Ah, Suicide Squad, the book of the New 52 I was looking forward to and dreading all at the same time. I’ve been a follower of the Squad for the past few years. I own the entire series, and a fan of the Secret Six. To say I was nervous about this one is an understatement. I’ll give you the condensed version of the Suicide Squad concept, super villains of the DC Universe get offered a chance to serve their time by helping the U.S Government in off the record missions. If they screw up though, they’re back to where they found them or worse.
Outside of some odd redesigns of Harley Quinn, King Shark, and Deadshot, there was that fact of would it live up to the strength of stories that John Ostrander, Gail Simone, and underrated for Deadshot, Christos Gage. Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad was something to get my head around initially, but I’m keeping an open mind. The writer, Adam Glass was an unknown quantity to me until I learned he wrote episodes of Supernatural, as well as doing the impressive Legion of Doom Flashpoint miniseries. That gave me some hope that the Suicide Squad might be in the right hands. The artist on this Federico Dallocchio is a new name to me, so this was going either way on that end.
The issue focuses mainly on Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and El Diablo, being captured and tortured by unknown characters. An interesting way to get inside their heads and at the same time learn more about the Suicide Squad, strange enough this works. Harley Quinn’s story especially, not as much origin more how she got into the Suicide Squad. It’s fairly interesting and I’ll be curious to see how her story plays out in the future. Deadshot is fairly similar to his earlier incarnation, he still has ties to Batman, with some new quirks here and there. With El Diablo, that’s the one that strikes me as a potential breakout character, he’s genuinely repentant for how he got into his mess and wants to make things better. Adam Glass had a unique way of introducing these characters to you, overall he does a solid job.
The artist , Federico Dallocchio does a solid job at depicting each of the characters for Suicide Squad. He lets you into their pain, and he tells each of their stories effectively. The nicest part being that the art suits the dark nature of this book well. I do appreciate that, yet still outside of things sort of working together in art and writing there’s still a factor that makes Suicide Squad an odd fit. The dark tone suits the title, by the time you’re at the last page, you learn why they were tortured and it comes off fairly weird.
Overall a mixed bag, there’s a lot of potential with Suicide Squad so far, Adam Glass is effective at getting you to understand these characters. Dallocchio’s artwork is suited well to Suicide Squad, yet the next issue is where this book is going to sink or swim. Suicide Squad for me, was a book I was holding to high standards, and for a new fan this could be a weird title walking in not even knowing anything of the characters or concept. I liked parts of the book and other parts I’m not totally sold just yet. Still check this issue out, see what you think about this book for yourself, in my case I’m just a big fan of the Suicide Squad, I still see the potential the series has. Suicide Squad, we’ll see what the next issue holds for you.
