Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Loose Lips," a story appearing in DC: Love is a Battlefield by Mark Russell, Nik Virella, Romula Fajardo, Jr. and Wes Abbott on sale now.
Over the last few months, DC released several anthologies themed around characters and real-world holidays. This week, they continue the trend with the DC: Love is a Battlefield special in which some of the publisher’s hottest items and oddest couples get together in the spirt of Valentine's Day. Featured in the anthology is an eight-page tale about DC’s favorite shady government agent Amanda Waller on a date with the chief of the Daily Planet, Perry White.
The “couple” chat over coffee about the strangeness of their even being in the same room together, especially when the room in question is adorned with red and pink hearts in celebration of the holiday. Consummate professionals, Waller and White move past the oddity of their meeting and set their terms: White came to seek help for a friend off the record while Waller uses a signal dampener that blocks all digital recording. White explains to Waller that Lois Lane went missing while reporting on the coup in San Jacinto… a coup that he insists involves Task Force X , aka the Suicide Squad. Waller denies any involvement in the events, although a cut scene reveals that the Squad is actively involved.
White challenges Waller's claims with a single USB drive. He claims to have photographic evidence of Task Force X in San Jacinto, sent to him by Lois before she disappeared. As Waller expresses her incredulity at the thought, a waitress arrives and offers tp bring the “cute couple” a holiday drink.
Although Waller suggests White would be safer not knowing anything about Task Force X, the reporter still insists that she help him. In his furor, White spills coffee all over himself. The waitress arrives to help White clean himself up and the chief leaves his USB drive on the table. Waller takes the interruption to check with her one-man surveillance team, Modem, if there’s anything on White’s drive. Modem informs Waller that the photos are a bluff, and that the Planet has nothing on the Squad.
Before they part ways, White and Waller pass in the middle of the restaurant to engage in one last, heated shouting match. As things reach a fever pitch, the two end up falling into each other’s arms in a kiss. White shuffles away and it is revealed that Deadshot had a bead on the reporter the whole time. Waller calls Deadshot off, claiming that White is harmless...and not a bad kisser.
But White had his own inside reporter: Lois was disguised as the waitress the whole time. Armed with an analog cassette recorder, White and Lois caught Waller’s chatter with Modem and add another piece of evidence to their expose on Task Force X’s illegal activities.
While the contrast between Waller’s and White’s politics is present, the story itself is played mostly for laughs. Although White and Waller aren’t the same caliber of couple as Batman and Catwoman, this anthology could be a great way to test the chemistry of a very unlikely couple.
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