Suicide Squad #1:
What Happened: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, King Shark, El Diablo, Savant, Voltaic and Black Spider are being tortured by some goons in masks after a failed Suicide Squad mission. The goons want to know who was behind the Squad, and Savant eventually breaks, spilling his guts about everything he knew(the basics being the Squad members are a bunch of criminals who get to do some merc jobs for the government in order to get out of their cells). Once the goons hear that, they knock the rest of the Squad unconscious. The Squad members wake up sometime later in their gear and are told that the whole ordeal was a test to ensure that they wouldn't rat out their handlers if they were ever captured. From there, Amanda Waller gives the Squad their first mission, killing 60,000 people in a football stadium in Mississippi.
The Good: The premise of the Suicide Squad/Task Force X(the Squad's official government name) was always good, and it smartly wasn't altered here. Criminals get to do dirty work for the government in exchange for time away from their cells, nice and simple. Deadshot seems to be the Squad's leader, which is fine by me. I liked the mixture of new and old blood here. You have Deadshot, King Shark and Harley Quinn as DC veterans, with El Diablo, Black Spider and Voltaic as the newbies.
The Bad: What the HELL happened to Amanda Waller?! Does EVERY female comic book character have to look the exact same? One of the things I loved about Waller was her appearance, which was counter to pretty much every other supermodel looking comic character. Savant being the guy to rat out the team kind of annoyed me... I was hoping he'd make the team. There's really no sense in getting too invested in the new guys since you can almost guarantee one of them is getting offed within the first 6 issues.
The Verdict: I liked it. The story was simple and easy to follow, and this issue did what any good rebooted title SHOULD do, tell us about the main character/characters/team and leave us with a strong cliffhanger. Was it perfect? No, but it was good enough that it'll be one of the first #2 issues from DC I'll be reading next month.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Oh rats.
One... that was NOT Savant from BoP was it? Because if so I am PISSED that they ruined his character. Savant was awesome, simple as that.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, two links for you to check out. Both reboot related.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/19/rumours-of-dc-relaunch-creative-changes/
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-new-52-week-1-questions-110916.html
Hey JT I´m concerned about those rumors, especially because I really liked the Resurrection Man Stuff...
ReplyDeleteI didn´t like this issue at all i has not anything about what I expect of a Task X-force team. seems to be a bunch of loosers to me..
Just uploaded some randon thoughs at my blog about this issue
And, I´m waiting for your thoughs over Demon Knights.
Stephnie Brown is alive !!!
ReplyDeletehttp://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/09/19/batman-incorporated-leviathan-strikes-first-look/
thanks Nate, i agree with almost everything you said but that was a fair rating you gave Suicide Squad #1. i did an initial Youtube review right after i read the issue last Wed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHd8JxiR0B0
ReplyDeleteand then when i started hearing all the belly aching over Waller's 52 relaunch weight loss program and Harley's new wardrobe i made this follow up one a couple days later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHd8JxiR0B0
Here's an update of the creative changes, sorry to flood ya comments with links X.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/19/creative-changes-for-month-four-of-the-dc-relaunch/
I think it was the same Savant, JT... Trust me, I was pissed about that as well... Feel free to throw as many links my way as ya want, JT. You know I likes me some comments! The only creative team change that I really took note of was JT Krul leaving Green Arrow(since you know I hardly pay attention to the artists!). I wasn't gonna pick up GA WITH Krul on it, and I won't be picking it up WITHOUT Krul on it. I've read as many GA comics in this lifetime as one can be expected to!
ReplyDeleteThat's half the fun with the Squad though, Alien! They aren't well known or super over characters, they're a bunch of criminals and stuff. That's one of my favorite things about a series like this, it spotlights those characters that normally don't get a chance to shine.
First off, I agree completely with Harley's look. I dig it. It's fine by me. Like you said in your review Dave, it's creepy and perfect for her. As for the Squad's history, I'd say this issue was a replacement of the original(unlike Swamp Thing I guess...). But it's also been hinted that DC already has an out of the reboot with that hooded chick running around. So if it fails, boom, the regular history of the Squad is back. So again, the history change is fine by me. Still, I liked pre-reboot Waller more than supermodel Waller, but is that gonna get me to drop this series? Hell no! If the story sucks, then I'll drop it, but the amazing shrinking Waller isn't gonna lead me to ditch this one.
f__k yeah Nate that's what i like to hear. thanks for checking out my vids. bro! my Suicide Squad blog has been invaded with a shit load comments these past couple of days over this. well i hope you'll visit me there sometime cause as long as this series is going it'll be anything there but dull. plus in general it's nice to hear from someone who's not bashing every little goddamn thing about the book. i even came across this one jerk off in a Youtube video bitchin about the art. all these whiny belly aching look at me i'm an angry little fan boy panzy asses out there. thank God your not one of em Nate,I just don't think i could handle that :)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this issue of Suicide Squad. I REALLY enjoyed seeing Harley. I really missed her and glad to see she's still around since Siren's ended.
ReplyDeleteAnd about the Waller comment, I honestly don't know what to say about that. I saw her and was like "Who's this bitch?" lol Really said that to myself. It doesn't bother me, but it sucks to think everyone think skinny is beauty. I'm sure some where readers that are just as upset or even more upset about Waller's reboot as well.
Minus that lil flaw, this was a pretty good issue to follow. I was introduced to characters and liked every single one of them.
One thing I've learned from keeping this blog going for as long as I have Dave, is that people, especially hardcore comic fanboys(either hardcore DC or Marvel), do love to bitch! But then again, I do enjoy going off on a bitchfest myself every now and then, so who am I to talk? :D But yeah, I mean if the story sucks/I can't get into the story, I'll drop the series. So far Static Shock and Demon Knights are getting dropped from me for that very reason. But to complain about a change in outfits? Or a change in looks? That tells me that those people couldn't find anything important to complain about, so they had to nitpick.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Lisha. I was so glad to see Harley here, ditto with Deadshot. If the quality stays high, this COULD be one of DC's better books. And yeah, like I said, the Waller thing bothered me due to the pre-reboot Waller actually looking different than every other female comic character. Now she's just another skinny, supermodel-esque looking character when before she was something more. At least she still looks like the hard-nosed, take no nonsense character she used to be.
I dont know i dont hated this issue, the art is good, Harley has the best momments on the whole issue but i just dont like it
ReplyDeleteWhat can ya do, Alien? Every so often I run into one of those comics where I just can't get into the story no matter how much I want to. That was how Demon Knights was for me. I mean I wanted to like it, because I like Paul Cornell's work for the most part, but I just couldn't get into the series.
ReplyDelete