Checkmate #7

Rogue Squad, Part Two" arrives in December 2006, and Jesús Saiz's cover makes an immediate impression: a massive, roaring tiger-humanoid figure looms over a giant chess piece while three smaller figures — a tattooed man in a white tank top, a woman in a pink costume, and an armored character in green and orange — scramble across the foreground pursued by crackling energy beams. The bold tagline "The Return of the Suicide Squad!" signals that Checkmate's world of covert operations and chess-themed intrigue is about to get considerably more complicated. With Greg Rucka, Nunzio DeFilippis, and Christina Weir co-writing alongside Cliff Richards on interior art, this issue delivers the kind of layered, team-driven storytelling that made this 2006 series such a rewarding read.