31 Days of Scans - Day 26

Favorite Person of Color character day. Hmm, should I use a different term? "Favorite character who isn't a honky?" "Favorite non-Caucasian character"?

This should by all rights be Cassandra Cain, but I opted to go with Amanda Waller. For one, I already highlighted Cass in "Favorite Legacy Character", and second, I got some images of a scene I wanted to post when I highlighted Waller for my Favorite Characters posts last year.

This is from Suicide Squad Annual #1. Waller's come back to her apartment looking to take a breather from Tolliver and Senator Cray trying to blackmail her, and finds the doorman has let her daughter Sereetha into her home. Waller comments that she hadn't heard anything from her in over a year, and Sereetha grumbles about her mother's tendency to keep score. I can imagine have the Wall for a mom could have been tough. She would have done all she could, but I'd bet she'd expect you to do things how she wanted them done. It's about this point we learn why Sereetha's there: She's left her husband, because he's very much a "I'm the man and my word is law" kind of guy.

I love Waller's 'Oh, that book,' response. She's speaking from experience, but I wonder whether it's the dopes like Sarge Steel and Eiling she's thinking of, or if her husband was fool enough to try that on her. If so, I suspect he only did so once. As you can see, R.J. has arrived, expecting his wife to come home because he says so. When Waller learns her daughter is not only not going back to her husband, but plans to move in with Mama, she takes it as well as you'd suspect.

Those bottom two panels may be my favorite Amanda Waller scene ever. The ridiculous size disparity (are we sure R.J.'s a linebacker, dude looks like a damn O-lineman), Waller's head barely making it into the panel, and calling R.J. first an overgrown piece of beef jerky, and then 'chump change'. Prior to Suicide Squad, I had never seen that used as an insult, but I love it. Waller busts it out again later on Apokolips to refer to Granny Goodness and the Furies. Plus, of course, the threat to move in and make R.J.'s life miserable if he doesn't shape up. Cripes, Amanda Waller as a live-in mother-in-law? I'd say it sounds like a sitcom, but American Horror Story might be a more appropriate show.

For the record, the story ends with the couple leaving together, duly chastened, and Waller promising her daughter that she probably won't get Joe the Doorman fired for sending people up to her apartment without her say-so. Then Joe turned out to be a member of Kobra and everyone died. Kidding. I like this as one of those comedy bits Ostrander used to keep the book from getting too bleak, and also as a peek at Waller's life outside Task Force X. The reminder that she's a regular, everyday person like you or me, but has taken a position of considerable power and influence by will few can match (not to mention intelligence. Waller isn't a super-scientist, but she's smart, and she's sneaky. She sees the angles, and knows when to play them).

This story was written by John Ostrander, Keith Giffen and Bob Oksner are listed as artists, Carl Gafford is the colorist, and Todd Klein the letterer.