Early history

Amanda Waller in Who's Who in the DC Universe #1 (August 1990). Art by Luke McDonnell and Geof Isherwood.

Amanda Waller was established as a widow who escaped Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing projects with her surviving family after one of her sons, daughters and husband were murdered.^[2] Waller excelled in political science and became a congressional aide. During that time, she discovered the existence of the first two incarnations of the Squad. Taking elements from both of these, she proposed the development of its third incarnation to the White House and was placed in charge upon its approval.

Federal service years

Amanda Waller formed the Agency to serve as a small, quasi-independent branch of Task Force X.^[3] Valentina Vostok brought former NYPD Lieutenant Harry Stein into the Agency as an operative. Amanda Waller later promoted Stein to the command position and demoted Vostok. Harry Stein would later reorganize the Agency and name it Checkmate.

Waller's tenure as the official of the third Suicide Squad was tumultuous and controversial. Despite many successes, she developed a habit of defying her superiors in Washington to achieve legitimate and personal goals on more than one occasion. The earliest conflict between her and her superiors revolved around the leadership of the Suicide Squad. Although she proposed the Bronze Tiger, the man she had helped out of his brainwashing lead the team, he was instead relegated to second-in-command, and Rick Flag Jr. was made the leader. Waller resentfully presumed the situation to be racially charged, related to her status as a black woman and Bronze Tiger's skin tone. However, the Tiger himself did not believe this was a factor, considering this resulted from mistrust due to the brainwashing imposed upon him by the League of Assassins.

Her relationship with the Squad itself was one of mutual dislike. Most of the team's criminal members did not take to Waller's methods (most notably Captain Boomerang), and even the team's heroes were often at odds with Waller. Waller's inability to deal and compromise with her troops led to Nemesis's departure from the team and the death of a US senator, which indirectly caused the death of Rick Flag Jr. These types of conflicts, however, were not only limited to her superiors and her team but also extended to Batman, who opposed the forming of the Suicide Squad (although he would later help to reform it). Nonetheless, the team remained loyal to her, often choosing to side with her instead of the government.

It was ultimately revealed that Amanda Waller kept heroes such as Nightshade around for them to act as her conscience. Throughout her first run with the Suicide Squad, her actions became increasingly erratic as she fought to retain control of the Squad. This was heightened by the public revelation of the Suicide Squad and her being officially replaced, although her 'replacement' was, in fact, an actor, and Waller remained the team's director.

Even that secret would eventually be revealed, and Amanda Waller would be imprisoned. During this time, the Squad also became involved in an interagency conflict in a crossover between the Checkmate and Suicide Squad titles called the Janus Directive.

One of the field missions is against her will, as many members of the Squad, Waller included, are forcibly kidnapped and taken to Apokolips. This is because team member Duchess remembered her past as Lashina of the Female Furies instead of pretending to be amnesiac and wished to return home with suitable sacrifices. The Squad suffers fatalities battling Apokolips' forces, with Waller personally confronting Granny Goodness. However, the confrontation ended with the deaths of Dr Light and one of Waller's nieces, and Count Vertigo was near-fatally wounded.

She eventually found herself serving prison time for her pursuit of an organized crime cartel based in New Orleans called the LOA and killing its leadership, using Squad operatives Ravan, Poison Ivy and Deadshot in the process.

The Suicide Squad's rebirth

Waller is eventually pardoned and released a year later to reorganize the Suicide Squad as a freelance mercenary group at the behest of Sarge Steel to deal with a crisis in Vlatava, Count Vertigo's home country. Afterward, the Suicide Squad performed a variety of missions, often treading dangerous political terrain when dealing with Soviet and Israeli interests. Most notably, the Squad helped destroy the plans of a shadow organization to throw Qurac, Israel, and the US into political disarray.

During her renewed tenure with this team, Amanda became closer to her operatives, even accompanying them on their field missions. This allowed Waller and her team to bond more effectively, although she retained her dominant and threatening personality.

Waller quit after a later field mission, in which she took down the seemingly immortal dictator of a minor South American island nation. As it turned out, he wasn't immortal but had immense psychic power. By tricking him, Waller merely provided a form of assisted suicide.

Soon after, Amanda Waller organized the Shadow Fighters to confront the villain Eclipso. Again, she encountered Sarge Steel. Her first attempt at a team formed with the assistance of Bruce Gordon and his wife Mona could have gone better. Most of the group was brutally murdered, infiltrating Eclipso's stronghold. Her second attempt with a much larger team had much more success.

During the Bloodlines debacle, the President sent Guy Gardner to fetch Waller from her island 'retirement'. She leads a multi-hero affair that destroys the alien parasites.^[4] She rejoined federal service, initially as the Southeastern regional director for the Department of Extranormal Operations. She was then promoted to Secretary of Metahuman Affairs as a Lex Luthor Presidential Administration member.

International service

Lex Luthor's brief tenure in the office leads to Amanda Waller being jailed. This does not last long. She is released by Luthor's successor, Jonathan Vincent Horne, who orders her to take command of the secret agent organization Checkmate. The organization had been shaken up due to The OMAC Project debacle and the related murderous leadership of Maxwell Lord, with whom Waller has had previous history. Waller takes the rank of Black King until the United States and United Nations decide what to do with that organization. In the latter issue of 52, Waller is shown commissioning the imprisoned Atom Smasher to organize a new Suicide Squad to attack Black Adam and his allies. This ends with the death of Squad member Persuader and the expected public relations turn against the Black Marvel family.

In the revamped Checkmate series set in the One Year Later continuity, Waller is shown to have been assigned by the UN to serve as Checkmate's White Queen, a member of its senior policy-making executive. Due to her previous activities, her appointment is contingent on having no direct control over operations.^[5] Regardless, she continues to pursue her agenda, secretly using the Suicide Squad to perform missions in favour of American interests^[6] and blackmailing Fire.^[7] It is also implied that she may have betrayed a mission team in an attempt to protect her secrets^[8] and facilitated an attack on Checkmate headquarters for her gain.^[9]

Amanda Waller as the White Queen in promotional art for Checkmate. Art by Jesus Saiz.

She is then in charge of Operation Salvation Run, an initiative involving the mass deportation of supervillains to an alien world. When the rest of Checkmate discovered this, she was forced into resigning as White Queen in exchange for their delay in revealing what the US government was doing.^[9] She continues to run the Suicide Squad and has been implanted with nanotechnology to allow her to control Chemo during missions directly.^[9]

During the Superman/Batman storyline "K", it is revealed that Waller has hoarded Kryptonite and used it to power an anti-Superman group called the Last Line and a Doomsday-like creature codenamed "All-American Boy", who has Kryptonite shards growing out of his body. All-American Boy (real name: Josh Walker) was deceived into an experiment using Kryptonite to bond cell scrapings taken from Doomsday to a human host, battles Superman, and devastates Smallville. With the help of Brannon, the Last Line's leader, Batman locates Josh's parents, who convince him to stop. Waller is forced to pay towards repairing Smallville in return for her dealings in the AAB project to remain secret. 'Last Line' itself rebels against Waller because of her deceptions.^[10]

In the eight-issue series of Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag, she is again seen leading the Suicide Squad at some point when the General returns to Earth after his exile and is promptly drafted into the Squad with unique explosive implants grafted into his arm and brain to make him compliant with Waller's demands. Here, she uses technology devised by Cliff Carmichael to gain a measure of control over Chemo, allowing her to use the toxic behemoth for the Squad's benefit. Rick Flag is revealed to have survived the events at Jotunheim and was returned to Waller, who admitted to him Rick Flag Jr. was never anything but an alias, and that he was, in reality, a brainwashed soldier remade into Flag to serve Eiling's ends.

She leads, as Chemo, an attack on a Dubai supercorp intending to release a deadly virus. However, Carmichael, with Eiling and part of her team, betrays her as part of Eiling's plan to benefit from the release of the virus, and she is nearly killed when Eiling orders a compliant Flag to use her pen, actually a transmitter, to detonate her explosive implant. Instead, Flag, tricking him, detonates Eiling's own, releasing her and rejoining the Squad, refusing the chance of everyday life.

She later attempted to forcibly return several members of the Secret Six (Bane and Deadshot) to the Suicide Squad. When her plan backfired due to the events of Blackest Night and the defiance of the Six, she was shot by Deadshot and privately revealed to King Faraday to be their new secret leader, Mockingbird. When Faraday questioned the need to be informed of the situation and even the need to bring the Six under the banner of the Squad when she already controlled them, Amanda merely shrugged it off. Faraday then questions Amanda, "does your right hand even know what your left hand is doing" Waller responds with, "Only on a need-to-know basis", heavily implying that even Faraday himself is also on a "need-to-know basis."

The New 52

In The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Amanda Waller is shown to be in direct command of the Suicide Squad, choosing its members and having the final say over when and if their implanted explosives are detonated. It is revealed she requested command of a unit she could send to their deaths without regret after an operation she was involved in resulted at the end of all other squad members, including several she had personally recruited. She was also involved with Team 7 in some capacity while serving in the United States Army as a Captain, which led to her temporarily leaving the spy business. Also, this version of Amanda Waller is re-imagined as a young, thin woman in contrast with her original design.

Amanda Waller later formed the Justice League of America, which is separate from the main Justice League, where she is shown as the Director of A.R.G.U.S.^[11] She recruited James Gordon Jr., who was alive despite his apparent death at the hands of his sister Barbara while saving their mother. However, it is shown that James Jr. only agrees to join as he is in love with Waller.

During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Amanda Waller is shown at Belle Reve trying to get Black Manta to join the Suicide Squad at the time when Deathstorm and Power Ring infiltrate the prison.^[12] Amanda Waller later contacts Deadshot to get the Suicide Squad back together.^[13] Later clues point to an imposter Amanda Waller causing trouble behind the scenes.^[14]

DC Rebirth

Amanda Waller returns to her original design with the DC Rebirth initiative. When confronted by Barack Obama about Task Force X, she convinces him the Suicide Squad needs to exist to deal with threats neither the President nor the Justice League can be aware of while conceding to nominate a non-criminal field leader to carry out her directives during missions and keep the convicts in line. She visits Rick Flag in Guantanamo Bay, where he had been imprisoned for disobeying direct instructions to save his teammates, and tries to convince him to work alongside supervillains for the greater good; she succeeds, releases him and makes him the field leader of Task Force X.^[15]

In issue #11 of Suicide Squad (2016), as a part of DC Rebirth, Amanda Waller is shot and killed. Her death is confirmed in issue #12. However, it is revealed in issue #15 she faked her death with the help of Deadshot, who fired a bullet at her heart, and Enchantress, who magically moved the bullet to the most reparable part of the human heart. Because of this, she can use Deadshot against the villain Rustam and the international shadow organization known only as the People.

Flashpoint

In the alternate timeline of the "Flashpoint" event, Amanda Waller is an advisor to the President of the United States who tells him Hal Jordan is insubordinate and irresponsible. However, the President tells her the world needs Hal as a hero.^[16]

Batman Beyond

Amanda Waller appears in the Batman Beyond comic series, set before the events of "Epilogue", where she was involved in the creation of Dick Grayson's clone to create a new Batman, reasoning that Grayson was more stable than his mentor, only for the clone to become the new Hush and start killing off Batman's old rogues' gallery, including retired villains such as Signalman and Calendar Man. Even after the clone's attempt to destroy Gotham is only narrowly averted by Terry McGinnis, the real Dick Grayson, and the new Catwoman, Waller is shown to be still working on different clones of the original Batman and his allies.^[17]

Arrow

In the Arrow tie-in comic, Arrow: Season 2.5, Waller sends Suicide Squad to deal with the situation in Kahndaq, where terrorist members and its leader Khem-Adam begin executing a lot of people due to Khem-Adam's desire to save a country from foreign influence. Her squad successfully kills members of the group, except for Adam, who is taken away by Nyssa al Ghul and Sara Lance in Nanda Parbat, where a League of Assassins executes him.

The Flash

In The Flash tie-in comic, Season Zero, Waller sends the Suicide Squad (consisting of Cupid, Captain Boomerang and Floyd Lawton) to survey King Shark destroying an aquarium, then sends them to extract him. Waller takes Lamden to the A.R.G.U.S. detention centre to be chained up. She brings a woman to see him before cutting him open to dissect him carefully. After dissection, Waller sends him across the other side of the country to begin as part of the Suicide Squad. Soon, Barry Allen comes to rescue him, but Waller sends some drones after him created by General Wade Eiling. They eventually find where King Shark had been, but Barry is quickly captured and told of what happened to Lamden.

DC Comics Bombshells

Commander Amanda Waller heads the "Bombshells" project in DC Comics Bombshells during World War II.^[18] In DC Comics Bombshells Annual 1, she is shown to also be Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.

Injustice 2

In the prequel to Injustice 2, Waller breaks into the Quiver (Green Arrow's hideout) to arrest Harley Quinn, believing Harley should still be punished for her crimes despite Harley's role in taking down Superman. After Deadshot aids her in capturing Harley, she forces Harley into the Suicide Squad.^[19] However, immediately afterwards, she is killed by Jason Todd, who was going around as an impostor of Batman.^[20][21]

DC Comics Secret Hero Society

In the world of DC Comics Secret Hero Society, Amanda Waller is the guidance counselor, truancy officer, and head of detention at Justice Preparatory Academy.^[22]

Television

• Amanda Waller appears in Justice League Unlimited, voiced by CCH Pounder. This version leads the secret Project Cadmus at the government's behest to create a counter-force to the Justice League should they go rogue like their alternate reality counterparts. Under her watch, Cadmus created the Ultimen, Galatea, and Doomsday. However, Waller joins forces with the Justice League to take down Lex Luthor, after realising that he manipulated her. Additionally, she is responsible for the second Batman's existence as part of Project Batman Beyond, to create a successor for Batman after his inevitable retirement and also because she came to admire the original Batman and his skill-set over time, and believed that someone like him would always be needed.
• Amanda Waller appears in Smallville, portrayed by Pam Grier. Introduced in the ninth season two-hour episode "Absolute Justice", this version is a ranking agent of both Checkmate and the Suicide Squad. In the episode "Checkmate", Waller captures Martian Manhunter in the agency's headquarters after failing to kidnap and recruit Green Arrow for the government. In the episode "Sacrifice", Waller is working with Stuart Campbell (aka the White Knight) to track down Tess Mercer to lead Checkmate to the Kandorians, leading to a confrontation with Major Zod and presumably killed. Waller is presumed dead in the tenth season, as Flag is seen acting on his own to "protest" the Vigilante Registration Act. It is hinted that she may have known about the threat of Darkseid.
• Amanda Waller appears in Young Justice, voiced by Sheryl Lee Ralph. This version was the warden of Belle Reve. In the episode "Terrors", after she failed to stop a breakout, she was replaced by Hugo Strange. She returns in the episode "Leverage", where she has formed the Suicide Squad from Rick Flag, Black Manta, Captain Boomerang, and Monsieur Mallah. Waller sent them on a mission to Russia to eliminate the Rocket Red Brigade before they could be formed. However, they are foiled by the Team. When the Suicide Squad is returned to Belle Reve, Waller reveals them as her special ops team and voices her knowledge of the Team's formation. She threatens Aquaman II with exposing the Team if he exposes the Suicide Squad.
• Amanda Waller appears in Arrow, portrayed by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. This version is the director of A.R.G.U.S., introduced in the second season episode "Keep Your Enemies Closer". She had John Diggle abducted as she needs him and the Arrow's help in retrieving Lyla Michaels from Russia, and is aware that Oliver Queen is Arrow. She later appears briefly in the episode "Tremors", talking to Bronze Tiger after the latter returns to prison. She offers him a position on her unit, heavily hinted to be the Suicide Squad, to reduce his sentence and because she needs someone of his talents for her squad. In the episode "Suicide Squad", Waller assembles the team (consisting of Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Michaels, Shrapnel and Diggle) to destroy a biological weapon in Markovia. It is implied that Waller first met Oliver during his time as a castaway, along with Slade Wilson.^[23] She is seen again in the episode "City of Blood", where Diggle and Felicity ask her to help them find Oliver, having gone missing after his mother's death, and traces Oliver down for them. In the following episode, "Streets of Fire", Waller is shown to be preparing to bomb Starling City to contain Slade's Mirukuru army. After Oliver reveals to her that he has the cure for the Mirukuru, she gives Oliver until dawn to stop Slade and his army. In the episode "Unthinkable", Waller calls off the drone from bombing the city after Slade's defeat. In the final scene, in a flashback, she rescues and recruits Oliver in Hong Kong. Throughout the beginning of the third season, flashbacks explore how Waller attempts to get Oliver to cooperate and train to become a valuable asset of A.R.G.U.S. and has to use blackmail and other tactics to ensure his loyalty and commitment to training. In the present-day episode, "Suicidal Tendencies", Waller sends the Suicide Squad to Kaznia to extract US senator Joseph Cray from terrorists who are holding him hostage, but this was revealed as a ruse by Cray. When Lyla persuades Waller to admit the truth of this mission to the world, she refuses it, which leaves Lyla and John bitter about her leadership and her mannerisms. She is shot in the head and killed in the fourth season episode "A.W.O.L." when Shadowspire infiltrates A.R.G.U.S. and she refuses to give information to them. Michaels later becomes Waller's successor and works to reform A.R.G.U.S. through such acts as disbanding Task Force X. However, Michaels keeps criminals like King Shark locked up for security.
• Amanda Waller appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by Tisha Campbell. This version is the leader of the Suicide Squad, and has made failed repeated attempts to recruit Harley Quinn into it.
• Amanda Waller appears in My Adventures with Superman, with Debra Wilson reprising the role from Batman: The Enemy Within. This version is a founding member and co-leader of Task Force X alongside Sam Lane. Years prior, she and Lane survived "Zero Day", a Kryptonian invasion that killed their military comrades. Following this, they repurposed leftover Kryptonian technology and founded Task Force X to prevent threats of similar magnitude. Unlike General Lane, Waller is willing to sacrifice civilians for the sake of their mission. She later takes control of Task Force X from Lane after secretly releasing Livewire from her cell, leading to a breakout. With her new authority, she orders Lane to terminate Superman.

Film

• Amanda Waller appears in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, voiced again by CCH Pounder. This version is depicted as more sympathetic, refusing President Lex Luthor's offer of a prominent position in his "new world order" to help Superman and Batman destroy a Kryptonite asteroid heading for Earth.
• Amanda Waller appears in Green Lantern, portrayed by Angela Bassett.^[24] This version is a scientist working for the DEO under the command of Senator Robert Hammond. Additionally, her family was killed by a gunman when she was younger.
• The Batman: Arkham version of Amanda Waller appears in Batman: Assault on Arkham, with CCH Pounder reprising her role.
• An alternate version of Amanda Waller appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters, voiced by Penny Johnson Jerald. This version is the President of the United States and is more sympathetic, not willing to take lives, even if necessary.
• Amanda Waller appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Super Hero High, voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown.
• Amanda Waller appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Hero of the Year, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.
• Amanda Waller appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Intergalactic Games, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.
• Amanda Waller appears in Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.
• Amanda Waller appears in films set in the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU), voiced by Vanessa Williams:
  • Waller is introduced in Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, where she is established as having a terminal disease and enlists the titular Squad to retrieve a mystic card that will prevent her from going to Hell.
  • Waller appears in Batman: Hush, where she recruits Bane into the Squad.
  • In Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Waller is mentioned as having died at some point offscreen resulting in Harley Quinn taking over leadership of the Suicide Squad.
• Amanda Waller appears in Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Super-Villain High, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.
• Amanda Waller appears in DC Super Hero Girls: Legends of Atlantis, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.

DC Extended Universe

Davis at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con International

Main article: Amanda Waller (DC Extended Universe)

Amanda Waller appears in media set in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), portrayed by Viola Davis:

• Amanda Waller appears in Suicide Squad.^[25][26] This version is a senior civil servant and director of A.R.G.U.S. who established the Suicide Squad and is an occasional ally-of-convenience to Batman, whose secret identity she is aware of. Additionally, she was inspired to form Task Force X after the death of Superman.
• Amanda Waller appears in The Suicide Squad, with Davis reprising her role.^[27] She deploys two Task Force X groups in Corto Maltese following a coup to disrupt the country’s "Project Starfish", revealed to be a mission to conceal America’s role in the project.
• Waller makes uncredited cameo appearances in Peacemaker, with Davis reprising her role. Throughout the series she is revealed to have used Adebayo in an attempt to frame Peacemaker wrongfully and put him in prison.
• Waller appeared in Black Adam (2022), with Davis reprising her role.^[28] When Teth-Adam was freed on Kahndaq and killed several Intergang members, Waller contacted Hawkman, who had reformed the Justice Society, to defeat and imprison Adam, which they succeeded in doing, but Adam would eventually escape. After the Battle of Kahndaq, Waller calls Adam to threaten him not to flee his nation, sending Superman to stop him.

Video games

• Amanda Waller appears in DC Universe Online, voiced by Debra Cole.
• Amanda Waller appears in Batman: The Enemy Within, voiced by Debra Wilson. This version is the director of the Agency and arrives in Gotham to track down the Pact, a group of criminals led by a former employee known as Riddler. Seizing control of the GCPD, Waller works with Batman to capture the group. After learning the vigilante's identity from one of her agents following the death of Riddler, she threatens to reveal it if he doesn't cooperate with her. It is eventually revealed that Waller has also been planning to obtain the LOTUS virus from SANCTUS, synthesize a usable version, and blackmail the members of the Pact into working for the Agency using it as an incentive. However, these are quickly put in disarray when one of her agents contaminates Riddler's blood, preventing the Agency from doing so. During the final episode, depending on which path Joker takes, Waller either works with Batman to capture the Joker or tries to threaten him into handing over both the new vigilante and the LOTUS virus. Regardless, she leaves Gotham with the Agency in gratitude for his actions and promises not to reveal his identity while also reaching an understanding with James Gordon.

Web series

• An alternate version appears in Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles (which is a companion to Justice League: Gods and Monsters), voiced by Penny Johnson Jerald. She's the President of the United States.
• An alternate version appears in DC Super Hero Girls, voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown.^[32] She is the principal of Super Hero High.
• Amanda Waller appears in Lego DC Super Hero Girls, voiced again by Yvette Nicole Brown.

Miscellaneous

• As an alternate reality game to promote the Green Lantern film, Amanda Waller's official blog—written by Waller's creator John Ostrander—was posted online. "Waller" invited readers to participate in the Zooniverse project;^[33] participants were rewarded with audio clips of the film's characters.^[34]