In The Brave and the Bold #25 (June 1959), the original Suicide Squad. Task Force X, nicknamed the Suicide Squad for the crazy missions they take on, is a group of four specialists: Col. Rick Flag Jr, medical flight specialist Karin, physicist Jess Bright, and astronomer Dr. Evans. All of them had a traumatic experience of having to let someone go in their past missions, maybe that’s where the name comes from?
This first mission has them taking on a mysterious red wave of heat emanating from the ocean, which turns into a battle with a giant ice creature, which has them hi-jacking a rocket headed for the moon and leading the creature into where they finally deposit is in orbit around the sun. Whew! The gang is stuck in space now and that’s where the issue ends.
Very little character development outside of Rick and Karin’s romance, but lots of flashbacks that establish how each member has to “carry on” for the people that died on their watch. It reminds me a lot of the Challengers. I give it a B+, let’s see where issue #2 lands us.