New Suicide Squad Backstory Reveals the Team Exists for 1 Very Human Reason

Warning: Spoilers for Suicide Squad: Dream Team #2!

Summary Amanda Waller's heinous decisions are driven by fear, humanizing her character.

Waller's fear makes her actions all the scarier, revealing her as an unhinged villain.

The new backstory in Suicide Squad: Dream Team #2 recontextualizes Waller's motivations.

Amanda Waller has finally been humanized despite being Suicide Squad's harshest leader. For years, Amanda Waller has served as one of the most unflinching, uncompromising forces in the DC Universe, and she's only becoming a bigger threat during DC's current era. The Wall has existed in DC canon for 38 years and in that time, she's seldom (if ever) been humanized in hopes of rationalizing her ruthless nature.

That changes in Suicide Squad: Dream Team #2 by Nicole Maines and Eddy Barrows, as an introspective deep dive into Amanda Waller's dreams reveals that all of her biggest and most controversial decisions are rooted in fear — especially about what might happen to her own loved ones, including her husband.

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The last few pages of this issue recontextualize Amanda Waller's entire life, character, and history, summarizing her core motivations in a single "dream" memory and therefore revising the reason for the Suicide Squad's existence. Whether this recontextualization actually paints Amanda in a genuinely sympathetic light is up for debate.

Related Suicide Squad: Dream Team #1 Is the Perfect Resurrection for DC's Villain Team (Review) Suicide Squad: Dream Team #1 brings the precog hero Dreamer into Task Force X for a new series that paves the way for DC Comics’ big summer event.

The Suicide Squad Leader Amanda Waller Is Genuinely Afraid

Waller's Most Heinous Crimes Boil Down to Fear

A peek into Amanda Waller's brain while she's sleeping shows readers that early in her career, Waller worked with a crooked politician in ways that caused friction between her and her husband. Before the memory can reveal her husband's gruesome fate, Dreamer emerges to confront Waller about the terrible things she's always done, and the "greater good" excuse she's always given. Dreamer persists in asserting that none of the horrible things Waller has done ever needed to happen. A furious Dreamer asks Waller: "What are you so afraid of?"

For a character who has often been portrayed as persistent and fearless, it's surprising to think that all of Waller's major decisions are driven by fear. At the same time, it makes perfect sense. Even as recently as Catwoman #62 by Tini Howard, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Veronica Gandini, and Lucas Gattoni, after the title character leads arguably the best Suicide Squad line-up to a rousing success of a mission, Waller turns on Catwoman under the assumption that Selina will eventually rebel against her and either betray Waller first or turn the Suicide Squad against her. At that moment, Waller was afraid of the worst-case scenario.

Waller's schemes will culminate this summer in the event miniseries Absolute Power by Mark Waid and Dan Mora.

Does Waller's Fear Humanize or Endear the Character to Readers?

Or Does It Make DC's Latest Big Bad All the More Unhinged?

Readers may decide that these pages help humanize the Suicide Squad mastermind, which is an easily arguable point. However, considering she's right back to scheming when she wakes up with no signs of remorse, the new backstory suggests that humanizing Waller can't redeem her. What's most likely, however, is that giving Waller a humane reason for her actions makes her actions all the scarier. The fact that she is proven to have a conscious and yet still commits the horrible acts she does (or forces the Suicide Squad to do them for her) reveals exactly how unhinged of a villain she truly is.

Suicide Squad: Dream Team #2 is available now from DC Comics.