The Suicide Squad (aka Task Force X) is a secret task force of supervillains that accepts missions too dangerous (or too controversial) for the traditional military. Their existence is top secret.
How secret? So secret that not even President Barack Obama knew about the task force until his second term in office.
Now that he does, however, he's not happy. That much is clear in a new preview for the upcoming Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1, which will release next week just in time for the Suicide Squad film from director David Ayer. The comic features Task Force X director Amanda Waller confronting the president on the need for the Suicide Squad, despite the fact that the group of supervillains is clearly the opposite of America's traditional ideals.
"I don't know how this whole thing got started, director Waller, but the Suicide Squad is not only a betrayal of our ideas ... it's manifestly a bomb waiting to blow up in our faces," Obama says in the comic. "I swore an oath to defend this country. We do not do this."
It's worth noting that President Obama is never mentioned by name in the comic. However, one look at the character in the issue, and it's clear who the current president of the DC Universe is. Not only is he a second-term president who is an African-American (just like President Obama), he also looks almost exactly like the current Commander-in-Chief of the United States. The comic likewise doesn't include the president's real name for legal reasons, but it's obviously intended to be him.
Despite Obama's attempts to shut down the program, Waller eventually convinces the president of the need for Task Force X, under the condition that she assigns Colonel Rick Flagg to oversee Task Force X as an accountable representative of the American people.
"It's a sick, nasty world, and bad things have to be done to protect the American people from things they can never know about," Waller says. "That the Justice League can never know about. That you can never know about."
It's always interesting when comics blend in the fantastic with the real world, and Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 looks as if it pulls it off with flying colors. The full issue is on stands Aug. 3, and Suicide Squad is in theaters Aug. 5.
