Black Canary Has No Problem Killing DC’s Most Despicable Villain

Warning: contains spoilers for Suicide Squad #12!

Major Force is one of DC’s most despicable villains, and Black Canary has no problem killing him. In Suicide Squad #12, on sale now in print and digital, the Black Siren, Black Canary’s Earth-3 counterpart, finds herself face to face with Major Force during a mission gone awry—and when she unleashes her super-powered canary, it totally annihilates him.

Major Force first appeared in 1988’s Captain Atom #12 and was designed to be that hero’s evil counterpart. Like Captain Atom, Major Force is able to tap into the Quantum Field, giving him the ability to manipulate both matter and energy. Unlike Captain Atom, Major Force is unstable and began using his powers for evil. Major Force is best known as the man who killed Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend Alexa, famously dismembering her body and stuffing it in a refrigerator, leading to serious discussions about the role of women in superhero comics. Major Force is currently serving on the most recent incarnation of the Suicide Squad, which Amanda Waller is using to expand her ambitions to the multiverse. She has dispatched a multiversal Squad, including Major Force and Black Siren, the Black Canary of Earth-3, to Earth-8—where matters quickly go off the rails, leading to a showdown between Major Force and Black Siren. The issue is written by Robbie Thompson and Dennis Hopeless, illustrated by Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, and Dexter Soy, colors by Marcelo Maiolo and Matt Herms, and lettered by Wes Abbott.

Major Force turns on the Suicide Squad almost as soon as the team arrives on Earth-8. He begins by killing some of Earth-8’s native heroes, including the Swamp Thing pastiche Thing Man; when Black Siren calls him out, he begins attacking other members of the Suicide Squad as well. Major Force corners the Black Siren, but as he goes in for the kill, she turns around and unleashed the full fury of her sonic attack, disintegrating Major Force completely.

Prior to murdering Green Lantern’s girlfriend in cold blood, Major Force was best remembered as a low-level villain for Captain Atom. Yet one senseless killing changed the character’s trajectory, and creators since have leaned into depicting Major Force as an irredeemable psychopath. His actions in this issue, slaughtering friend and foe alike, reinforce this idea—as well as the idea he is beyond redemption. Whether or not any of these thoughts were going through Black Siren’s head when she killed him is immaterial, as she avenged not only Alexa but all the other victims of this bloodthirsty villain.

Major Force committed one of the most heinous acts in DC history and set off a debate that still rages today, but an alternate universe version of Black Canary had no problem killing him.

About The Author

Shaun Corley
(1384 Articles Published)

Shaun Corley is a pop culture enthusiast living in the Pacific Northwest. After stints in both customer service and academia, he’s turned his attention to writing about comic books–his lifelong passion. He is a graduate of Radford University, with a degree in English. When not reading comics, he enjoys spending time with his fiance and their dog.

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