Amanda Waller: Origins?

Spoilers for Suicide Squad #1 below, although you've probably already read them already by now.

First noticed by the folks over at Comics Alliance, perhaps the biggest shock provided by DC this week wasn't to do with Green Lantern, or Batwoman, or Superboy. Instead it came in the pages of Suicide Squad, a series totally disregarded by most commentators as soon as they saw the cover. But now the issue exists and is in shops and you can buy it, several reviewers have caught on to the surprise reveal that the formerly full-figured commander of the team Amanda Waller... is now a skinny rake-woman.

The thing is, that change takes away the striking visual which defines the character. During John Ostrander's run with the Suicde Squad, Waller became famous in the DC Universe as the most powerful will in the Universe. She was the only person who scared Batman. Nobody dared defy her, as she led the Suicide Squad on several no-hope missions and usually got them back in one piece (well, there MAY have been a few... or several... casualties, but still). She was a larger woman, became iconic in the eyes of the fanbase because she was the only woman in the DC Universe who wasn't routinely sexualised and abused. She became known as "The Wall", because nothing would stir her. If a new Green Lantern was needed on Earth, it'd be her - her willpower was defiantly unstoppable.


So there was quite a lot of anger at the fact that she's now apparently lost all her weight and become just another person. Her full-figure was unique in comics, and to see it shrink is a huge loss in this visually-driven industry. But before you raise those fingers of yours to weigh in on the matter, let Comics Vanguard make a quick suggestion to calm your rage-driven digits. What if this new Suicide Squad is an origin story for Amanda Waller? She starts off as a thin, ambitious young woman, and grows into the fierce and powerful Wall as the story goes on. Perhaps a sub-plot will develop in which the stress of her job makes her binge-eat every evening, while she panics over the next mission? What if we're seeing AMANDA WALLER: ORIGINS?

While Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman start from the beginning all over again, would it be too strange to suggest that Waller is going to do the same? First she grows the attitude, then she fits the frame. As her attitude takes over the DC Universe once more, she will start to turn back into the indomitable force that fans known and love.

Have we nailed it? I think we've nailed it. Crisis over, people!