Warning: Spoilers for Absolute Power: Origins #2 ahead!AsAbsolute Powercontinues, readers finally get to see some of the deepest secrets behind the creation of theSuicide Squad, includingAmanda Waller’svery first disposable metahuman team. It turns out that the squad’s very first member holds the team’s darkest secret - and makes the entire tragedy of the Suicide Squad even more profound.
Absolute Power: Origins#2 by John Ridley and Alitha Martinez continues chronicling Amanda Waller’s rise to power withthe creation of the very first Suicide Squad.Key to the team is Clarence Simms, a.k.a. “Cyclotron,“a young man implanted with a volatile cybernetic network. When Cyclotron attempts to go rogue during a mission, Waller orders his execution - with explosive results.
Always one to profit from any situation, Waller spins the death of her first team as a bonus feature, nowusing Cyclotron’s technology as the basis for the eponymous kill switchesimplanted in her agents.
The Suicide Squad’s New Origin Reveals They’ve Always Had a Single, Secret Purpose
The Suicide Squad is one of DC’s most dangerous teams, and DC just revealed the exact reason that Amanda Waller put them together in the first place.
“Cyclotron” Created the Modern Suicide Squad
Clarence Simms' Death Sparked Years of Lethal Control
Absolute Power: Origins#2 makes it veryclear that the Suicide Squad’sfirst iteration tried to live up to its proper name as Task Force X. Ironically,Clarence is the one who gives the team both their nameand Waller’s new methodology. It’s when he attempts to convince the members of Task Force X and their metahuman opponents that their governments only view them as “suiciders” that Waller feels forced to kill him, and it’s the technology planted inside him that allows Waller to overhaul Task Force X as her personal “Suicide Squad” from then on.
Cyclotron’s tale perfectly encapsulates the tragedy of the Suicide Squad.
Cyclotron’s fate is foreshadowed everywhere throughout the issue. His position of import is hammered home with him being the first member of the original Task Force X readers are introduced to; likewise, Waller frequently refers to Cyclotron by saying “there is greatness in him.” The irony here is particularly cruel, asthe “greatness” turns out not to be any strength of character on Clarence’s part, but the cybernetic network forced upon himthat Waller will refine into her explosive implants to controlher future Suicide Squad agents, spelling doom for dozens of low-tier supervillains - whether deserved or not.
But Cyclotron’s Powers Changed Everything
Cyclotron’s tale perfectly encapsulates the tragedy of the Suicide Squad. Task Force X was originally conceived as a metahuman team under government supervision, nothing more; it is solely due to Cyclotron’s desperate bid for independence that the modern day Suicide Squad took shape. Clarence’s death should have been a setback for Waller, but instead it only became an opportunity for her to pitch the benefits of a super-squad controlled via lethal force. TheSuicide Squad’sorigin is one of deepest tragedy, andAmanda Waller’sabuse of the team’s first member foreshadows just how dirty the Squad’s rules will become.
