- I joined the military to serve my country, not to be its puppet. [...] I'm tired of covering their dirty little secrets. This time these sons of bitches are gonna be held accountable.
- — Rick Flag src
Colonel Rick Flag was the righteous and driven field leader of the Suicide Squad, hand-picked by A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller to keep them in check. Heading several Squad missions, he was vital to stopping the threats of Enchantress and Project Starfish.
History
Early Life
Rick Flag, Jr. was born in Washington, D.C. to his namesake, a decorated war veteran, which instilled a sense of duty and patriotism in him at a young age. When he was old enough, he enlisted in the U.S. military and quickly rose in skill and talent, both with leadership and combat. He went on a number of tours with special forces, most notably one in Qurac where he took down the tyrant Avral Kaddam along with fellow special forces officer Robert DuBois. In 2016, when he reached the rank of colonel, he was assigned to A.R.G.U.S. by its director, Amanda Waller, intending to use him as the leader of her new team of incarcerated metahuman criminals, a government-run, penal black-ops team known as Task Force X, later nicknamed the Suicide Squad.[2][3][1]
Assassinating Enchantress
Waller manipulated Flag into falling in love with archaeologist June Moone, host of the powerful deity known as the Enchantress, whom Waller was manipulating as a member of the Squad. Flag was assigned to guard Moone and prevent the Enchantress from escaping, but since he was the only one guarding her in a hotel room, she eventually did escape to Midway City. She freed her brother Incubus, and with his help, attempted to reshape the world to their liking. Once she discovered this, Waller traveled to Midway City to further study the Enchantress, and had A.R.G.U.S. assemble the Suicide Squad for their first mission: kill the Enchantress and the Incubus.[2]
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Infiltrating Jotunheim
In 2020, Flag was sent as leader of a Squad to the Corto Maltese capitol of Valle Del Mar to destroy the laboratory Jotunheim, which housed the powerful and dangerous Project Starfish. Unbeknownst to the team, Flag included, they were merely Waller's distraction for the Maltese Army, so that a second Squad led by Robert DuBois, now the aggressive assassin "Bloodsport", could properly invade and infiltrate the laboratory.
Arriving on the Maltese shores, Flag's Squad was ambushed by the Army, and every member was slaughtered except for Harley Quinn, who was captured alive, and Flag himself, who ran away into the jungle where he was met by the Freedom Fighters, the resistance group fighting against the tyrannical Maltese dictators, Silvio Luna and Mateo Suarez. He was taken in by them, and befriended their leader, Sol Soria.
When Bloodsport's Squad found the resistance military camp, they assumed it was a camp for Luna's forces and were ordered by Waller to kill all the soldiers there and "rescue" Flag. They complied, with Bloodsport and fellow teammate Peacemaker, a patriotic and self-righteous extremist vigilante, turning the event as a competition of who could make the most impressive kill. The Squad found Flag, awkwardly apologized to Soria after the situation was cleared up, and adopted Flag as their new leader. With help from the remaining resistance, they were sent on their way to Valle Del Mar, but not before Flag told Soria to raid Luna's palace in the city while his forces were preoccupied with the Squad.
The Squad kidnapped the Thinker, Jotunheim's chief scientist, in Valle Del Mar to help them break into the facility. While there, they learned Harley was alive and held captive in Luna's palace, and Flag convinced the group to take a detour to rescue her. When they arrived at the palace, however, they discovered that she had escaped herself, and after a happy reunion with Flag, she joined up with the team to complete their mission.
The Squad broke into Jotunheim with the Thinker's help, and began planting explosives around the building to destroy it. Under Flag's orders, the Thinker guided him to the facility's lowest level, where Project Starfish was housed. They bore witness to the results horrible experiments performed over three decades on the Maltese civilians and a giant starfish-like alien with mind-control powers that was the project's source. The Thinker then revealed that the United States had funded the project, and the Squad's true mission was to cover up their part in it.
Furious that he had been used and that his country had stooped so low, Flag took the hard drive from Jotunheim's computer and planned to show it to the press. Peacemaker then arrived and turned on Flag, revealing himself to be Waller's inside man, and the only one to know the mission's true intent. The two fought over the drive, but in the end, Peacemaker stabbed Flag in the heart with a shard of a broken porcelain sink, killing him.[3]
Legacy
Despite Peacemaker killing him, Rick Flag's sacrifice was not fully in vain. His courage allowed Bloodsport, who incapacitated Peacemaker, to take the drive and use it as a bargaining chip to blackmail Waller into letting him and his surviving teammates, including Harley, out of the Squad. His advice to Sol Soria allowed the Freedom Fighters to overthrow Luna's regime and create a new democratic government in Corto Maltese, with the first free election in over ninety years being held. Flag was mourned by his friends, and his relations to Harley and Bloodsport brought them closer together as friends of each other.[3]
The death of Flag came back to haunt Peacemaker five months after the Corto Maltese mission. In particular, Flag's last words calling Peacemaker a joke caused Peacemaker to have a crisis of conscience, to the point that he broke down in tears thinking about it. It eventually caused Peacemaker to realize that he was a bad person, and that he needed to try and improve himself as a person and as a superhero.[4][5]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
- Military Protocol[2]
- Peak Human Condition
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Glock 17
- Glock 45
- IMI/Magnum Research Desert Eagle Mark XIX
- Heckler & Koch HK416A5
- Mk 18 Mod 1
- Benelli M2 Super 90 TTI
- Winkler combat knife
- C4 explosive
- Demolition charge
- Bulletproof vest
Notes
- This version of the character is exclusive to the continuity of the DC Extended Universe and is an adaptation of Rick Flag, Jr. The original character was created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru and first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #25.
- Rick Flag was portrayed by Joel Kinnaman.
Recommended Reading
Related
- 7 Appearances of Richard Flag (DC Extended Universe)
- 21 Images featuring Richard Flag (DC Extended Universe)
- 3 Quotations by or about Richard Flag (DC Extended Universe)
- Character Gallery: Richard Flag (DC Extended Universe)
External Links
Footnotes
Peacemaker Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of Peacemaker. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Peacemaker Villains." |
Suicide Squad member |
A.R.G.U.S. member |