WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Suicide Squad #3 by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Marcelo Maiolo, Wes Abbott, on sale now.
The new Suicide Squad assembled at the beginning of the current "Infinite Frontier" era is certainly living up its name. The first two issues saw the loss of multiple members who are already being replaced in the third issue. But as the two newest members, Keymaster and Branch, become acclimated to their new team, they learn the hard way that the team's moniker is more than just a name.
The team roster was quickly refilled after a disastrous mission to free Talon from Arkham Asylum, replacing its lost members with two additions. Keymaster is a young man with the ability to create single-person portals, and Branch is a man whose body has become more plant than human, with the ability to extend his limbs and hear plants. While these new recruits are still green , they were still critical components to the squad's next mission: the capture of the teen hero, Bolt.
Neither of the new recruits were completely on-board with being Waller's attack dogs. Keymaster was arrogant and hotheaded and Branch was a mess of anxiety, identifying more with being an accidental experiment than a villain. But it was Branch who lit the fuse leading to even more deaths. Recognizing that Keymaster's powers might be able to get them outside of Waller's detonation range, he suggested that Keymaster use his powers to grant them a way of escape.
Unfortunately, Branch vastly underestimated how selfish Keymaster was. The other villain decided to literally take the idea and run, foolishly announcing that he would try to escape. Waller responded to the threat by activating the bomb implanted in his body, complicating the plan to capture Bolt in the process.
Things got even more hectic from there when Peacemaker decided to take out his frustration on Branch for giving Keymaster idiotic idea to run in the first place. But Branch received a far kinder fate than his fallen squadmate, only being knocked out by a single blow. His treatment though, as well as what happened to Keymaster is indicative of an alarming pattern beginning to form in the newest iteration of the Suicide Squad.
Waller has made it clear that she is tired of losing. Now she seems to be willing to take even more extremes with her covert-ops team than ever before, liberally throwing them into highly dangerous situations that would get them killed. And yet, even though the team's members are dropping like flies there appears to be a pattern to the madness.
Every mission thus far has had members on the team that died. But these people were more side characters than ones of significance, some even being new creations, such as Keymaster or Branch. And during each mission, they were tasked with acquiring a key individual that would later join the Suicide Squad. The first one was Talon and if Future State is any indication, Waller intends to capture Bolt to force her to join the squad.
If this is really is the beginning of her attempt to build her own Justice League, then it is very likely that Waller is just throwing bodies at a problem to acquire the right people. Anyone who dies that isn't a part of her plans is of no consequence to her. If so, then there will likely be more dead squad members in the immediate future before Waller fills out her ideal roster for the new Suicide Squad.
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