These are the last three issues in my Suicide Squad run before a hole appears. I’m getting pretty close to owning the entire run, but the problem with getting the issues I have left is that they are the ones that feature early Oracle appearances and are therefore hard to come by on the cheap. Well, that and the last issue, which has been notoriously hard to find.

Anyway, here we have a stand-alone issue with the Squad on a mission and wanting Mirror Master to go with them along with Captain Boomerang; the problem, however, is that Captain Boomerang has been posing as Mirror Master and committing crimes so that he can make some money while also getting his sentence commuted. What happens, therefore, in issue #20, is a plot right out of a sitcom or the last act of Mrs. Doubtfire: Boomerang has to be in the same place as Mirror Master and is constantly switching costumes. It’s a nice little break between the seriousness of the Jihad storyline and the next one involving the 1988 presidential campaign and assassination attempts.

Issues #21 and 22 continue Amanda Waller’s machinations and mainpulations with her using Checkmate to get a one-up on a Congressman and tie up her loose ends. Meanwhile, there are characters dealing with the affects of failures on missions. Rick Flag is still coping with what happened in the Doom Patrol special as well as what happened in Millennium, and this is piled on top of issues his father had with survivor’s guilt.

Nightshade, who is now looking pastier, confronts him and then runs into June (Enchantress in her civilian form), who wants her powers back and shoots her to get them, thinking they’ll be released. A guard shoots June and she’s taken into custody. While in recovery, Nightshade tells Waller that Flag is in no condition to go on the mission she’s sending him on and Waller’s all, “What mission?”

That mission is to assassinate the congressman from the beginning of the issue because he and a senator were going to expose the Squad. The senator is his next target and issue #22 is where Waller has to send the Squad after him. It winds up being Deadshot who confronts Flag while he’s going after the Senator and Deadshot is not in good condition either, at least based on an editor’s note about his recent miniseries (which is on my want list). Lawton kills the senator and then decides on “suicide by cop”, which is unsuccessful.

In the end, Flag goes into hiding, the story about the Squad gets front page news, and there is an alien invasion (and a crossover) on the horizon. It’s a really tight two-issue storyline, and while I’m bummed that I have to skip an issue, I’m going to continue my reading here and see whether the series continues to hold up as well as it has.

Keep, Sell, Donate, or Trash?

Keep.