Amanda Waller

Director **Amanda Blake Waller** is a high-ranking United States government official and the director of ARGUS. She has ties to several other espionage and law enforcement agencies, and is the commanding officer for the expendable field team Task Force X.

In the World Protection Security Agency stories, Amanda and the Task Force X are a recurring antagonist in the series.

## Personality

Amanda Waller is an exceptionally intelligent and resourceful woman, especially in the fields of tactics and political science, not above using questionable and even outright amoral methods to achieve her planned goals. She is a manipulative and devious leverager, priding herself in being able to frequently get people to act against their self-interests, even people as dangerous as the members of her Suicide Squad, with Waller gaining leverage over them, rather than simply attempting to out-fight them, using any of their exploitable weaknesses to her advantage. Indeed, her nickname is "The Wall" due to how ruthless, dominating, and unrelenting she is when dealing with others, which makes Waller one of the most feared and respected people in the US government. Indeed, before joining ARGUS, Rick Flag would be warned about Waller via frightening stories about her (which many people tend to initially disbelieve), and Harley Quinn even compared Waller to the biblical Devil. However, in this regard, Waller unintentionally gains the respect (and to some extent, disrespect) of the Squad after ruthlessly executing her FBI subordinates in front of them. After witnessing this, Deadshot, himself a notorious assassin, respectfully calls Waller a "mean lady", remarking that "[it's] gangsta", while Killer Croc even claims to like her. Waller also knows to make some useful situational allies, a notable one being Batman.

Although Waller has no metahuman powers herself, she more than makes up for it with her tremendous determination and willpower, which make her an extremely formidable opponent. Hence, when Enchantress kidnaps her and demands that Waller reveal the locations of the secret technological facilities of ARGUS, Waller adamantly refuses, emphasizing that she wouldn't break under torture, challenging Enchantress to "do [her] worst", even fearlessly insulting the latter to her face. Enchantress is thereby forced to knock out and telepathically assault the mind of Waller to get her way.

However, Waller's leverage-based power is also her greatest weakness, since (ironically, much like Enchantress) it occasionally makes her arrogant and overconfident, believing that her perfect leverage over everyone she wishes to control, makes her supremely powerful. Hence, Waller is somewhat caught off-guard when an unexpected turn of events causes her plans to not work out the way she indented. This is most notable when Enchantress manages to outwit Waller - releasing her brother Incubus upon Midway City, knowing full well that Waller (not knowing of him being Enchantress' brother) would dispatch her to take the mighty metahuman down, which, in turn, would allow Enchantress to reach Incubus and (via his mystical empowerment) and become immune to her exposed heart weakness before Waller could stop Enchantress by stabbing said heart. This catastrophic error in judgment on Waller' part results in the metahuman duo wreaking havoc upon Midway City, forcing Waller to execute her FBI subordinates (due to their knowledge of this error of hers), and then turn to genius tactician Batman for help in the aftermath, so that he might help cover up her involvement in the matter, and keep the wrong people in the US intelligence community from finding out.

However, while amoral, unempathetic, ruthless, and strict, everything Waller does is ultimately for the national safety of the United States and she is ultimately not ungrateful, as Waller notably rewarded the surviving Suicide Squad members for saving the world and rescuing her from Enchantress and Incubus by not only taking 10 years off of each of their respective prison sentences, but also even generously granting them some personal requests (granting the prison cells of Harley Quinn, Deadshot and Killer Croc an espresso machine, a punching bag, and cable TV respectively, as well as allowing Deadshot prolonged monitored visits to his daughter Zoe from time to time). Along with that, she also posthumously respects Superman's benevolence and selflessness despite seeing his level of power as a threat, fondly acknowledging that he shared many of humanity's beliefs and appearing offended when her normal composure was mistaken by a lack of care for his death.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Gifted intellect**: Amanda Waller is exceptionally intelligent and resourceful, which extends to her immensely formidable political science, leadership, tactical, demagogic, investigative, manipulation, hacking, exploitative networking, and leveraging skills.
	+ **Expert tactician**: Amanda Waller, is an immensely skilled manipulative tactician, being effective enough to have built up a fearsome reputation among US government officials. Given her lack of superpowers, Waller, much like Batman, often uses cunning and planning to successfully outwit stronger and more powerful foes, gaining leverage over them rather than simply attempting to out-fight them, often using any of their exploitable weaknesses (such as Enchantress' cut out heart, Rick Flag's love for June Moone, Deadshot's beloved daughter Zoe, and the threat of activating the nano-bombs implanted in the other Suicide Squad members) to her advantage, though Waller's methods are considerably more amoral than Batman's. Due to this, Waller can extend her authority over the extremely dangerous Suicide Squad members (something Admiral Olsen and Dexter Tolliver had initially considered impossible), forcing them to battle Enchantress, Incubus, and the mystical duo's monstrous army. By promising Deadshot freedom and a permanent reunion with his daughter Zoe, Waller is almost able to get him to assassinate an escaping Harley Quinn, with him able to resist the extremely tempting offer only with a visible amount of effort. Even when caught off-guard by the Joker when the latter unexpectedly hijacks her ARGUS helicopter, Waller can swiftly regain control of the situation, forcing the Joker to retreat by shooting him down. Ultimately, however, Waller seems to recognize Batman as a superior tactician, since she turns to him for help in the aftermath of the Midway City events, with Batman promising to protect Waller by covering up her involvement in the events, keeping the wrong people in the US intelligence community from finding out about her one catastrophic error in judgment.
	+ **Expert political scientist**: Amanda Waller, as a very high-ranking US government official, and the Director of ARGUS, with ties to several other espionage and law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and CIA), is an extremely skilled political scientist, understanding the inner workings of political structures and their intended goals. Hence, Waller fully understood the paradigm shift that the goals of modern politics took (referring to it as "World War III"), first after the emergence of Superman, then after his subsequent death, and then following the metahumans' emergence, with Waller, superbly using this to her benefit, by having Dexter Tolliver and Enchantress openly address the newfound concerns of politicians, as they addressed the National Security Council in the Pentagon.
	+ **Expert demagogue**: Amanda Waller is a superbly skilled demagogue (though not quite on par with Lex Luthor), since she intends to come off as a pioneering altruist concerned with United States national security, so she therefore masterfully appeals to popular desires and prejudices when addressing fellow US government officials, championing the cause of covert metahuman exploitation as a contingency against impending threats of incredible power (like "the next Superman"), with her usage of seemingly rational arguments making Waller's method even more effective. Waller's most notable demagogic demonstration was when she presented her Task Force X sales pitch to the National Security Council, even managing to swiftly convince the adamantly oppositional General Edwards, by demonstrating how valuable Enchantress could be to US national security as an exploitable asset, due to Waller having the perfect leverage over her.
	+ **Expert networker**: Amanda Waller, as a very high-ranking US government official, superbly uses a dense network of professional and social contacts to further her power ambitions. This is notable through her influence of other espionage and law enforcement agencies (like the FBI and CIA), the US army (like General Edwards of the National Security Council), powerful companies (like Wayne Enterprises' Van Criss Laboratories), and certain prisons (like Belle Reve supermax). Hence, Waller can discreetly keep tabs on numerous people and things that interest her, was able to get Batman to take down Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Killer Croc for her, learned the secret identities of at least Batman, Aquaman, and Flash, and was able to transfer inmates that interested her to Belle Reve. However, Waller still needed Batman's direct help to prevent the US intelligence community from finding out about her catastrophic error in Midway City.
	+ **Expert leader**: Amanda Waller, as the Director of ARGUS, is a superbly skilled leader, having led her organization for years, as well as occasionally leading other agencies' operatives (such as some FBI agents while in Midway City), inspiring fierce loyalty from her subordinates.
	+ **Skilled hacker**: Amanda Waller is a fairly skilled hacker (though not quite on par with Batman and Lex Luthor), as she was able to hack into several Midway City security cameras in from the John F. Ostrander Federal Building, to monitor the Suicide Squad during their mission (reminding them that she's watching and "can see everything"), and to study how Enchantress transformed humans into Eyes of the Adversary, though Waller notably had assistance from her FBI subordinates in this.

"*I can take care of myself.*"
―Amanda Waller to Deadshot[src]
* **Expert marksman**: Amanda Waller is a highly skilled marksman (though not quite on par with Rick Flag and not nearly on par with Deadshot), swiftly shooting down some of her FBI subordinates (due to them knowing of her catastrophic error in judgment, the one that made the mystical Midway City incident possible).

"*Do your worst, bitch!*"
―Amanda Waller to Enchantress[src]
* **Indomitable will**: Amanda Waller, although she has no metahuman powers, has tremendous determination and strength of will, which make her an extremely formidable opponent. Indeed, her nickname is "The Wall" due to how ruthless, dominating, and unrelenting Waller is when dealing with others, which makes her one of the most feared and respected people in the US government. Hence, when Rick Flag tells her he will accept the consequences of Enchantress' escape, Waller coldly replies that she is his consequence and when Enchantress kidnaps her and demands that Waller reveal the locations of the secret technological facilities of ARGUS, Waller adamantly refuses, emphasizing that she wouldn't break under torture, challenging Enchantress to "do [her] worst", even fearlessly insulting the latter to her face. Hence, Enchantress is forced to knock out and telepathically assault the mind of Waller to get her way.