How would you describe Amanda Waller? Is she an anti-hero who has her country's and the planet's best interests at heart despite some of her shadier methods and use of the Suicide Squad or is she just plain bad? The animated TV shows and movies seem to portray Waller as being one of the good guys, but also a serious hard case who's occasionally misguided in her actions or who resorts to extreme methods, but ultimately isn't evil.

Also, could you see her getting along with a group like the Outlaws or seek to take em out?

I don't see her as evil, she just wants what's good for the world, and she doesn't care what she has to do to get results.

I don't characterize Waller as evil in my reading of her. She certainly isn't always in line with the superheroic ideals of good, but she works under a Machiavellian ideology, perhaps even divorced from the element of justification... Waller isn't the type to be concerned with whether the end justifies her means, but rather if an end meets her needs.

In this respect, many a hero might call her evil. And similarly, Waller might call them weak-willed fools sacrificing the greater good of humanity for the greater good of abstract ideals.

I wouldn't expect her to get along with the Outlaws, only because she didn't create them and at this point doesn't control them. But if they make themselves submissive to her will, they could be appreciated as discardable assets.

@TheOptimist:

Ah, so unless she could find a way to control them she'd view the Outlaws as a threat or a nuisance then, right? I've been wondering if Waller would be the sort of person who could "befriend" the Outlaws by offering them financial backing in exchange for the odd favor here and there (assassinating supervillains and what not, etc), I mean, Jason, Roy, & Kori gotta pay for their living expenses and mission equipment/weaponry somehow right?

Alternatively, if thats not the sort of thing Waller or the Outlaws would agree to, I also couldn't help but think Waller would make a good recurring adversary for them, i.e. she wants to capture the three of them for use in her Suicide Squad & as time goes by capturing them becomes personal for her (like when she tried to force the Secret Six back under her thumb with her latest Suicide Squad). Might make for a cool crossover event, Outlaws vs the Suicide Squad. I mean, with their rotating roster & high mortality rate, the Outlaws would never be able to predict who Waller would send after them next, & the Outlaws would make a fitting challenge for the villains on the Squad (not like Redhood & company would have any qualms about killing govt controlled super baddies afterall lol). Plus, since Jason & his team are basically filling the same niche in the DC universe as Marvel's Punisher, it probably means The Outlaws are gonna kill most of their adversaries rather than build up a Rogues Gallery like other DC heroes, so a group like the Suicide Squad could fill the role of a traditional "arch-nemesis."

She's one of those characters you can't really place into the good or evil category. Yes she does really bad things but she does them for the greater good.

How many of the squad members, who earn a clean slate, do not just return to being villains? Seems to me, in her mind, if she just killed the villains, instead of using them, & allowing them to go, she is just as useless as a hero as Batman is.

@cobramorph: I couldn't agree more. She hates the people who try to help, while supporting the villains and anti-heroes responsible for countless deaths. She may have peoples best interests at heart, which I doubt, but she's too retarded to actually do any good. Waller hates people for what they are instead of what they've done. She sees metahumans as resources or threats, rather than people. There's never a justification for that - it's the same mentality as a slaver. Either the 'inferior' race is a resource when enslaved, or a threat when free.

I also agree on Batman. 'Heroes' who refuse to kill ensure the criminals will cause further suffering. The squeamish heroes are as responsible for a repeated offense as the criminal themselves.

she is a bit of both but honestly i think she is just a bitch

I think she's neutral. I don't really like her. Not the New 52 version at least. They screwed up most of the characters -.-

Depends on who the observer is.

To herself she is the good guy doing the job that her government has assigned her to do.

To most of the caped community however she is 'good' but with a colossal amount of both hypocrisy and grey areas that basically allowes her to be on both sides of the fence at the same time. Like it's a massive no-no from her if Deathstroke kills a midly US-friendly dictator for someone... but it's ok if Amanda sends the Suicide Squad to kill him instead... as such Amanda is (in her own mind and legally) always in the right, even if it's just as bad as any of the villains.