty. Black Hand may be the ultimate wild card that spells doom not only for Task Force X but one that could trigger a second Blackest Night. Once an agent of the federal government, the Suicide Squad's worst recruit has effectively made Waller the most dangerous woman in the DCU.