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Task Force X II was a team assembled by Rick Flag to oppose Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad.

History

Infinite Frontier

When Colonel Flag, the Suicide Squad's leader, refused to go along with the plot of its director, Amanda Waller, to conquer the alternate world of Earth-3 with her own Justice League, she stripped him of command and imprisoned him in Belle Reve Penitentiary. When Red X, another Belle Reve inmate, incited a riot, Squad turncoat Talon took advantage of the chaos to free Flag, who dedicated himself to opposing Waller with a Suicide Squad of his own, composed of Mirror Master,[1] Cheetah, and a Parademon. They recruited Peacemaker, a rogue member of Waller's Squad,[2] as well as Lor-Zod, the Fisherman, and Doctor Rodriguez, Waller's scientific advisor. Talon won his teammate Culebra over to their cause,[3] while Peacemaker brought Bloodsport, an operative Waller controlled by threatening the multiversal counterparts of his brother, onto their side.[4]

Striking while Waller's Squad was in the field on Earth-8, they stormed her headquarters on Task force X Island, refraining from killing her men, and extracted Rodriguez, before confronting Waller. She revealed, however, that she was only present via hologram projected from Earth-3, and that the ground upon which the Squad stood was in reality the shapeshifting villain Clayface.[5]

Task Force X II Prime Earth 0001

Assault on Task Force X Island

Struggling with the monster, the Parademon was consumed within it, while a stray shot by Bloodsport killed the Fisherman. Mirror Master's efforts to turn the sand of its body into a mirror through which they could escape failed, while Lor-Zod opened a portal to the Phantom Zone, hoping to trap Clayface, only to find himself and Cheetah drawn within while their enemy remained free. Flag requested aid from Rodriguez, who dosed herself with a treatment granting her the ability to turn her body to sand, in which form she was able to restrain and control Clayface. Culebra, Nocturna, and Ambush Bug, abandoned members of Waller's Squad, joined the remnants of Flag's force for another strike at Waller, now on Earth-3.[6]

War for Earth-3

Flag's Squad quickly found themselves outmatched by Waller's Justice League, formed from her Suicide Squad and the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3. Ultraman of the Crime Syndicate turned Rodriguez's sand form to glass and shattered it, allowing Waller to capture her, while Nocturna was won over to Waller's side by her feelings for Match, one of her operatives. Culebra tailed and confronted Talon, who claimed allegiance to Waller, only for him to reveal that he was still working against her, and had captured Owlman in the hopes of defeating his Crime Syndicate teammates. As an undead spirit, Culebra was able to possess Owlman and access his contingeny plans against the Syndicate. Ambush Bug teleported Peacemaker to Ultraman's Fortress of Solitude, where they allied themselves with his traitorous teammate Superwoman to trap him with a Phantom Zone Projector, only for it to be stolen by Waller's operatives.[7] Meanwhile, Flag, Bloodsport, and Mirror Master fled Earth-3, recruiting Captain Boomerang and Harley Quinn to infiltrate the headquarters of the superhero team the Titans and, following a brief conflict, gained their support for a resumed offensive and investigation into Waller's plan.[8]

Back on Earth 3, the Squad and Titans faced Waller's forces while Mirror Master and Quinn stole the head of her skeletal advisor, through it learning that Waller planned to seize control of Earth 3 and seal it off from the Multiverse to rule unopposed. Armed with this knowledge, Flag convinced Ultraman to turn on her, while she coerced Bloodsport back into her service with his brothers as human shields and forced the Titans to stand down and leave by threatening their students, who had secretly followed them. Waller revealed that she had acquired the Phantom Zone Projector to end Ultraman's threat, but Flag, refusing to let Waller play the role of a hero and take control, destroyed the projector in a fit of rage. Unwilling to abandon Earth 3, Flag and Waller's Squads cooperated to hold the rampaging Ultraman at bay while Waller's advisor constructed a new projector using Power Ring of the Crime Syndicate's Ring of Volthoom, with which Ultraman was drawn into the Phantom Zone. Waller sent Flag and his Squad back to their own world, while she and her Justice League sealed off Earth-3.[9]

Defunded

Returning to Belle Reve, Flag, Mirror Master, Peacemaker, Rodriguez, Culebra, Ambush Bug, Bloodsport, and the multiversal counterparts of his brother found themselves under attack by a contingency left by Waller. They survived, and over the next six weeks Flag sent the Squad on independent freelance missions: while Culebra infiltrated Chet Mannheim's gang to steal a dancer's gem, Peacemaker and Ambush Bug hijacked a military convoy carrying clones of Superboy, with Rodriguez holding off pursuit. Culebra was discovered and her possessed body was killed, and the clones gained consciousness and became violent, forcing Mirror Master to quickly extract the Squad. Though they were discouraged by their performance and Flag's lack of leadership, he proposed an operation that would change their fortunes: kidnapping Lex Luthor.[10]

While one of the counterparts of Bloodsport's brother gained employment at LexCorp, granting all of his duplicates access to their headquarters, the Squad members launched a series of unsuccessful attacks on Luthor that led to their incarceration within LexCorp headquarters. Luthor was then possessed by Culebra, carried by one of the dupliicates' bodies, who freed her teammates and attempted to steal from Luthor's accounts, only to be forced out of his mind. Back in control, Luthor armed himself with a warsuit that allowed him to outfight the Squad until it was destroyed by the clones, teleported in by Ambush Bug. With Luthor at their mercy, the Squad secured a ransom payment with which they bought celebratory champagne, while Luthor considered the prospect of acquiring the team as his own personal "Task Force Lex."[11]

When Amanda Waller returned to her own Earth at the end of the Dark Crisis, Peacemaker was once again in her service,[12] while Mirror Master,[13] Ambush Bug,[14] and Bloodsport have subsequently worked independently of Flag, Luthor, or Waller.[15]

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See Also

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Footnotes


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