Justice League vs. Suicide Squad Writer Joshua Williamson Explains Why the Teams Fight

12/21/2016 08:28 pm EST

Sometimes, something that seems really hard is, in fact, pretty intuitive.

During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Justice League vs. Suicide Squad writer Joshua Williamson told us that he struggled with when he was breaking story was deciding the exact reason why the two titular super-teams would throw down.

Ultimately, as readers of today's first issue know, the answer was deceptively simple: When the Justice League tried to take the Suicide Squad into custody, Amanda Waller told the villians that they must not be taken alive -- and that it if they were, she would kill them by detonating the bombs in the Squad members' skulls.

What made that the moment of truth? We asked...

"Because that's what Amanda would say," Williamson said. "We talked a lot about Amanda Waller – a lot. There was a moment where it was, 'what would make them fight?' We talked with the editors about what would instigate this fight. We kept going in circles about it: Captain Boomerang takes a shot at Batman or this character does this, or somebody does this, but we kept going, 'none of this feels true.' I was in the middle of issue #1, and I was writing that scene and we were going back and forth on it and finally I was like, 'no, you know what? Waller would say, if you don't do what I say, I'm going to kill you. That is Amanda Waller. That is what she's done from the beginning.' If you go back and look at Legends, the first appearance of the modern Suicide Squad, she was going to kill Captain Boomerang if he was taken and revealed the plans of what she was doing. The mission was for Deadshot to assassinate Captain Boomerang. From the very beginning, that is something Amanda Waller would do, so it became very easy to go with that scene."

Of course, as it turns out, Amanda's agenda is a big driver of the drama in this series -- not only for this moent, but because the big bad seems to be targeting Waller as much as, or more than, the Justice League and the Suicide Squad.

More Justice League vs. Suicide Squad: The very first Justice League/Suicide Squad meeting / Justice League vs. Suicide Squad sneak peek video / Yes, Captain Boomerang is still alive / It's Justice League vs. Suicide Squad in Rebirth's first crossover / Batman's Justice League gets shocking new members/ Could Justice League vs. Suicide Squad happen in the movies?

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad started today. You can get the first issue at your local comic shop or on ComiXology. The series will run weekly between now and January 25, with tie-ins in Justice League and Suicide Squad, before it ends, launching into a new Justice League of America title.

You can get a digital copy of #1 or preorder the other five issues of the miniseries here.

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