Rick Flag

Specialized Military Training

## Background

### 1972 - 1994: Rick Flag

Richard Flag is the only son of Richard Flag Sr, a decorated Army pilot from World War 2 & Sharon Race, a middle school teacher. Rick hailed from a long family line of soldiers, including his father, uncle, grandfather & great grandfather. To separate himself from his father, he began going by Rick at a young age as he didn't like the name RJ.

His mother passed away when he was jus four after she pushed Rick out of the way from an oncoming car. When he was nine, his dad died while trying to prevent a robbery of their hometown. Now orphaned, Rick was taken in by his uncle Lawrence, a recent graduate from West Point. However, his uncle was not home much due to his new role in the military so Rick spent most of his time with Lawrence's wife. Following in his family footsteps, Rick enrolled at West Point after graduation. Even if his grades weren't good enough, his family connection alone would have got him accepted. During his time in school, he became good friends with cadets Clayton Abernathy & John Zullo.

### 1994 - 2003: Rick Flag

Upon graduating with a major in Defense & Strategic Studies, he entered the army as a Second Lieutenant alongside his friends. They stuck together through most of their training & served in served two classified tours somewhere in Asia. After they were promoted to First Lieutenant, Zullo was asked to lead a covert unit. His departure only led to a more intense but friendly rivalry between Flag & Abernathy.

The next year, Rick was promoted to Captain & commanded his own battalion for a time. His elite marksmanship & expertise in leadership made him a top pick for a black ops unit that would soon become what is now known as Task Force X. The team would have him as their field leader with a constantly changing group of criminals to fill in the other sports. He was the undisputed leader except for when he had to answer to Amanda Waller, who oversaw the whole operation. While it wasn't exactly what he signed up for when joining the military, Rick agreed.

### 2003 - Present: Rick Flag

Since its formation, Rick has been the lead of dozens of black ops mission & has managed to survive every single one, something that cannot be said about the other members. While the team gave him a mission, it also gave him a little bit more in the personal department. Rick was formerly married to the team's combat medic, Karin Grace, for two years before they decided to divorce. Then he had a short relationship with Nightshade & Enchantress before he began seeing Katana. His relationship with Katana was not your average one but it worked for the two of them, even when they were on missions together.

At the beginning of 2010, the task force was sent to Corto Maltese by Waller to destroy Jotunheim, the headquarters of a military project that experimented on political prisoners. Immediately upon their arrival, the group was captured by soldiers due to Blackguard selling them out for his freedom. After many days of chaos & the deaths of a few teammates, Colonel Flag returned to the states with Bloodsport, Harley Quinn & King Shark. In short, the mission was a huge success & huge failure. They completed their take in destroying the military base but outed the team to the public in the process. The government had no other choice then to pardon the surviving members & use Flag as a scapegoat, sending him to prison.

It took almost a year but Waller was able to get Rick pardoned for his crime & released from prison. Though she was ready to reassemble the task force, Rick put it on hold as his uncle gave him word that he was being looked at to work with him on a special ops unit. But due to his current history & imprisonment, the government couldn't sign off on Rick as the team's commander & gave it to his old buddy Colonel Abernathy. Flag thus returned to the Suicide Squad, where he has continued to the lead the team ever since.

## Romantic Relationships

* Karin Grace: Girlfriend (2003 - 2004); Wife (2004 - 2006)
* Eve Eden: Lover (2006)
* June Moone: *Unknown*
* Tatsu Yamashiro: Fling (*Unknown*); Lover (*Unknown*)

## Personality

A military man, Rick Flag is very confident in his abilities. His tough military attitude does occasionally make him seem less intelligent. When in combat, he tends to be very serious & short-tempered, particularly when concerning his allies' mistakes. His short temper also extends to his Task Force X teammates as he has made no effort to hide his utter contempt & hatred for the criminals under his command. Despite this, Flag knows when to accept one's help & is not above requesting one of those criminals for assistance with keeping the team in check). Moreover, Flag is quite loyal to Amanda Waller & ARGUS, despite the intimidating rumors around her.

Rick's softer side comes from his love for Tatsu Yamashiro. He is very protective of her, though she does not need it at all. Though it well known that Tatsu can take care of herself, he's always there to support her & is there to back her up. Over time, Rick has gained a better understanding of the Squad members & has granted them some leeway (i.e. giving Deadshot longer visits with his daughters). He has even began to form bonds(?) with some of the members, such as Harley Quinn & Bloodsport. He also shows to have a strong sense of morals.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Above Average Human Condition:** Rick Flag is in top physical condition from his frequent missions & extensive training. He is exceptionally durable, swiftly recovering after being sent flying back by a superhumanly strong blow.
	+ ***Hand to Hand Combat*:** Rick has been greatly trained in unarmed & armed combat. He once engaged in a prolonged fight against the Batman & the two fought to nearly a standstill.
* **High Level Intellect**: He is quite intelligent Over the year, he has honed his leadership, tactical & career networking skills to exceptional levels. His tough military attitude does occasionally make him seem less intelligent than he actually is.
	+ ***Leadership***: Flag, an experienced colonel, is an extremely skilled leader. Amanda Waller even referred to him as "the finest special forces officer that the US has ever produced." He has been the field leader of Task Force X for an extended period of time. The team is largely comprised of chaotic criminals who weren't used to following orders, however due to Flag's excellent leadership the team was turned into an effective covert strike force.
	+ ***Multilingualism*:** Apart from his native English, he has a good understanding of Japanese, given that Tatsu occasionally communicates with him in her native language.
	+ ***Tactical Analysis*:** He is a highly skilled tactician, as well as an expert in special operations & counter-insurgency, able to come up with an effective strategy to bring down his targets.
* **Firearms:** Rick is equipped & skilled to use all firearms.
* **Marksmanship:** He is a highly skilled marksman, able to use any weapon in US inventory.
* **Glock 17**: He regularly carries a 9mm Glock 17 pistol, which he uses as his sidearm.
* **Heckler & Koch HK416**: He carries an HK416 Assault Rifle equipped with different attachments & accessories. His version of the HK416 is the DS20R full-sized barrel version, a standard among US Special Forces equipment.
* **Nano Bomb Detonator**: In order to ensure the compliance of most Suicide Squad members, he keeps the detonator of their implanted nano-bombs on him in case he needs blow off their heads if they step out of line or fail to comply.
* **Winkler Combat Knife**: Flag carried a combat knife on his vest for close quarters purposes.

### Ratings

* **Intelligence:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strength:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Speed:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Occult:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Weapons:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Range:** 4 - Trained / Learned
* **Strategy:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **Combat:** 6 - Expert / Advanced
* **TOTAL:** 120 - Threat Level 3 / General Threat.

## Trivia

#### General

* Rick is very personal & somewhat of an introvert. He likes to keep his personal life away from his professional life, which obviously didn't work.
* He blames himself for his mother's death.
* He is good friends with Major General Clayton Abernathy (aka Hawk), Major John Zullo & Lieutenant Colonel Kyle Morgan.
* Harley Quinn considers him to be a friend.
* He & Tatsu made a promise to go to therapy separately for their traumatic experiences.
* When people find out that him & Tatsu are athletic together, people are confused because they think can't see Tatsu playing sports. However, their activities are usually yoga & various types of boxing.
* When Flag & Lawton came to get the latter & Harley's daughter Evelyn to give to Lawton's ex wife, Harley asked Flag to be the godfather. He thought she was joking until she later asked him if he had kept tabs on his goddaughter.

#### Military

* His entire squadron sacrificed themselves so he could destroy an enemy aircraft carrier. He then dedicated his life to making sacrifices for others.
* Him, Abernathy & Zullo all entered into service at the same time. They all went on to lead different black ops units, though only him & Abernathy currently have their roles.

#### Taks Force X

* He has threatened to blow the heads off of many Suicide Squad members.
* In 2009, Flag & Nightshade led an unauthorized rescue mission for Nemesis who had been captured two months prior on an earlier mission. The president sent the Justice League to stop them but captured the two after they rescued Nemesis. The League brought the three of them to the embassy for "questioning" but allowed Nemesis to escape with Nightshade. Flag covered for them, which Waller said she owen him a favor. That favor came the next year when she asked Flag to be the scapegoat for the task force.
* In 2010, Waller sent the squad on a mission to Corto Maltese. It went bad, to say the least. Two members died, the task force became public knowledge & Belle Reve was shut down. The government mostly disavowed the prison & Rick Flag was used as a scapegoat to protect their image as the higher ups were fully aware of what was going on. Months after the heat died down, the task force was reassembled at Arkham Asylum & Flag was pardoned.

## Notes

* *Earth-44 Explanation: In all continuities, he doesn't have a romantic relationship with Katana but I was interested in exploring it as she's his bodyguard so they would have to have a close relationship.*
* His birthday is a nod to his first comic appearance, *The Brave and the Bold*#25(September, 1959).
* In the comics, he does not share the same middle name as his father despite legally being known as Rick Flag Jr. His middle name was Rogers.
* General Lawrence Flagg is character from the G.I. Joe franchise.
* Being from Hub City is a nod to General Lawrence Flagg's birthplace of Philadelphia.