George “Digger” Harkness has few good qualities. He’s a coward, a pervert, and more idiot than idiot savant. However, the man called Captain Boomerang also has a certain sense of raw cunning that earned him a place among the Rogues Gallery of The Flash. Yet there is still some question as to how he became a Suicide Squad mainstay. The answer lies in Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #4.
Written by John Layman, with art by Jesus Hervas, the prequel to the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game centers around a riot at the new Arkham Asylum. A power failure results in a mass jailbreak, with the inmates allowed access to their weapons and a chance to seek revenge on the abusive guards. This is all according to the design of Warden Amanda Waller, who sought to turn the riot’s survivors into a team fit to take on the Justice League. Given the presence of heavy hitters like Solomon Grundy and Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang is something of an afterthought.
Despite this, Harkness holds a certain appeal to those villains lacking even his modest physical prowess. To that end, he is recruited as a muscle by a newly formed gang of villains with mind control powers. Unsurprisingly, given all of these supervillains are as insane as they are amoral, it doesn’t take long for their alliance to collapse. This leaves Captain Boomerang at Ground Zero in a psychic war for supremacy.
Captain Boomerang is a Survivor, First and Foremost
Despite not being the sharpest tool in the shed, Captain Boomerang manages to overcome the illusions of his employers. He emerges from the telepathic firefight relatively unscathed as the sole survivor. This unexpected turn of events impresses Waller, who declares that Harkness has made the cut to join her Suicide Squad.
As Waller notes, Captain Boomerang is “a killer and a survivor.” His talents may be limited and uniquely focused, and it is possible he survived the psychic conflict because he didn’t have enough brain to brainwash. Yet he also somehow managed to build a niche for himself in the super-villain community. He may be stupid enough to try and fight The Flash with boomerangs. yet he sometimes won, and always survived to come back for more.
Suicide Squad: Kill Arkham Asylum #4 is now available online and at comic shops everywhere.
