Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. returns to screens next week in the second season of Peacemaker, his third appearance as a part of DC Studios’ new shared DC Universe. But who exactly is this tough-but-fair military man with a serious chip on his shoulder towards John Cena’s Christopher Smith?

With all due respect to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, NO ONE goes harder than Rick Flag Sr. This lifelong military man has seen his friends make the ultimate sacrifice and has done so in kind. Along the way, he founded the go-for-broke strike force known as the Suicide Squad.

Flag Sr. made his first comic book appearance (in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity) in 1987’s Secret Origins #14, which established him as the father of the then present day Suicide Squad’s leader, Rick Flag Jr. This tale, “The Secret Origin of the Suicide Squad,” written by John Ostrander and penciled by Luke McDonnell, introduced Captain Richard Montgomery Flag as a young flyer who commanded his Air Force squadron against a fleet of Japanese planes in World War II. On one mission, his squad sacrificed their lives while running interference for him, their final words urging Flag to “Carry on for us.” These words became Flag’s driving philosophy as well as his lifelong motto.

The military soon appointed Flag leader of a ragtag band of expendable soldiers originally commissioned as Squadron S—but soon known as a the Suicide Squadron—during the “War That Time Forgot” on Dinosaur Island. They were so labeled because being assigned to the unit, which was comprised of the broken, the alienated, the disaffected and the borderline whacko, was considered grounds for suicide. Flag quickly whipped this motley group into shape and led them into combat throughout World War II. After the war, Flag married Sharon Race, a cousin of his longtime friend and fellow soldier J.E.B. Stuart. The Squadron was reactivated for the Korean War, by which time their name was shortened to the now more common “Suicide Squad.”

Then, a bullying U.S. Senate committee demanded the Justice Society reveal their secret identities to the world, forcing the legendary superhero team into early retirement. President Harry S. Truman commissioned Stuart to form a new military team, to be labeled “Task Force X,” which would handle any domestic and international crises that should arise. Stuart recruited Flag and the Suicide Squad to take on this role.

Around this time, Flag’s son, Richard Rogers Flag, was born. He was raised by his parents with the same values his father had. Sadly, at just eight years old, Flag Jr. watched his mother die while pushing him out of the way of a skidding car. Two years later, Flag Sr., broken by his wife’s death but still carrying on, led the Suicide Squad as they fought the recreated “War Wheel,” a humongous rampaging death machine originally built by the Nazis and destroyed by the Blackhawks in World War II. With the Squad’s ammo useless against it, Flag flew his plane into the War Wheel and destroyed it once and for all. In so doing, he gave his life for his teammates just as those in his first squad had given their lives for him. His son would carry on in his father’s role, as the leader of the new Suicide Squad.

Of course, in DC Studios’ new screen universe, Rick Flag Sr. has quite a different story. Here he was first introduced in HBO Max’s 2024 animated Creature Commandos as the general in command of its black ops team of monsters. Flag—voiced by Grillo—is again a no-nonsense fighting man, though one who’s broken up with his wife and survived the death of their son at the hands of Cena’s Peacemaker (as seen in 2021’s The Suicide Squad movie).

On his first mission with the Commandos, Flag is tasked with protecting Princess Ilana Rostovic and her country of Pokolistan from the Amazonian sorceress Circe. After she seduces him, Flag falls hard for the charming princess. But when he discovers Circe is actually trying to defend the world from a secretly power-mad Rostovic, his team turns against the latter and defeats her.

Grillo’s Flag Sr. returned—this time in live action—in this summer’s Superman, where he’s often seen defending Superman and his fellow superheroes as the now-head of A.R.G.U.S. in closed door meetings with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. Set one month after the James Gunn film, we can expect his role in Peacemaker to expand on Flag Sr.’s story as he confronts Cena’s titular anti-hero over the murder of his son.

No matter what the future holds for the two-fisted fighting man, Rick Flag Sr. will forever and always carry on for the heroes who’ve sacrificed everything for him and his country, whether it’s on the page or a TV or movie screen near you.
 

Joseph McCabe writes about comics, film and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Instagram at @joe_mccabe_editor.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joseph McCabe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.