Though lacking superpowers, Amanda Waller is often portrayed as a ruthless, high-ranking government official who uses guile, political connections, and intimidation to achieve her goals, often in the name of national security.

Waller is a former congressional aide and government agent in charge of the Suicide Squad, a quasi-secret government-run group of former supervillains working in return for amnesty.

In 2020s comic books, she heads up more ambitious attacks on the superhero community, serving as the primary antagonist of the Absolute Power event.

Amanda Waller's earliest appearances were shaped by writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale in 1987, during the first volume of Suicide Squad and shortly after being introduced in the Legends crossover storyline.

Amanda Waller was established as a widow who escaped Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing projects with her surviving family after her two eldest children and her husband were murdered.

Although she wanted the Bronze Tiger—a martial artist she helped recover after he had been brainwashed by the League of Assassins—to lead the team, he was relegated to second-in-command, and Rick Flag Jr. was made the leader instead.

Waller resentfully presumed the situation to be racially charged, related to her status as a black woman and Bronze Tiger's skin tone.

This is because team member Duchess remembered her past as Lashina of the Female Furies instead of pretending to be amnesiac and wished to return home with suitable sacrifices.

She eventually found herself serving prison time for her pursuit of an organized crime cartel based in New Orleans called the LOA and killing its leadership, using squad operatives Ravan, Poison Ivy and Deadshot in the process.

Waller is eventually pardoned and released a year later to reorganize the Suicide Squad as a freelance mercenary group at the behest of Sarge Steel to deal with a crisis in Vlatava, Count Vertigo's home country.

Afterward, the Suicide Squad performed a variety of missions, often treading dangerous political terrain when dealing with Soviet and Israeli interests.

The organization had been shaken up due to The OMAC Project debacle and the related murderous leadership of Maxwell Lord, with whom Waller has had previous history.

In the latter issue of 52, Waller is shown commissioning the imprisoned Atom Smasher to organize a new Suicide Squad to attack Black Adam and his allies.

All-American Boy (real name: Josh Walker) was deceived into an experiment using Kryptonite to bond cell scrapings taken from Doomsday to a human host, battles Superman, and devastates Smallville.

When her plan backfired due to the events of Blackest Night and the defiance of the Six, she was shot by Deadshot and privately revealed to King Faraday to be their new secret leader, Mockingbird.

In The New 52 (a 2011 reboot of the DC Comics universe), Amanda Waller is shown to be in direct command of the Suicide Squad, choosing its members and having the final say over when and if their implanted explosives are detonated.

She was also involved with Team 7 in some capacity while serving in the United States Army as a Captain, which led to her temporarily leaving the spy business.

During the "Forever Evil" storyline, Amanda Waller is shown at Belle Reve trying to get Black Manta to join the Suicide Squad at the time when Deathstorm and Power Ring infiltrate the prison.

When Barack Obama confronts her about Task Force X, she convinces him the Suicide Squad needs to exist to deal with threats neither the President nor the Justice League can be aware of while conceding to nominate a non-criminal field leader to carry out her directives during missions and keep the convicts in line.

She visits Rick Flag in Guantanamo Bay, where he had been imprisoned for disobeying direct instructions to save his teammates, and tries to convince him to work alongside supervillains for the greater good; she succeeds, releases him, and makes him the field leader of Task Force X.

After the events of Dark Crisis, where the Justice League is resurrected, Amanda Waller approaches the Council of Light with a proposal to target metahumans for the danger they pose to humanity.

[19] It is revealed that Amanda Waller started to develop hatred for metahumans because a serial criminal known as Candyman killed her daughter and husband.

[20][21][22] Waller is ultimately defeated and sentenced to life imprisonment in Belle Reve, where Nia Nal manipulates her memories to prevent her from accessing crucial information that can be used against the Justice League.

[25][26] Amanda Waller appears in DC Comics Secret Hero Society as the guidance counselor, truancy officer, and head of detention of the Justice Preparatory Academy.