10 Facts About The Suicide Squad You Didn't Know
1. John Ostrander Is Responsible For Roughly Half The Deaths In Task Force X
John Ostrander was responsible for the modern version of the Suicide Squad and co-wrote first ongoing series with the team alongside Kim Yale. In this original run. John clearly relished in the feeling that no one was safe, killing 16 Squad members in the 66 issue run and six more in later stories with the team.
Whether it was a lack of sales in subsequent runs, or a hesitancy to kill off characters in a team that became more established, subsequent writers put less emphasis on what was initially a core part of the original appeal of the Suicide Squad comic. Writers that come close to John's death count tend to prop up the team with "red shirts", rather than create a sense of unease that John pioneered.
While some might feel that newer writers are straying from the story's roots, that was exactly what Ostrander did during his run. The Suicide Squad is one of the oldest teams DC has, and yet has always found a way to buck trends and try something different, making it a unique force in DC's lineup.
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