Suicide Squad Reading Order Map

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Originally discussed here. All letters pages included.

BOOK ONE

Legends 1, 2
Firestorm 55, 56
Legends 3 – 6
Secret Origins 14
“Wanted” house ad
Suicide Squad 1 – 4
Firestorm 62 – 64, Annual 5
Suicide Squad 5 – 8
Millennium 4
Spectre 10
Captain Atom 11
Detective Comics 582
Suicide Squad 9, 10
Doom Patrol & Suicide Squad Special 1
Suicide Squad 11, 12
Checkmate! 1
Justice League International 13
Suicide Squad 13
Secret Origins 28
Suicide Squad 14 – 16
Who’s Who entries: Amanda Waller, Suicide Squad (old & 2 new), Nemesis, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Nightshade, Vixen, Duchess, Black Orchid, Blockbuster, Enchantress, Forgotten Heroes & Villains, Privateer, Batgirl, Belle Reve,Checkmate, Jihad, Quarac, Female Furies, Justice League, Brimstone, Stalnoivolk, plus covers

 

BOOK TWO

Suicide Squad 17, 18
Manhunter 1
Checkmate! 8
Deadshot 1 – 4
Suicide Squad 19, 20
Manhunter 6
Suicide Squad Annual 1
Manhunter 7
Suicide Squad Bonus Book (from #21)
Suicide Squad 21, 22
Invasion! 1 (last 6 pages)
Invasion! 2 (pgs 1 – 12, 19 – 52, 61 – 80)
Suicide Squad 23
Invasion! 3 (pgs 1 -38, 47/48, 63/64, 73 – 80)
Suicide Squad 24,25
Justice League America 27
Suicide Squad 26
“Janus Directive” house ad
Checkmate! 15 (Janus Directive pt 1)
Suicide Squad 27
Checkmate! 16
Suicide Squad 28
Checkmate! 17
Manhunter 14
Firestorm 86
Suicide Squad 29
Checkmate! 18
Suicide Squad 30
Firestorm 87 (unofficial tie-in)
Captain Atom 30 (pgs 1 – 4; last Janus Directive chapter)
Suicide Squad 31
“10 reasons” half house ad
Who’s Who entries (most from (from Update ’88): Suicide Squad, Bronze Tiger, Nightshade, Nemesis, Shade the Changing Man (I & II), Captain Cold, Punch & Jewelee (I & II), Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy, Doctor Light, Force of July, Manhunter, Dumas, Firestorm (I & II), Parasite, Captain Atom (I & II), Major Force, Black Thorn, Peacemaker (I & II), O.S.S., War Wheel, Wade Eiling, plus covers
DC Direct Currents #6 – Luke McDonnell interview
DC Direct Currents #14 – Paul Kupperberg interview / Janus Directive article

 

BOOK THREE

Suicide Squad 32 – 58
War of the Gods 3 (select pages)
Suicide Squad 59 – 66

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BOOK ZERO (work in progress)
This will collect first appearances of all the major characters, as well as the appearance right before the actual Suicide Squad series began. This is mostly to give context to where these characters came from and how they were originally handled. Some of these comics I haven’t read yet & I’d like to at least leaf through them before committing them to the book (hence the occasional question mark). The one thing I’m on the fence about is the original SS stories from the 60s. I want them in color (so no Essentials) & they’re too pricey. I’ll probably end up going with their first & last appearances. Same thing with Deadshot’s very first appearance from a 1940’s Batman comic that has never been reprinted. I’ll either buy it & scan the pages reproduction or just forget it & stick to the modern Marshall Rogers stuff (1st Earth-1 appearance anyway)!
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Suicide Squad – History of the DCU 1, 2 (select pages)
Deadshot – Detective 474, Batman 351, Det 518, 520, Bat 354, 369, Det 536, Bat 400
Captain Boomerang – Flash  (reprint from Flash Chronicles), Detective, Blue Devil 30, Flash vol II 19, Secret Origins 41 (these last 3 also feature Captain Cold)
Bronze Tiger – Richard Dragon: Master of Kung-Fu 1, 18, Detective 485, 489, DC Presents 39
Vixen – DC Presents 68. JLA 239, 261 (The End of the JLA)
Nightshade – Ditko’s Captain Atom 82, 85 – 89 (Punch and Jewelee), Charlton Bullseye #7 (1 & 2 are magazine size), Crisis on Infinite Earths 6, 7, 9 (select pages)
Nemesis – Brave & the Bold 166 – 193 (back up stories)
Count Vertigo – World’s Finest 251, 252, 270, 272, 273, Green Arrow mini series 2, 3, Crisis 9 (select pages)
Black Orchid – Adventure 428, Super Friends 31, Blue Devil Annual 1
Forgotten Heroes/Villains (includes Rick Flag & Enchantress) – Action 545, 552, 553, DC Presents 77, 78

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BOOK FOUR (work in progress)
This will collect the material after the Ostrander/Yale Suicide Squad run (or any really minor cameo during the Squad’s publication). The reading order won’t be established until a final list has been set. Personally, the post-series stuff isn’t canon, but the completist in me wants every Amanda Waller & Deadshot drop in. This one’s the toughest to assemble due to quality and quantity, like the Keith Giffen-scripted volume: not my favorite & loosely connected to the original series (too many issues to go whole hog on, so I’ll have to cherry pick). The limited series Identity Crisis may be my cut off point, because after that I would have to include Secret Six, Checkmate, Villains United, Gotham Underground & Salvation Run. That’s just too massive & too far removed from what I like about the original series (and I’m not interested in a bound Book Five through Sixteen). The only exceptions would be the SS mini Ostrander wrote in ’07, and a few Ostrander penned Secret Six issues. Since this isn’t a hard & strict volume, I’ll be flexible in my choices. After all, I’d like the book to consist of material I actually like & enjoy, not material I must have. Therein lies the eternal conflict of being a collector.
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Captain Atom 13, 14, 22, 24, 25 (Nightshade, Amanda Waller)
Spectre vol. II 11 (Ben Turner, Enchantress)
Power Girl 3 (Murph)
Spectre vol. III 13 (Count Vertigo), any issue with Father Craemer
Hawkworld 23 (Waller)
Animal Man 10 – 12, 44, 48 – 50 (Vixen)
Flash 45 – 47 (Vixen)
Showcase ’93 1 (Art Adams pin up), 6 – 11 (Deadshot, Kobra, Peacemaker)
Justice League Task Force 5, 6 (Bronze Tiger)
Justice League Quarterly 14 (Nightshade)
Eclipso 11 – 18 (Waller, Manhunter, Peacemaker, new Suicide Squad. Note: these rule)
Deathstroke the Terminator 41 (Deadshot, Bronze Tiger)
Damage 14 (Bronze Tiger)
Underworld Unleashed 2 ?
Adventures of Superman 520 (Captain Boomerang)
Superboy 13 – 15 (Suicide Squad)
Green Arrow vol. II 135 (Bronze Tiger)
Hawk & Dove (’98) 3 – 5 (SS)
Chase 2 (SS)
Catwoman 62 (Count Vertigo)
Detective 723 (Bronze Tiger)
Robin 55 (Bronze Tiger)
Suicide Squad vol. II (Giffen) 5 (Deadshot), 9 (Waller)
Adventures of Superman 593, 594 (SS)
Amanda Waller Misc.? – Secret Files: President Lex, JLA 84, JSA 76, Superman/Batman 3, 4, JL Unlimited 13
Green Arrow 22 (Count Vertigo)
Harley Quinn 3 (Punch & Jewelee)
Batman 591, 592, 606, 607 (Deadshot)
Deadshot mini 1 – 5, from 2001. I may not include this due to my sheer dislike of it, but it’s brief enough where it may not eat up too much space. If space is an issue, it’s getting the axe.
[Identity Crisis cut off except those by Ostrander or closely related to SS…]
Checkmate vol. II 6, 7
World War III 3, 4
Suicide Squad: From the Ashes 1-8
Suicide Squad 67
Secret Six 15, 17, 18, 23
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NOTE: For these books, Jerry Bingham & John K. Snyder III would be perfect frontpiece artists.

4 replies on “Suicide Squad Reading Order Map”

There’s a good chance you wont read this but this is really cool. I got obsessed with DC comics in particular so I’m doing a read through of all DC comics. I finished my pre crisis readings of the mainly important stuff and I’m using DC Universe Infinite for the majority of reading. I read all the major events like Millennium, Legends, Invasion, Cosmic Odyssey (although it doesn’t matter really but didn’t do Armageddon during my JLI reading. I didn’t go on to do the further 90’s justice league mainly because I’ve heard it’s bad and it doesn’t matter. My first goal is to read everything major up to Zero Hour, and then to infinite Crisis, and so on. Next up was Booster gold and Blue Beetle and now I’m here. My main question was based on the necessity of reading everything around this series. Should I keep up with firestorm, manhunter, checkmate, and captain atom and the gang or just read crossovers for the full experience? Thank you!

I find the material I listed for these bound books to be essential in that they’re directly part of the main Squad series. Beyond that, say the rest of the Manhunter or Checkmate issues, it’s not *required* BUT it’s nice if you want to follow those stories as told by the same creators working on the Squad. Less so with Firestorm, even less with Captain Atom. Your mileage may vary.

I appreciate the OCD. I’m that way with watching certain things in comix. For a few years I did nothing but grailquest in my spare time through quarter bin longboxes, panning for gold, as I charted the art career (& particularly evolution as an artist) of Keith Giffen. There were moments of weird joy there where I would find his Jonah Hex issues (where he was briefly posted, to be less visible, after TCJ printed ‘The trouble with Keith Giffen’) or some silly one-off he did with the Substitute Legion… And then I noticed him building his own, ornate continuity of his favorite characters, a la Morrison. Like there is a whole rendition of Doctor Fate that is basically Giffen’s sandbox toy (he even appears in 5YL!)

It’s a great rabbithole to go down, building that reading order.

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