ARROW's Suicide Squad Roster Revealed

Suicide Squad...assemble?  Nah, too derivative.

Two and a half weeks after the CW series Arrow teased DC Comics' team the Suicide Squad, the entire group has now been revealed.  Comic Book Resources has posted photos showing the full roster, which includes (from left to right) Michael Jai White as Bronze Tiger/Ben Turner, Sean Maher as Shrapnel/Mark Scheffer, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Amanda Waller, Michael Rowe as Deadshot/Floyd Lawton, Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels, and series regular David Ramsey as John Diggle.

Waller, director of the organization A.R.G.U.S. (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans), first appeared in the season two episode "Keep Your Enemies Closer" to get Diggle and Arrow's help in retrieving Lyla from Russia.  She later returned in the episode "Tremors" to recruit Bronze Tiger into the Squad, hinting at its upcoming appearance in the series.

At a press event earlier this month, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg remarked, "Dig was our way into Amanda Waller, and in this episode, Amanda comes to Dig and Lyla, and she recruits Dig for a mission, and tells him he's going to need a team -- and she saddles him with the Suicide Squad."

The episode, naturally titled "Suicide Squad," was written by Keto Shimizu and Smallville writer Bryan Q. Miller.  As previously revealed, Diggle will receive his own flashbacks during the story, set during his time in Afghanistan with former friend Ted Gaynor (Ben Browder).

Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, the Suicide Squad first appeared in 1959's The Brave and the Bold (vol.1) #25 and was comprised of four nonpowered adventurers that fought against dinosaurs, monsters and superpowered opponents.  The Squad's leader, Rick Flag, Jr., was carried over into a more modern version that debuted in 1987's Legends #3 as a team overseen by Waller, but made up of supervillains taking on dangerous missions as a way to offset their prison sentences. 

In addition to Flag and Waller, Bronze Tiger and Deadshot were central characters in this version, which also included notable characters such as Captain Boomerang, Count Vertigo, Nemesis, Nightshade, Oracle, Shade the Changing Man, and Vixen.  Since Count Vertigo has already appeared on Arrow and Captain Boomerang is an enemy of The Flash, it's possible those characters could end up in a future Suicide Squad episode, if another one happens.

"Suicide Squad" is scheduled to air on The CW on Wednesday, March 19th at 8 p.m. EST.