Amanda Blake Waller (née White), also known as "the Wall", is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Legends #1 in 1986 and was created by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne. Amanda Waller is an antagonist and occasional ally to the superheroes of the DC Universe, occasionally described as a supervillain. She is the director of the Suicide Squad and a specialist who oversees research into metahumans. Though lacking superpowers herself, the character is a ruthless, high-ranking government official who uses guile, political connections, and sheer intimidation to achieve her goals, often in the name of national security. Waller is commonly associated with the fictional government agencies Checkmate and A.R.G.U.S. In recent years, the character has been substantially adapted into animated and live-action media. Several actresses have voiced or portrayed the character: CCH Pounder for various animated projects; Pam Grier on the live-action series Smallville; Angela Bassett in the live-action film Green Lantern; Sheryl Lee Ralph in the animated series Young Justice; Cynthia Addai-Robinson in the live-action series Arrow; Yvette Nicole Brown in the franchise DC Super Hero Girls; and Viola Davis in the DC Extended Universe films Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad, and Black Adam, as well as the HBO Max series Peacemaker. Publication history The people most responsible for shaping the character in her earliest appearances were John Ostrander and Kim Yale, in the pages of the Suicide Squad series in the late 1980s. Nicknamed "the Wall", she is a former congressional aide and government agent often placed in charge of the Suicide Squad, a semi-secret government-run group of former supervillains working in return for amnesty. She later served as Secretary of Metahuman Affairs under President Lex Luthor, before being arrested in the wake of Luthor's public fall from grace. Waller was reassigned to the leadership of Checkmate as White Queen, but was forced to resign because of her involvement in Operation Salvation Run. Fictional character biography Early history Amanda Waller has been established as a widow who escaped Chicago's Cabrini–Green housing projects with her surviving family after one of her sons, one of her daughters and her husband were murdered. Waller excelled in political science and became a congressional aide. During that time, she discovered the existence of the first two incarnations of the Squad. Taking elements from both of these, she proposed the development of