Suicide Squad (2019-) #9 was the team's confrontation of Ted Kord.

[thanekos]

#8'd had them - Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Zebra-Man, and the conscripted Revolutionaries - realizing that the CEO of Kord Industries wanted his own private empire in the South China Sea, fueled by the oil under the nation of Badhnisia.

The Squad, whom Kord had tried to use to achieve that, made their way to where he'd set himself up: Anshea of the Bavalan Islands.

They found him.. tied up.

Tied up and guarded by " Superman? "



" It's okay. It's over.

" I know what happened here. I know how Ted Kord manipulated us, and you. I'm very sorry for what you've been through.

" And I promise he will answer for his crimes. "

The Squad tried to grasp the situation before them.

" Now you can stand down. " Superman reassured them.



(Heroes accorded " legitimacy " by the status quos of their world will never be able to offer anything more than pallative solutions to the evils baked into that status quo.

They - at least, those who create and consume them - will always find it hard to consider something even slightly beyond those solutions without thinking of any consequent cascading effects on the rest of the status quo, recontextualizing those as insurmountable roadblocks, and then hagiographing what positive effects they can achieve in the current status quo to provide themselves personal justification.)



(That's Lola from the Aerie's story in #8 - Ted's plan, apparently, was to blow up Badhnisia with her powers to get at the oil underneath.)



Deadshot raised his head.



" Here we go. "



" Oh, right. X-ray vision. "

He took the magazine from Superman.

" Yeah, that's what I thought.. "



Something punched a hole in the magazine.

Deadshot stared down at the hole in the chest.



(The story revealing that Ted isn't truly the man behind it all is a bit disappointing, thanks to the good job it did making the reader think that he actually was that.

The story revealing that it's actually Black Mask works just as well, though, and not just because it follows from the Year Of The Villain story with the character that Tom Taylor wrote.

The reveal here also works because it supersedes the already effective Ted reveal, that a character who is both " hero " and " CEO " was subverting his own government to destabilize a foreign one for his own profit - something that many readers in the present day will easily accept.

Not only does it reverse that reveal, assuaging some readers' feelings about a character they like, it also assigns the role of the selfish geopolitical manipulator to someone who resonates with it on a more personal level - an arguably lizard-brained dull brute born to wealth and power, who came into his own when he went into explicit crime.)



(Pagecount's 7 and a bit more than 1/4th of 22.

Art's Bruno Redondo, colors're Adriano Lucas, and letters're Wes Abbott.

Issue #10 came out this week.)

Comments

[blueprintstyles]

Am I the only one getting tired of "Superman protects the status quo!" line? His main villain is a billionaire and continuously butts heads with the government.

[shakalooloo]

Yeah, but these are villains who are often on the wrong side of Superman. Of course they're going to have a low opinion of him, since they breach the status quo all the time.

[bravest_spinja]

Well, once you become left-wing enough (And I would say one has to be fairly along on the axis to believe an individual should use physical force to upend a nation-state) then you would likely believe the truly dark acts committed by CEOs, the military, law enforcement, etc. are not subverting the system, but merely enjoying the perks the system was engineered to provide. "That's not my America/This is America" and all that.

[scorntx]

Yay, Ted's not actually evil!

Was really worried there.

[cainofdreaming]

"Yay, Ted's not actually evil!" Just falling to his death from umpteenth floor. Yay?

[hotfoot]

I mean, I don't believe Deadshot's dead for good and he just took one in the chest and the head and is falling from the same height.

That and I think in the nearly 100 years of comic books, death by falling has stuck, like, five times, if that?

[cricharddavies]

He does not fall to his death at this time.

[beyondthefringe]

I'm thankful Ted's not evil.
But at the same time, I find the revelation that it's Black Mask to be less than exciting. I guess because I don't like Black Mask.

[dan_ingram]

I miss the nonchalant Deadshot.

That Deadshot? He wouldn't have done a Sherlocke Holmes impersonation, and gotten shot. He would have noticed the clues, then riddled 'Superman' with bullets, reasoning the real one would be fine.

[icon_uk]

That does sound a lot more Deadshot-y

[mastermahan]

I third that as being far more in-character.