Green Arrow #16 – “Seattle and Die Part 2” – Mike Grell/Ed Hannigan/Dick Giordano, frank McLaughlin
Last issue, Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen ran into a mysterious assassin and spent the evening drinking with him. Right after Oliver left, some guys arrived and blew up the assassin’s hotel room. Oliver hears the blast and heads back, but the assassin smelled trouble and headed up to the roof just ahead of the explosion. He makes a prodigious leap across to a bridge and Green Arrow prevents his attackers from gunning him down. The two guys turn out to be Australian Intelligence agents who are trying to bring the assassin in, but Green Arrow thinks their methods might be a bit
extreme (even though the explosion was just a flash-bang grenade). He says they can wait for the cops or come home with him and explain things. The Aussies fill Oliver and Dinah in on the assassin, whose name is Jake Moses (and who was a long jump champion, which explains his mighty jump from the hotel roof). Moses married a model named Alison who was shot by poachers while they were on their honeymoon in Africa. Moses slaughtered the poachers (and their crooked government contacts) and became a mercenary and general assassin, hiring himself out to whomever was willing to pay. One of his jobs was to 
blow up an Iranian ship carrying munitions in a Tasmanian harbour, but the explosion took out a neighbouring ship (the Rainbow Guardian) full of students doing scientific research. Oliver agrees to find Moses, but wants the ASIO agents to play by his rules, since he owes Moses for saving his life. Oliver tracks Moses down (under the name Leonard Slye, which isn’t too far off the Archie Leach alias he used last issue). Oliver chases Moses to the roof of a building where he prepares to jump across to another roof. Oliver warns him that it’s too far, but Moses figures he can make it. Oliver gets him talking and Moses explains that the Iranian ship was supposed to be empty, but the munitions had been loaded early, so the explosion took out the Rainbow Guardian too. Oliver points out that
Moses has a death wish because his wife died and he lived, but he’s spent his time since then killing people and will have to answer for it. The ASIO agents show up, so Moses knows he can’t shoot his way out of trouble and tries the jump. Oliver stops the agents from shooting him and watches in horror as Moses leaps. We don’t actually see what happens, but I assume Moses finally got his death wish.
Young All-Stars #23 – “The Alchemists” – Roy and Dann Thomas/Ron Harris/Bob Downs
Last issue, the Young All-Stars met some new heroes who are supposed to go on another war bond tour with them, but President Roosevelt warned them that one of the newcomers might be a traitor who’s working with the Axis powers (and he suggested Fury could be the traitor too). The Axis have been trying to get hold of top scientists involved in nuclear research so they can construct an atomic bomb before the Allies do. One of the new heroes (Kuei, who looks like the Chinese demon he’s named for) goes to San Francisco to meet Tsunami, Neptune Perkins, and Flying Fox. After a brief misunderstanding fight with some
cops, they head for Berkeley where six scientists are discussing nuclear physics. (As far as I can tell, the scientists include two unnamed guys, Hans Bethe, Ernest O. Lawrence, Edward Teller, and someone named Robert; it’s not Oppenheimer, since he’s said to be in Chicago, so maybe it’s Robert Mulliken. One of them is said to be Hungarian, which could be Teller, so I don’t know who the last two are.) Sea Wolf and Kamikaze bust in to kidnap the scientists, loading them into a streamlined laundry van just as the All-Stars show up. Kuei and Flying Fox engage Kamikaze while Sea Wolf drives the 
van onto a bridge. He smashes through the guard rail and plunges the van into the sea, but it turns into a submarine and the villains get away with the scientists after pounding Neptune and Tsunami underwater. Meanwhile, Baron Blitzkrieg and Sumo are flying across the United States in a stealth plane and we find out that the Axis aren’t the only ones with a mole in place; the Americans replaced Blitzkrieg’s dwarven assistant Zwerg with a spy, nut Blitzkrieg found out and killed him. In Chicago, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Glenn Seaborg, Leo Szilard, and Enrico Fermi are contacted by Dyna-Mite, Squire, and Tigress
to let them know they may be in danger. Tigress puts the moves on Squire and feels stupid when he tells her he has a wife and kid back in England. Usil and Great Horned Owl show up to grab the scientists, but Owl wants payback for the All-Stars killing his son back in issue 6. They scoop up the scientists (and Dyna-Mite) in a giant net and Tigress wins an arrow duel with Usil. Squire gets pounded and Tigress is so distracted she gets slammed into a Robin hood movie marquee. Squire tries to go after the villains again, but when they threaten to drop the scientists he can only toss his sword into their plane and watch 
as they fly away with their precious cargo. He goes to check on Tigress and finds she’s the victim of irony, having been impaled by the arrow from the movie marquee. It seems like she dies here, but Tigress will grow up to be the supervillain known as Huntress, so I assume this is just a fake-out.
Suicide Squad #25 – “Sea of Troubles” – John Ostrander/Grant Miehm/Karl Kesel
This one starts with Harry Stein and Harvey Bullock (of Checkmate) watching a tape of Amanda Waller’s Senate hearing about Suicide Squad. They’re relieved when she lies to Senator Eden about the existence of Checkmate and the public opinion polls show that people are generally on her side. The Squad’s actions during the alien invasion helped, and Harry mentions their current mission, which should sway people to their side even more. That mission was to rescue a nun (Sister Agnes Martinon, a famine relief worker) from the rebel forces in
Ogaden who kidnapped her, but things got complicated when government troops wiped out the rebels and took Agnes themselves. President Frelimo gives his general (T’kaki) shit for grabbing her, but T’kaki says it’s an opportunity to mitigate the damage her criticism has done to the government. Frelimo knows T’kaki has designs on his office, so he plays along … for now. The Squad finds the facility where Agnes is being kept and start planning her rescue. Bronze Tiger and Ravan take out a patrol and dress themselves as soldiers, ordering Nightshade to follow in her shadow form. Meanwhile, 
Count Vertigo suggests to the other Squad members (Captain Boomerang, Duchess, Punch and Jewellee, Dr. Light, and Shrike) that they might have an opportunity to escape. Since Bronze Tiger has the device that controls their bracelets (with can blow their arms off if they get too feisty) and he’ll be separated from the rest of them, all they have to do is kill Vixen and Shade and steal the helicopter to get away. In Washington, Amanda Waller goes to see Senator Eden and proposes a deal that will benefit them both. In Ogaden, the villains put their plan into action as soon as Bronze Tiger’s team gets inside the base,
but Duchess turns on them and says she’ll kill anyone who doesn’t do what they’re supposed to. When Vixen tries to thank her, Duchess says she has her own reasons for helping. Inside the base, Bronze Tiger and Ravan go to blow up the generator, leaving Nightshade to rescue Sister Agnes (which she does with a flourish, quoting the angel’s words to the shepherds in Luke 2:10). The rest of the Squad hits the base hard and distracts the soldiers enough for Nightshade to get Agnes to the chopper. Shrike is killed, but other than her 
everyone gets away cleanly. Back in the States, we learn that Agnes plans to go back to relief work in Ogaden, President Frelimo has blamed her kidnapping on a rebel faction of the army, and General T’kaki has been killed by loyalist troops. Senator Eden has reversed his stance, embracing the idea of the Suicide Squad putting criminals to positive use, and the Squad has a new administrator named J. Danforth Kale (which might be a play on Dan Quayle, although he doesn’t really look like Quayle). But when the Squad shows up at their next meeting, they find out Kale is really an actor named Kovacs and the whole persona is just meant to assuage the public; Waller is still in charge
and tells them she changed Senator Eden’s mind by threatening to expose the fact that his daughter (Nightshade) is a member of the Squad, which wouldn’t do his political career any good. Nightshade is so pissed off she quits, but Waller is unfazed and swears the Squad will go on as long as she wants it to.