- Dude, why are you so obsessed with Wonder Woman?
- — John Economos src
John Economos is a snarky A.R.G.U.S. agent working directly under Amanda Waller.
History
Early Career
John Economos was a member of A.R.G.U.S. who worked directly under the authority of director Amanda Waller as tech support for Task Force X, also called the Suicide Squad, a black-ops unit of incarcerated supervillains working for shortened sentences. His exposure to their dangerous missions all while remaining safe himself gave John a sense of overconfidence and a snarky, laid-back attitude.[1]
The Jotunheim Mission
In 2021, John aided the Suicide Squad during their mission in Corto Maltese to destroy the laboratory Jotunheim, which housed evidence of the U.S. government's involvement in the dangerous Project Starfish. However, he began questioning his loyalty to Waller after she blackmailed the assassin Bloodsport onto the team by threatening to kill his daughter. Eventually, the plan went wrong, and the source of Project Starfish, a giant starfish-like alien with mind-controlling abilities, was accidentally freed from Jotunheim, although the evidence of American involvement were thought destroyed.
Waller ordered the Squad to leave the monster alone as it began a massive rampage across the country, killing hundreds and adding them to its army, but one of John's coworkers, Flo Crawley, knocked Waller unconscious and convinced the others to help the Squad. John and the others helped the Squad maneuver through the Maltese capitol and kill the creature, and even helped them upload a computer drive with the targeted evidence to blackmail Waller into letting them go free.[1]
Project Butterfly
As punishment for his insubordination, John was placed on the new black-ops team Project Butterfly led by cold mercenary Clemson Murn, and including the rude and vainglorious vigilante Peacemaker, fellow no-nonsense A.R.G.U.S. agent Emilia Harcourt, and Waller's friendly but insecure daughter Leota Adebayo. The team was tasked with taking out the Butterflies, mind-controlling parasitic beings attempting to conquer Earth.[2]
Over the course of their time working together, John often found himself in conflict with Peacemaker, often being bullied by him for no good reason. When Peacemaker left his car at a crime scene, John changed the fingerprints and registration of the car to Peacemaker's father, the white supremacist supervillain known as the White Dragon, causing him to get arrested and further straining his relationship with Peacemaker. He also incapacitated Judomaster while the rest of the team tried to kill senator Royland Goff, infected by the Butterfly queen, resulting in him becoming even more arrogant and overconfident than before.[2][3][4]
With Adebayo's help, John located the bottling plant distributing the Butterflies' food, and traveled over there with the team. On the ride over, John and Peacemaker discovered they both loved the band Hanoi Rocks, causing Peacemaker to hold a lot more respect for his teammate. When the team infiltrated the Butterfly-infested plant, Peacemaker set off an explosion that caused John to lose contact with them. Taking the chainsaw left in the van by new team member Vigilante, John entered the plant to discover that his friends had been attacked by a Butterfly-infected gorilla named Charlie. He quickly plunged the chainsaw the through Charlie's back, killing him and saving Project Butterfly. On the way home, John's ego was inflated even more by his teammates cheering on his accomplishment, especially Peacemaker, making the two friends. The team bonded more over their shared victory, and even joined a group chat together.[5]
John later used security cameras to locate the Cow, the creature producing the Butterflies' food, at Coverdale Ranch, and accompanied Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Peacemaker's pet eagle Eagly in an attempt to kill it. On the ride over, they were ambushed by the White Dragon and his followers, the Aryan Empire, who planned to kill Peacemaker for John's mistake of framing the Dragon. They tried evading the Aryans, but eventually ended up in battle with them. After Eagly was horribly wounded by the Dragon, John shot down all the Aryans with a machine gun, while Peacemaker shot his father in the head. The trio went to a veterinary hospital where Eagly was patched up, and they regrouped with Adebayo and Harcourt, Murn having been killed in a fight with Goff. The team recruited Harcourt as their new leader, and made their way to Coverdale Ranch together to kill the Cow and end the Butterfly threat once and for all.[6][7]
Eventually, the team reached the outskirts of Coverdale Ranch, where they made the plan to bring the sonic boom helmet inside to blow up the barn, which plan they carried out, choosing John to infiltrate as a fake Butterfly, to which Economos agreed. reluctantly, tricking the Butterfly possessing the officer Larry Fitzgibbon, managing to accomplish his goal, but fleeing when he saw the Cow. John was confronted by Butterfly Larry and in order not to lose his infiltration, he confessed the truth about his painted beard, since he thought he was going to win girls, although he lost his self-esteem when Peacemaker made fun of him until he was discovered, causing a chase, but he was saved by Leota. John accidentally broke his leg trying to help and left with the team after finishing off the Cow, managing to stop the invasion, returning to his normal life. John headed to Belle Reve for tech support as he reminisced about his adventure with his best friends.[8]
Recruiting Shazam
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Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Notes
- This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of the DC Extended Universe and is an adaptation of John Economos. The original character was created by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell and first appeared in Suicide Squad #1.
- John Economos was portrayed by Steve Agee.
Related
- 10 Appearances of John Economos (DC Extended Universe)
- 13 Images featuring John Economos (DC Extended Universe)
- 1 Quotations by or about John Economos (DC Extended Universe)
- Character Gallery: John Economos (DC Extended Universe)
External Links
Footnotes
A.R.G.U.S. member |