View source for Janus Directive

{{No footnotes|date=June 2017}}
{{Infobox comics story arc <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics--> 
|title          = ''The Janus Directive''
|image          = Checkmate v1 15.jpg
|imagesize      = <!-- default 250 -->
|caption        = Cover of ''[[Checkmate (comics)|Checkmate]]'' #15 (May 1989), art by [[Gil Kane]]
|publisher      = [[DC Comics]]
|startmo        = May
|startyr        = 1989
|endmo          = June
|endyr          = 1989
|Superhero      = y
|Spy            = first
|Crossover      = y
|multigenre     = y
|titles         = ''[[Captain Atom]]'' #30<br><!--
-->''[[Checkmate (comics)|Checkmate]]'' #15-18<br><!--
-->''[[Firestorm (character)|Firestorm the Nuclear Man]]'' #86-87<br><!--
-->''[[Manhunter (comics)|Manhunter]]'' #14<br><!--
-->''[[Suicide Squad]]'' #27-30
|main_char_team = 
|writers        = 
|artists        = 
|pencillers     = 
|inkers         = 
|letterers      = 
|editors        = 
|colorists      = 
|TPB            = 
|ISBN           = 
|cat            = DC Comics
|sortkey        = Janus Directive
}}
"'''The Janus Directive'''" is an eleven-part [[comic book]] [[Fictional crossover|crossover]] first published by [[DC Comics]] between May and June of 1989. Among the creators who contributed to the storyline were writers [[John Ostrander]], [[Kim Yale]], [[Paul Kupperberg]], [[Cary Bates]] and [[Greg Weisman]], and artists John K. Snyder III, Rick Hoberg, [[Rafael Kayanan]], [[Tom Mandrake]], and [[Pat Broderick]].

==History==
The crossover storyline ran through the following titles: ''[[Checkmate (comics)|Checkmate!]]'' (#15-18), ''[[Suicide Squad]]'' (#27-30), ''[[Manhunter (comics)|Manhunter]]'' (#14), ''[[Firestorm (character)|Firestorm]]'' (vol. 2) (#86), and ''[[Captain Atom]]'' (#30). ''Checkmate!'' and ''Suicide Squad'' were published biweekly for the duration of the event.

The storyline focused on the covert operations super-teams and organizations that existed in the [[DC Universe]] at the time.

==Plot==
Suicide Squad leader [[Amanda Waller]] begins sending her agents on missions in the apparent pursuit of her own private agenda, the so-called "Janus Directive", bringing the Squad into conflict with other metahuman villains and government agencies. All-out mayhem breaks loose among these groups, involving various metahumans associated with the United States military and civilian agencies.

It is revealed that Waller has not gone rogue - cult leader [[Kobra (DC Comics)|Kobra]] tried to murder Waller and replace her with a subservient [[doppelgänger]] to manipulate and mislead the various government agencies to keep them from stopping his own plan. Kobra plans to activate a massive space-based microwave pulse cannon that would fry all electronic systems (not to mention human nervous systems) in the eastern United States, unleashing the [[Kali Yuga]], the age of chaos he believes it is his destiny to commence. Waller has murdered her double and is playing the role of traitor in order to ferret out the true mastermind behind the Janus Directive. Eventually, the truth is revealed, the groups unite and storm Kobra's space ark, capturing him and destroying his weapon.

The fallout of the Janus Directive results in an irate [[George H. W. Bush]] reorganizing the various agencies to bring them under executive control; he dissolves [[Task Force X]], the umbrella organization under which both Checkmate and the Squad operated (the component agencies becoming autonomous), and makes [[Sarge Steel]] a [[United States Cabinet|Cabinet]]-level official with overall control of all governmental metahuman activity on the civilian side. [[General Wade Eiling]] is made his equivalent in the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]]. Waller is put on probation by Bush because of her "lone wolf" tactics, much to her displeasure.  

Waller is soon imprisoned for taking matters into her own hands after leading an assassination team to personally liquidate the [[West African Vodun|Vodou]]-oriented drug ring called the Loa. This leads to the shutdown of all Suicide Squad operations for one year.

==Major players==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! Project Atom!!C.B.I.!!Checkmate!!Force of July!!Project Peacemaker!!Suicide Squad
|-
| [[General Wade Eiling|Major Wade Eiling]]||[[Sarge Steel]]||[[Harry Stein (comics)|Harry Stein]]||Major Victory||[[Peacemaker (character)|Peacemaker]]||[[Amanda Waller]]
|-
| Professor Heinrich Megala||[[King Faraday]]||[[Harvey Bullock (character)|Harvey Bullock]]||[[Lady Liberty (comics)|Lady Liberty]]|| ||[[Bronze Tiger]]
|-
| [[Captain Atom]]||John Chase||[[Valentina Vostok]]|| Mayflower|| ||[[Vixen (comics)|Vixen]]
|-
| [[Major Force]]||Cherie Chase||Gary Washington|| Silent Majority
|| ||[[Ravan (comics)|Ravan]]
|-
|  || ||Black Thorn|| Sparkler|| ||[[Captain Boomerang]]
|-
|  || ||[[List of Checkmate members|Checkmate Knights]]|| Abraham Lincoln Carlyle|| ||[[Lashina|Duchess]]
|-
| || || || || || [[Shade, the Changing Man]]
|-
| || || || || || [[Count Vertigo]]
|}

==Tie-in issues==
* Part 1: ''Checkmate!'' #15 (May 1989) 
* Part 2: ''Suicide Squad'' #27 (May 1989)
* Part 3: ''Checkmate!'' #16 (May 1989)
* Part 4: ''Suicide Squad'' #28 (May 1989)
* Part 5: ''Checkmate!'' #17 (June 1989)
* Part 6: ''Manhunter'' #14 (June 1989)
* Part 7: ''Firestorm the Nuclear Man'' (vol. 2) #86 (June 1989)
* Part 8: ''Suicide Squad'' #29 (June 1989)
* Part 9: ''Checkmate!'' #18 (June 1989)
* Part 10: ''Suicide Squad'' #30 (June 1989) 
* Part 11: ''Captain Atom'' #30 (June 1989)
* ''Firestorm the Nuclear Man'' (vol. 2) #87
Although not bannered as a part of the crossover, parts of ''Firestorm the Nuclear Man'' (vol. 2) #87 were an epilogue to the storyline.

==See also==
*[[List of government agencies in DC Comics]]

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20011219001553/http://www.geocities.com/mbrown123/xover/dc_janusdirective.html The Unofficial Comics Crossover Index - The Janus Directive]

{{DC events}}
{{Suicide Squad}}

[[Category:1989 in comics]]
[[Category:Comics by John Ostrander]]
[[Category:Comics by Paul Kupperberg]]
[[Category:Crossover comics]]
[[Category:DC Comics storylines]]