Plus, while there’s a tone difference between Wolfman’s run and the later creators’ sections on the series, what happens in the first 11 issues really sets up Adrian’s mental journey that he undergoes as the title progresses.

I actually have the OMAC mini but never read it, might do that next. I never read Max Lord’s demise firsthand, but very aware of the general plot points as they get brought up a lot in many comics afterwards. Never read nor was much aware of Sasha but, as I said, I didn’t feel I needed any of this reading Checkmate as the exposition is there on all counts in natural ways without making the reader feel they are missing out. Maybe if you a brand new reader and didn’t know who Max Lord was, that would be the only thing you would want to go back and read after.

Kupperberg was a big Doom Patrol fan. He definitely hustled to get his team its own title. It makes sense he would reuse Val as much as he could, especially since she was one of the few surviving characters he created (at the time.)

I have not read Secret Six, but am very tempted to buy the Gail Simone omnibus, but it’s low on that priority list at this point.

It's kind of funny, then, that Kupperberg actually got Val taken off the Doom Patrol when he left and Grant Morrison took over, the original plan for Rebis included her as a component.

Yeah, it seemed like the logical choice for Rebis. I had wondered why Val wasn’t used when I first read it and I later learned Kupperberg was told that the writer taking over didn’t want to use most of the characters and was instructed to “get rid of them” and assumed Val was one of them. Scott and Celsius were killed off during Invasion! and Lodestone put in a coma. Karma had already abandoned the team and was later killed during War of the Gods on the Suicide Squad. Maybe it was a little bit of a spite move he took Val away from Morrison because the rest of his cast was expendable. Morrison did great job developing Dorothy into more than a single appearance character, though.

Kupperberg was not the best DP run, but he did spawn some interesting characters. Shrapnel is my fav. And while Keith Giffen usually takes the title credit for Ambush Bug it was Kupperberg who wrote his first appearance. Should also be noted this is true for Lobo, whom Roger Slifer first wrote.

I would recommend checking out JSA vs. Kobra too. I think it expands on one of the plot lines built in Checkmate. I remember it being pretty good and definitely elevated Kobra to more than just a punching bag.

I bought one issue of that at the comic book store too. Just need the others.

So just finished The OMAC Project as well. It was pretty good, but it’s very much an “event” title. It starts strong with Max Lord going off the deep end and people begin to worry about Ted Kord’s disappearance, but the grand scale of the OMAC activation is somehow less intense than a lone, power-crazed yuppie whose utility belt just has a handkerchief in it.

Sasha is very much the protagonist of the series, though, and it was fun to read it in reverse. I guess I had held off reading it until the time was right. There were some nice nostalgia moments like Max Lord’s JL fighting alongside one another again, but ultimately the OMAC massacre had little impact for me. It’s more of a curiosity piece to see which characters DC felt were most expendable. D-listers falling left, right and centre. Couldn’t even fact-check Garfield Lynns’ name when they terminated him.

I guess the purpose of these events is to induce more spending on comics, and so in that respect it is successful because I now want to read the Wonder Woman series around this era.

Etrigan sucked straight into the Ruckaverse, you love to see it#

Speaking of the original Checkmate, wonder what y'all thoughts are on the Janus Directive. Prolly one of my fave storylines of 80s DC, wish that it was still used as the template for DC's espionage world to an extent (prolly one of my fave, most underraated parts of the DC cosmos as well, wish we had a solid Suicide Squad run atm so much)

I was honestly a bit disappointed in the Janus Directive. My whole readthrough was sort of built around it, I'd been reading Suicide Squad, Checkmate, Captain Atom, Manhunter, and Ostrander's Firestorm, so my expectations may have been too high.

I didn't think it was bad, but I can't say I liked as much as I had any other arc in one of those series. Each of the titles was pretty well integrated into the story, even Firestorm, but I thought Amanda Waller fell for the plot and then reversed on it much too easily. The whole Doomsday machine and snake cult thing also felt very GI Joe, but I did really like what they did with Kobra and Ravan in Suicide Squad afterward.

I’ve only encountered the Janus Directive through SS. I remember little of it, but it’s been a few years now since I read SS. I would happily give the first Checkmate series a read though.