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Overview[]
Background[]
Amanda Waller is a major supporting character in the DC Comics, frequently starring in an adversarial and antagonistic role. She often functions as a high-level United States government bureaucrat who is absolutely tyrannical, completely amoral, and savagely ruthless in the name of security of her nation. She was created by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne and first debuted in Legends #1, published in November of 1986.
The heavyset African-American Amanda Waller was born and lived in the poverty stricken ghettos of Chicago. The crime ridden slums contributed to the deaths of not only her husband but two of her children. Embittered, the grief stricken Waller became determined to escape with her surviving children and would ultimately graduate with a degree in political science and successfully became a powerful and influential congressional aide.
In this role, she became one of the political overseers of "The Agency"; a covert operations intelligence unit of the United States. Waller would suggest the recruitment of Harry Stein into the flagging group and impressed with his success; would later promote Stein to the post of head of the Agency. Stein would revamp and reorganize the group into a new innovative incarnation known as "Checkmate" with an elaborate hierarchy based on chess pieces with Waller serving as one of the primary architects of its revival into becoming the new predominant US intelligence organization of the DC Universe.
The brand new Checkmate was overseen by Harry Stein, the titular King focusing on long range strategic planning with the Queen running day-to-day operations and assisted by the Bishops. Rooks were responsible for overall mission planning and support for the Knights, the primary field agents with low-level Pawns acting as intelligence assets and field support.
Up Against the Wall!
Suicide Squad Vol.1 #10 (Feb. 1988)
Waller was subsequently responsible for reviving Task Force X; a now-defunct branch of soldiers, espionage agents, and scientific specialists originally assembled by the US Government to battle various super-powered and alien menaces in the 1950's and was unofficially known as "The Suicide Squad" who would take on impossible and dangerous missions where death was all but guaranteed.
The original Squad had long since been supplanted and replaced by costumed superheroes, but Waller was convinced that the concept was still needed. She came up with the concept of assembling an expendable cabal of super-powered criminals as covert agents who would be sent on high-risk, extremely dangerous missions in exchange for shaving time off their sentences if they lived ... and if they died, they were regarded as perfectly deniable and disposable assets.
Despite the high fatalities on her missions, the revamped Suicide Squad proved itself highly successful and Waller has remained inextricably tied to the group over the ensuing years. The strong willed Waller often clashed with her political superiors; her felonious subordinates; and with heroes such as the Batman who was offended by her amoral tactics and tendency to use and subsequently commute the sentences of super-villains rather than keep them incarcerated. Her inflexibility and bullheadness resulted in her unflattering nickname of "The Wall" and not-so-subtle dig at her heftiness.
Although Waller would ultimately be demoted and then discharged from government service for her insubordinate actions undertaken during missions; her experience proved invaluable and she would be brought back to US government service as a major Director in the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) and was even promoted to a Presidential Cabinet Post as Secretary of Metahuman Affairs during Lex Luthor's infamous tenure as US President in 2001. Despite Luthor's subsequent political implosion, she was subsequently appointed to serve as the White Queen; one of the highest ranking posts of the super-secretive espionage agency known as Checkmate which had since become a vastly expanded agency of the United Nations.
The New 52 revival and reboot of DC Comics' continuity in 2011 has seen her continue to function as a government official of the highest rank, often committing dastardly and dirty deeds while piously proclaiming to be a devout patriot to her country. She is known to be a zealot who is deeply and maliciously mistrustful of all superhumans and has even enacted countermeasures for various superheroes including Superman and the Justice League. She is now the Director of A.R.G.U.S.; an off-shoot of Homeland Security which focuses on superhuman threats as the "Advanced Research Group Uniting Superhumans" and also performs clandestine and often amoral experiments on superhumans.
Amanda Waller has been frequently adapted into various media over the years including animated cartoons, live action television series, and feature films.
Major Plots[]
Personality and Traits[]
Trivia[]
Quotes[]
Other Versions[]
- Amanda Waller (DCAU)
- Amanda Waller (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies)
- Amanda Waller (Smallville)
- Amanda Waller (Green Lantern)
- Amanda Waller (Young Justice)
- Amanda Waller (Batman: Assault on Arkham)
- Amanda Waller (Justice League: Gods & Monsters)
- Amanda Waller (DC Super Hero Girls)
