Amanda Waller was a middle-aged African-American lady with a lot of sass and a knack for getting things done; even DC’s OG ace card Batman was frightened of her. And that, my friend, says a lot. Rick Flag tries to establish himself over a lady on page fifteen of DC’s crossover narrative ‘Legends,’ not believing who he saw to be the commander of a very scary Task Force X.
A single sneer from the Nell Carter-esque woman with purple eyeshadow wearing black business clothes is all that is required to silence Flag when he subsequently makes unpleasant remarks about the lady’s intentions. Only the lady’s hair in a bun was tighter than the tension in the room. John Bryne, the artist, deserves a standing ovation.
Amanda Waller may remind comic book fans of Nick Fury from the Marvel world, but she is a complete product in her own right, and no comparison is necessary. When John Ostrander invented Amanda Waller, the lady whose demeanor shouted volumes before she spoke a word, he must have had a few things in mind.
It was Ostrander’s first invention for DC back in 1986, and the Waller legacy is going to receive a solo premiere on screen in 2022 – some 35 years later. What a voyage it’s been, and we’re going to reminisce with you about it today!
AMANDA WALLER: The Justice League Unlimited Episodes that Brought Her into the Limelight – Origins Explored
Amanda Waller did not make it big with the audience – crazy, we think – until the world was halfway through the 2000s and the Justice League Unlimited series had established a solid foothold. It had roughly been two decades since Waller first appeared in print. This cartoon run undoubtedly made her the ground-breaking star that she truly is.
In the first season of the show, the 9th episode was titled ‘Ultimatum’, with a plot centered around superhero rivals to the Justice League, ‘Ultimen’. The Justice League is shown to be skeptical of them primarily because of their unknown origins and their off-putting, holier-than-thou attitude. The League received Ultimen’s assistance as they battled magma creatures wreaking havoc on the workers of an oil rig in the sea. Despite Aquaman’s warning against digging too deep, situations had worsened and it was the Ultimen’s work alongside the League that saved the day. Aquaman and Superman did not disguise their distaste for the Ultimen on the spot but Wonder Woman did not seem to mind acknowledging their “skills”.
It is one of these “skills” of Ultimen’s Wind Dragon that became his newfound power IN THE MIDDLE OF their battle. He blew his mind with the ability to freeze wind. Later on in the story, another teammate of his, Long Shadow, developed sharp hearing skills. This is where Amanda Waller stepped into the plot, as it was one of her conversations that the Ultimen ended up eavesdropping on.
Sensing that things weren’t turning out as per their expectations, they snuck into a laboratory and were met with the horrific sight of their clones. These clones were suspended mid-air, and this time around they heard Waller in conversation with Mr. Hamilton. Not only did they learn that they weren’t “real” and all their memories were “manufactured”, but they also realized that they would die shortly due to their genetic structure being thrown off-balance.
As expected, the Ultimen were deeply affected by the news, and Wind Dragon could not be stopped from violence thereafter. He was joined by the other members too, except Long Shadow who attempted to stop this wreckage from being channeled out of frustration. The Justice League had to step in and battle the Ultimen, and the Ultimen were overpowered despite putting up a fierce fight.
As the authorities were taking the Ultimen away having captured them, Amanda Waller happened to the scene. She arrived with some soldiers and Lord in tow. Lord made it known that the Ultimen’s final days before they passed would be easy on them and that they would be cared for and catered to. They reached an agreement and were willing to surrender to the soldiers, but it was Wonder Woman who stood up for Long Shadow and said they couldn’t take him.
Amanda Waller was in a no-nonsense mood and demanded Long Shadow not be left behind. That was when Batman stepped up too, claiming that they had decided to make Long Shadow a part of Justice League and hence, he would be going with them instead. Waller was not moved, asking for the soldiers to fire at Long Shadow. As they took aim, Aquaman and Superman were the next ones to meet their eye and stand in the line of fire, thus shielding Long Shadow.
Sensing the tension, Waller finally conceded and was about to leave when Batman tried to push her for information regarding her and the organization she worked for. A truly iconic moment was born at this instance when this woman absolutely unfrazzled before Batman himself, called him a “rich boy” and warned him against being so intensely inquisitive.
It is in light of these events that we move on to describe Project Cadmus to you, another important part of this series. Cadmus, as it was referred to in the running, was a secret doing of the government of the USA. The agency was tasked with standing up against metahumans such as the Justice League members, from around the world. All of Cadmus’ funding was kept off the records since Lex Luthor himself was a secret donor.
One of their focal principles was that no matter how good or believable these metahumans acted, they could not be trusted. All such individuals had to be countered and “balanced out” by appropriate measures, in case they decided to go rogue someday. Waller with her history of work in intelligence operations was chosen to be the Director of Cadmus and in charge of overseeing, making, and putting into effect the said counter-measures.
Waller also had a direct line to the President of the United States. The other departmental heads were Dr. Hugo Strange, Tala, Emil Hamilton, and General Wade Eiling – not taking into account, of course, Doctor Moon who was a replacement for Dr. Hugo Strange. Cadmus wanted to make sure that the public would never have full faith in the Justice League, and their agenda had them tactfully asserting that other government agents could match what Justice League was doing.
In that process, they urged internal conflict amongst the members of the League, hoping to nudge them enough to have the League take an aggressive measure they could “defend against” and prove their point. Eiling and Waller were convinced that a confrontation between the League and the government was eventually unavoidable. Now take a wild guess as to where Justice League met Cadmus’ own superhero squad for the first time?! Yep, that’s the episode in the series we just spoke of.
Moving on to the second season, episode three was titled ‘The Doomsday Sanction’ based on the next storyline we’re about to introduce you to. Batman was not one to be put off by Amanda’s behavior, even though he was a little shaken by her roughness. As Superman battled villain Doomsday in the heart of a volcano, Batman took on the quest of finding out what Amanda was up to, and how the Ultimen were born.
As Waller watched Lex Luthor let the world know that he was in the running as a candidate for the Presidential election, Batman first confronted Amanda at her own home. Visibly shaken at Batman having outsmarted all security measures that she had put in place, she managed to calm her nerves in front of him and talk about Cadmus but only to a certain extent. On that same day, Dr. Milo was upset with Waller and released Doomsday from captivity hoping to exact revenge.
Things did not go according to Milo’s plan at all – because not only did Doomsday take Milo’s life, he escaped and made it a point to get back to his original plans; murdering Superman. Waller’s attempt atdisaster management included asking Eiling to help.
Eiling – the insane “genius” *sigh* that he was – took the opportunity to launch a Kryptonite-warhead nuclear missile directed to the island where Doomsday was facing off against Superman. Batman did manage to deflect the missile and protect the island from its effects. Doomsday ended up being transported to the Phantom Zone at the hands of Superman, by way of the Phantom Zone projector.
In the event of the ‘Cadmus Crisis’, superhero Question had been rescued by the League, exposing Cadmus’ security as being easier to breach into than Amanda had presumed. Before the Watchtower’s orbital laser cannon went bonkers and started blind-attacking the Cadmus facility, Amanda Waller had skilfully managed to evacuate people and property. In a scary turn of events, no one knew who had caused the firing sequence from the Watchtower that had resulted in the loss of possessions in the Cadmus facility area as well as the surroundings.
When the President enquired into the matter, launching an investigation into the case, 6 out of the 7 founding members willingly submitted to custody as a mark of assistance. However, they strongly asserted and assured that they had no hand in the cannon going berserk like that. Waller, however, was agitated at the incidence and fully believed that the League had taken the extreme measure of Cadmus’ destruction as a jibe against Cadmus snatching Question initially.
She went against the President’s orders of halting any action on either side – the Cadmus team or the League – and instructed that Supergirl’s clone Galatea retaliate on behalf of Cadmus and lead the Ultimen clone army in a full-fledged attack on the Watchtower. The League defended themselves and the Watchtower successfully against the clones, while Batman took Waller in confidence. There, he gave her the information on how Lex Luthor had set them up.
Luthor wanted to be immortal and undefeated at the cost of Superman’s life…and other such unethical measures. He used Cadmus’ tech to his advantage since he had open access to it owing to the funding he provided. Amanda was smart enough to see the truth – better late than never – and she asked Galatea to give in with immediate effect. Two things unfolded here – one, Galatea going feral and attacking Supergirl regardless, only to be stopped by Steel and Supergirl’s combined efforts.
The other was that Waller’s eyes and mind opened enough to see Cadmus’ biggest flaw in their plan – no operational backup plans for countermeasures. Waller was determined to not let Luthor achieve his goals anymore, so she demolished his prototype android. Problems were far from gone though.
As the founding members were released, Brainiac came out from within Luthor. Luthor had already stolen the Dark Heart from Cadmus, and this time they put it to use…thus becoming one entity from two separate ones, and intending to assimilate the whole universe in them. Even the Justice League was almost conquered in that war until Flash showed up and heroically stopped the hybrid.
Waller finally accepted the good that Justice League was inherently intent on promoting, protecting, practicing, and projecting onto people. Project Cadmus was closed and the manpower engaged in it was reassigned. The research they were doing was withheld as classified information, and former Cadmus agent King Faraday went on to serve as the official point of contact between the government of the USA and the Justice League.
Amanda Waller is known to have been his successor, once pointing out that it was sheer luck as to why they had not been jailed for their acts as Cadmus personnel. Waller made sure to use her old contacts from Cadmus, and flag-off research to create a non-powered human successor to Batman.
AMANDA WALLER: In Charge of Suicide Squad
In the context of the Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller was known as a U.S. government official. Her rank was high – Amanda Waller was the Director of A.R.G.U.S., the parent organization of Suicide Squad. Her position and powers gave her established contacts with many law enforcement organizations as well as intelligence agencies. Needless to say, her aura as the commanding officer for an otherwise expendable field team Task Force X was fuelled by her numerous achievements and overall capabilities.
Task Force X was a metahuman squad made by Waller after Superman died in 2016. One of the members, Enchantress, went wild escaping all control and intent on destroying the Earth. Amanda relayed the mission to Task Force X to stop her, which they did by killing her. Waller was also known to have informed whatever she knew about metahumans to Bruce Wayne, who required it for defending the Earth from a looming threat.
5 years after that, Waller came across the news of a coup in Corto Maltese, which meant that the U.S. government was at risk of being exposed as a participant in illegal experiments. Waller made use of Task Force X again, engaging them to destroy all records related to that involvement, codenamed ‘Project Starfish’. The base at which the experiments were happening was destroyed, but the beast Starro was, unfortunately, set free in that process. After the team revolted against Starro and Waller was knocked unconscious by her aides, she was forced to make a deal with Bloodsport to keep the records hidden in return for the squad’s release.
Waller’s next mission was to re-hire Peacemaker, a Task Force X member that first needed rescuing. For that purpose, she hired Clemson Murn, a Nyasirian mercenary. Seething at the betrayal, Walter contacted John Economos and Emilia Harcourt, her former assistants as a step towards revenge.
Her plan was to get them involved in Project Butterfly, the mandate of which was to hunt down and exterminate an alien species colloquially known as ‘the Butterflies’. The Butterflies were known to be an insectoid species that resembled real butterflies, possessing and mutating human beings. Waller even pushed her daughter Leota Adebayo to join the mission, which did not quite turn out in Waller’s favor because Leota publicized Waller’s deceitful actions to the world.
Waller thus ended up in prison, primarily on the charges of killing the leaders of an organized crime cartel from New Orleans called the LOA. She had actively pursued them for a while, and used the then Suicide Squad officials Poison Ivy, Deadshot, and Rayan to get what she needed. It has to be pointed out that the reason why Waller accepted the prison term was –, an acceptance that involving Suicide Squad members with the LOA was not a sane action. Two, if she wanted to, returning to her old position would not be too much of a task.
About a year after being sentenced, she was released on pardon and a condition that the Suicide Squad would be re-formed as a mercenary group. Sarge Steel would command them as they would have to go to Count Vertigo’s homeland Vlatava, to deal with an ongoing crisis there. Engaging in more missions that addressed political disorders planned by shadow organizations, Waller became an active combatant on-field alongside her team. The bonding is as clear as water, but in no way does that compromise how intimidating she is and how big a threat she could be. Her potential to dominate never ceased!
Waller’s voluntary retirement from active work came after a certain personal field mission where she took down a dictator. It was later revealed that the said dictator was wrongly assumed to be immortal; he only had an immense amount of psychic power. Amanda countered it with her own, essentially urging him to die by suicide with her assistance. Right after though, she went back to administrative tasks, bringing together the Shadow Fighters against the villain Eclipso. She met Sarge Steel once more, and it took her a mere two attempts at getting together a team that took down Eclipso to an extent not heard of before.
Lastly, in the event titled ‘Bloodlines’, the President sent for Waller who had secluded herself on an island. Guy Gardner persuaded her to command a superhero affair for the destruction of parasitic aliens that were threatening peace and order.
AMANDA WALLER: More and More!
We cannot really close Waller’s tale without talking about her DC Rebirth, can we? In that initiative, she was questioned by Barack Obama regarding Task Force X. With her skills of convincing those around her of having faith in her, she even managed to loop in President Obama on the idea that the Suicide Squad was a necessity. A necessity that would deal with issues way beyond the reach of the Justice League, or even the President himself.
She did acknowledge that the criminal history could not be ignored, thereby agreeing to nominate a non-convict figure to act as their field leader under her command. In that capacity and on a mission to maintain the faith shown in her, Waller traveled all the way to Guantanamo Bay to meet Rick Flag. Rick was held there in prison on the charges of disobeying direct orders on an instance, choosing to save his team members’ lives instead. Once again, showing extraordinary skills in talking her way through things, Waller managed to get Flag on board as the field leader of Task Force X.
In 2016, Issue 11 of the Suicide Squad series revealed that Amanda Waller was shot dead, further confirmed in the following Issue. Her story was far from over though because as early as in Issue 15, her death was revealed to have been staged by her. She had taken Deadshot’s help to get a bullet fired at her heart and then Enchantress’ assistance to move it to a part of the heart that would be less dangerous and easier to patch up. She was thus able to utilize Deadshot against Rustam and the multinational shadow organization is known only as ‘The People’.
Amanda Waller is the fourth live-action iteration of the character in the DC Extended Universe, following Pam Grier, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Angela Bassett. Starting with Suicide Squad in 2016, actress Viola Davis signed a three-film contract to play the role of Amanda Waller. 2021 brought about ‘The Suicide Squad’ to theatres, and Davis starred in it as Waller once again. In the TV series Peacemaker, Viola reprised her role in the first episode of Season 1.
AMANDA WALLER: The Human Superhuman!
Amanda Waller’s introduction is, quite humbly speaking, spectacular. A lack of superhuman abilities does not compromise who she comes to be in the world that she is a part of. Highly intelligent and resourceful, she is a force to be reckoned with and so is her brain. Her knowledge of political science, tactics-formulation, leadership, investigation, manipulation, etc. knows no bounds.
Having been actively involved in the work of her field for quite some time, Amanda has learned from first-hand experience and it shows. Being involved in politics has taught her several tricks of the trade, making her a political scientist par excellence. She can network, understand the loopholes in a political structure, and use it all to her advantage.
As a tactician, she is much like Batman if he set aside his morals. Her will to achieve something was set in rock, once she decided to do so and that apparently resulted in her doing anything and everything possible to achieve it. Building a fearsome reputation with government officials of the United States is no mean feat, but Waller has a chokehold on the system.
She is crafty in her planning, often leading her and her team to victory against physically stronger opponents by using their exploitable weaknesses against them. Superpowers may be a package deal, but to outwit someone is that deal in a gift wrap with a ribbon on top. She is a natural leader – capable, no doubt – which was perhaps why and how she was constantly given posts by which she could exercise control and have loyal subordinates who would obey her in the blink of an eye. She did gain trust quicker than most of us do!
Her other talents were in hacking, marksmanship, and hand-to-hand combat, even though they might not have been on par with her superhero counterparts. She was anyway skilled enough to be mentioned alongside them, and that speaks volumes. Indeed, her nickname was “The Wall” due to how ruthless, dominating, and unrelenting Waller was when dealing with others, which made her one of the most feared and respected people in the comic universe.
Her only weakness lay in her arrogance because if one of her plans did not work according to her devised ways, she just did not have an alternative. Ever.
AMANDA WALLER: DC Will Create A Show
Earlier on in May 2022, there was a word going around that DC was in talks with Warner Bros. after the former’s merger with Discovery. The DC Extended Universe saw new life in “super-powered projects” as James Gunn gave life to the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, and it now seems that it is Amanda Waller’s turn. The unmoving, relentless, crooked Amanda Waller is almost set to be given a solo spin-off with her as the central character. This might be a chance for DC and Warner Bros. to explore espionage as a genre and another aspect of the world of comics; just like Marvel has to its credit with films and TV shows like Agent Carter, Captain America, etc.
It may be so that Task Force X and Suicide Squad are brought into the picture too, but the US government official would still be the focus. Viola Davis is said to have been approached to take up the role again, as the audience prepares themselves for the joyride of moral turpitude that getting to know Amanda Waller deeply is going to be.
AMANDA WALLER: Closing In
One must remember the times when Amanda’s character was created – amidst a situation where there weren’t too many African-American comic book characters at all, let alone strong female personalities with a voice that would not allow itself to be silenced just like that.
The mid-1980s were a crazy time, but John Ostrander went above and beyond to make Amanda Waller who she was. The seniority in age was a conscious decision made with a strong backstory and food for character arc development. Ostrander borrowed the back story from his personal experiences in crime-ridden Chicago in those years, formulating Waller’s whole personality from a point of deep understanding. With this stellar précis to her credit, she made her debut in print.
The comic book genre was at one point, known to stereotype women as a point of visual attraction rather than a character of substance. Amanda Waller refused to be one, her creator refused to drown her in that sea. One can hope that when the DC Project of her solo series is realized, the progressive vision of her creator is not forgotten. It may be a continuation from where the Peacemaker series left off, or when Amanda took over the reins of the Suicide Squad. As far as character portrayal is concerned, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller has always been lauded by fans. She had a fantastic performance that has only gotten better with each subsequent appearance.
Waller is resourceful in ways that even the Justice League can’t match. Not many souls knew of Batman’s human identity. Amanda Waller was one of the few who did. Other such impressive traits aside, she effectively leads and fully controls – well, mostly – a team of convicts who are super-villains. These villains work field missions to repay their social debts, for the reward of having a few years removed from their overall sentence; but they also have explosives implanted in their heads to just…you know…“double-check” that they don’t go awry again. And if that does not say enough about her impact and importance, there’s nothing else we can possibly say that will do justice to Amanda Waller, “The Wall” herself.