Review: Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers trade paperback (DC Comics)

Adam Glass finishes one of the more controversial starting runs of the New 52 with Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers. Glass tells a twisty story in which the reader can never be sure who's going to die next, and moreover whom thought dead might return to the living; in this way, Glass's story has shades of John Ostrander's fan-favorite series, even if it never quite achieves that book's full nuance. Glass's Squad remains an amusing mix of irreverence and thoughtfulness, designed to keep the reader off guard -- just when you think the book has swung too far one way, it moves back in the other.

Though this volume doesn't share the "Death of the Family" titling and seems mostly removed from the Bat-universe, one of the most notable aspects is Glass's face-off (so to speak) between Harley Quinn and the newly-returned Joker. Glass is responsible for the first real interaction between Harley and the Joker in the New 52, and while his depiction of Harley may still not be to everyone's tastes, I thought Glass offered some interesting insights into the characters' dysfunctional relationship here.

[Review contains spoilers]

There's a moment in the second part of Glass's two-part "Death of the Family" story in which Harley, waking up after having been choked to unconsciousness by the Joker with a chain, believes she sees for a moment what looks like a Brian Bolland Killing Joke Joker -- trench coat, pink shirt, green bow tie. The Killing Joke-era Joker is hardly a "tame" iteration, but the juxtaposition of that Joker with the mutilated, gruesome-faced Joker of the moment is exceptionally striking; it really demonstrates that if we thought the Joker was frightening before, he's doubly frightening now.*

This comes after the Joker has punched Harley, held a knife to her throat, dragged her by her hair, and stuck a razor in her mouth and then cut her cheek open. We are meant to understand that some time in the murky past of the New 52, the Joker and Harley worked together and were actually "good" partners -- that something like the Batman: The Animated Series version of the Joker and Harley actually existed. But what works as slapstick in a cartoon inevitably translates to abuse on the comics page, and that's what Glass demonstrates here -- whatever romanticizing might have been done of the Joker and Harley in the past, this is an abusive relationship now, where the Joker hesitates not at all before beating Harley and even biting a chunk out of her ear.

Glass's most revealing addition to the Joker/Harley mythos, one that I don't think any other writer has ever considered before, is that Dr. Harleen Quinzel, despite the coincidental name, isn't the Joker's first Harley Quinn. When the Joker locks Harley in a dungeon to rot among the corpses of other Harleys past, their relationship for perhaps the first time makes the most sense. The Joker did not fall in love with Harley -- the most preposterous tenet of the idea of a Joker/Harley relationship -- but rather this is a game that the Joker plays over and over with impressionable young women: corrupting them, making them his sidekick, and ultimately discarding them. Glass finally offers a reason that explains sensibly why the Joker wants Harley and why she wants him in return, and that reconciles how the Joker supposedly treated Harley in the past versus how he's treating her now.

(Glass leaves unspoken the obvious comparisons between the Joker and his Harleys and Batman and his Robins, which a cynical view might see Batman "using and losing" his partners in much the same way. It's a pity Glass is out of the Bat-universe now such that he can't pick up on this in the future.)

Following the "Death in the Family" story is a transitional issue in which Deadshot appears to return from the dead and Harley recovers from her injuries, which bridges with flashback the Squad's last disastrous mission against Basilisk and their next one. Having just been beaten by the Joker, Harley now seems to break up with Deadshot -- with fisticuffs -- and Deadshot responds in kind. It's another example of Harley in an abusive relationship -- until Glass reveals that Harley, at least, is just pretending, fighting with Deadshot such to speak covertly about Harley's suspicions that boss Amanda Waller now has the power to resurrect dead Squad-ers.

Harley and Deadshot have been the book's central and most-defined characters, but in this moment it really becomes their book -- Harley and Deadshot against the world. The Harley/Deadshot relationship has never seemed quite "right" -- because Glass's iteration of Deadshot is somewhat rougher than the more honorable version in Gail Simone's Secret Six; because it seems an incongruous leap for Deadshot to go from dating the more put-together Jeanette in Secret Six to looney-tunes Harley in Suicide Squad; because there's been a general "ick factor" in Glass's portrayal of their relationship so far; and because of Harley's general depiction only alongside the Joker -- but in this issue, I finally saw how it could work. This comes, again, just as Glass is leaving the book, so whether Suicide Squad's next writers will continue this dynamic or abandon it remains to be seen.

The final three issues get to some of that "twistiness" I referred to in this series. Two of them spotlight Yo-Yo, a new character Glass created in volume one apparently for the sole purpose of having him get eaten by King Shark; Yo-Yo survived, and now not only is he one of the most powerful members of the group, but Glass gives him an origin and pits the team against Yo-Yo's sister, Red Orchid, as the story's villain. Though Yo-Yo's return has been foreshadowed for a while, more surprising is the return of Voltaic, another bit player whom Deadshot killed in the first volume, also back on the team. Glass introduces a fascinating dynamic in the possibility that Waller could resurrect dead Squad members, such that even death wouldn't grant them "parole" from the Squad, but again, no telling whether future writers will continue to explore this.

Glass's final issue then shifts somewhat away from the ongoing Basilisk storyline and focuses on Waller, as she enlists the Squad personally to help her save operative Kurt Lance. It's an odd finale that goes off on a strange tangent involving swamp monsters, but also brings something of a resolution to Glass's run in that Waller disarms the neck bombs that guaranteed her the Squad's loyalty. Art for the issue is by Cliff Richards, approaching the characters more realistically and less cartoony, and it's probably the volume's best-drawn chapter; Henrik Jonsson, Sandu Florea, and Fernando Dagnino each have more animated styles that worked for Suicide Squad but that I didn't favor quite as much (and Dagnino has a tendency at times to draw Harley as quite impossibly busty, to the point of absurdity).

Adam Glass's Suicide Squad has been a weird ride, at times too gross and at times too flip, but also with some subtle depth (maybe too subtle) buried within the stories. Certainly, this book ended up far better than the torturous first issue suggested it would. Glass begins a lot of good storylines in Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers that he doesn't get to finish, but perhaps they'll find favor with the teams to come.

[Includes original and variant covers, as well as the "WTF" two-page cover, and artists' sketches]

Coming up -- Red Sonja and Batman: Li'l Gotham!

*In practice this doesn't hold up, because nothing the "new" Joker does during Death of the Family really compares to the Killing Joke Joker shooting Barbara Gordon; frankly, in practice the "new" Joker is rather tame, only ultimately pretending to mutilate the Bat-family instead of actually doing so. Appearance-wise, however, the "new" Joker takes the cake.

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Review: Suicide Squad Vol. 2: Basilisk Rising trade paperback (DC Comics)

This may come as a shocking confession, but inasmuch as I didn't like Adam Glass's Flashpoint entry "Legion of Doom", when I finally got around to reading Glass's Suicide Squad: Kicked in the Teeth, I actually liked it quite a lot. The book starts roughly, with the infamous page after page of torture, but even this has a purpose; once the story starts rolling, there's an authentic "hard luck anti-heroes" vibe to the book that echoes, indeed, the efforts of Gail Simone, Greg Rucka, and John Ostrander before them.

[Review contains spoilers]

Glass's followup, Suicide Squad: Basilisk Rising, is more of the same fun. Glass left the team in a troubled place at the end of the last volume, and the first issue is a striking collection of character moments dealing with "The Hunt for Harley Quinn" -- with very little "shoot 'em up" -- before the story gets underway. Amanda Waller gets the focus as Glass demonstrates how she bullies, cajoles, manipulates, and perhaps even shows mercy (but probably not) on the Squad members. The last two chapters of the book are especially Waller-centric, too; the cover of the included Zero Month issue, with Waller in the forefront and the Squad behind her, is another reminder that this book stars Waller just as much as it does Deadshot, Harley Quinn, or the rest.

The next issue is taken up with a Resurrection Man crossover (plus an issue of Resurrection Man). As with the second volume of Justice League International, the crossover feels thin, though Glass improves on the JLI/Firestorm crossover in that in Glass's story, Waller and Resurrection Man's Director Hooker know one another, the Squad faces off against Resurrection Man's Body Doubles, and so on -- the two titles are more connected and share a better sense of community than the JLI just happening to stumble over the Firestorms. Glass suggests that Waller may do more with a certain item she liberates from the Resurrection Man, though that doesn't manifest in this book, at least.

(This will be interesting to watch and compare, I'm realizing, over the course of all the New 52 Vol. 2s. The issue #6-12 era of the New 52 was marked by crossovers -- not just the big ones like "Night of the Owls" and "The Culling," but JLI/Firestorm, Suicide Squad/Resurrection Man, Stormwatch/Red Lanterns, Blue Beetle/New Guardians, and so on. I'll be curious to see which writers make the best use of these, as Glass does, or which just hang there, as the one from JLI did.)

The crossover feels thin mainly because it's "just" as Suicide Squad story, before the main event, the Basilisk four-parter. This starts out rather better than it finishes -- the Squad are sent to capture the lieutenant of the evil Basilisk organization, whose taken an entire corporate board hostage. In true Squad fashion, they find the hostages all to be criminals themselves and execute them so as to diffuse Basilik's bargaining chip; they come to find, however, that the situation is a ruse and that Basilisk soldiers are stealing data elsewhere. A mystery traitor on the team kills the lieutenant, and it all becomes suddenly, wonderfully, violent and paranoid, the kind of mission gone wrong that the Squad is known for.

The second part, however, has a strange diversion in that Basilisk blows up the Sqaud's plane and they're marooned for a while on an island with a Mayan civilization that time, apparently, forgot. The resultant conversation about whether or not the Squad should take the opportunity to slip Waller's reins is equally good and paranoid, though the Mayans-out-of-nowhere (who turn out to be cannibals) is such a ludicrous idea, even in the DC Universe, that Deadshot even comments how ludicrous it is, which is when you know you have a problem.

Ultimately I didn't find Regulus, Basilisk's leader, so compelling, more of your average villainous cult leader and visually similar, especially in Ken Lashley's covers, to Ra's al Ghul. Glass's use of Captain Boomerang again, however, is great stuff -- again, the reader sees how far ahead Glass is planning with Boomerang's appearance playing off his disappearance last time; also the animosity between Deadshot and Boomerang, bordering on friendship, continues to be a lot of fun. And most compelling, the Squad entirely aside, is Basilisk's attack on Waller in her home and how she deals with it.

Indeed this Suicide Squad volume has its down moments, which may discourage some. Again, neither the Mayan warriors nor the Resurrection Man crossover are prize-winners, and Basilisk seems a poor enough re-do of Kobra that hopefully that's where Glass is headed with them (in the same spirit, his nod to the origins of Deadshot's trademark pre-Flashpoint mustache is a great bit). At the same time, Glass does great work with these characters and this is largely where Suicide Squad succeeds -- visually, Squad member Iceberg looks so silly as to be destined to be killed off, but Glass counters appearances by making Iceberg a brilliant scientist with a troubled past; equally Glass's King Shark with his shifting intelligence steals every scene he's in.

So, you'll be as surprised as I am to hear me say I'm enjoying Adam Glass's Suicide Squad a lot, and Suicide Squad: Basilisk Rising is rather less violent and more action-packed than the previous volume in a way that might appeal to Squad fans. Glass leaves the team in disarray at the end again and I know the Joker's just around the corner; I'm looking forward to the next volume.

[Includes original covers, Fernando Dagnino sketchbook, cover sketches by Ken Lashley]

More reviews on the way!

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Review: Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Guest reviewer Scott Beattie writes about the Memphis Grizzlies for Straight Outta Vancouver]

At its core, the concept behind Suicide Squad is incredibly brilliant and elegant: a group of villains goes on high-risk black ops missions for the US Government in exchange for time off their prison sentences. In addition to creating an ensemble thriller featuring a cast of anti-heroes, the concept also helps fill in some of the nuts and bolts of the DC Universe as it fleshes out minor villains while also explaining their continual presence in other superhero titles despite the fact that they should be in jail.

Unfortunately, this concept is not well-served in Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth, the squad's first appearance in the rebooted DC Universe. The first seven issues of the series feature poor dialogue, forced humor, and an excessive amount of violence. The concept alone should be intriguing for first-time readers, but long-time fans of either John Ostrander's original Suicide Squad or Gail Simone's Secret Six will probably find this incarnation unappealing.

[Review contains spoilers]

Perhaps in a nod to the Ostrander run, Kicked in the Teeth is divided into small arcs of 2-3 issues, each of which represent a particular mission. Of the three, the first is easily the weakest as it is yet another Walking Dead-type scenario. Given the overabundance of zombie stories in the media at the moment, one really has to craft a distinctive take on the idea in order to rise above the pack, and writer Adam Glass fails to do so. The other missions, which revolve around putting down a prison riot and tracking down an escaped Harley Quinn, fare much better.

Unfortunately, any goodwill earned by the story is lost just as quickly due to poor characterization and wooden dialogue. Glass wisely opts to cast the biggest names of the series, Deadshot and Harley Quinn, as leads, and yet the characterization of both is lacking. In the past, Deadshot has demonstrated both an inner battle between self-serving practicality versus loyalty towards his friends as well as a complex moral code -- he once assassinated a senator who attempted to blackmail the squad in order to prevent Rick Flag from doing it himself -- but those nuanced traits are absent here. Instead, the reader is presented with a lead who hates the missions and his companions, and whose entire personality is that he always follows orders. Deadshot does not experience any remorse or even excitement when he kills his teammate Voltaic; he does it without any emotion because he has been ordered to set up a scapegoat. Amorality on its own does not differentiate him from any other villain or anti-hero, and this characterization has reduced one of the DC Universe's most compelling characters into one of its most bland.

Harley Quinn is more recognizably herself, and the way in which her relationship with the Joker is explored in light of Detective Comics: Faces of Death is one of Kicked in the Teeth's highlights. Although she has definitely been oversexualized, this is somewhat forgivable given the same oversexualization in other high-profile projects such as Batman: Arkham Asylum. Less forgivable are the bad puns and lame jokes that the reader is constantly subjected to. Admittedly, this is another of Harley's trademark features, but while writers such as Paul Dini have made it charming, here it is merely annoying. Even worse, the bad puns seem to be contagious and every team member makes their fair share of bad jokes (even Deadshot joins in, telling a fat civilian to "Slow your roll").

The remaining characters are mostly forgettable cliches. One wonders if the series would have been better served by featuring a more classic lineup with members such as Bronze Tiger or Black Orchid. Lime and Light, whom Green Arrow battled in The Midas Touch, join the team for the third mission, and while nothing much is done with them, their appearance does give a more cohesive feel to the New 52 universe.

Many of these deficiencies in characterization are a result of wooden dialogue. When Captain Boomerang says, "Nah, we're the bad guys. Got anything to say to that?" or Deadshot tells El Diablo to "Take it easy chili powder. Take a look at this," it makes it difficult for the reader to take these characters, who are supposedly hardened killers, seriously. Based on similar problems in his "Legion of Doom" story in Flashpoint: World of Flashpoint Featuring the Flash, it seems that this is a reoccurring problem for Adam Glass, which is especially strange given his background in television.

To be fair to Glass, he is hindered by the series' art. Over the course of seven issues, there are seven different artists (Federico Dallocchio draws two issues himself and splits duties on two others, thereby earning the cover credit by default). While none of the artwork is particularly bad, the constant shift in art gives the entire volume a feeling of instability. The transition from artist to artist is especially noticeable in the several instances when it occurs mid-issue, and the series would greatly benefit from more consistency in the next volume.

Suicide Squad is a title that I have an intense amount of loyalty for, and I was willing to forgive this volume for its flaws, but if there is one thing that has really tested my loyalty, it's the violence. Obviously, a title like Suicide Squad is inherently violent -- Ostrander's run in the late '80s was promoted with the promise of at least one character death per mission -- however, its presence in Kicked in Teeth is problematic because it is mostly gratuitous. The first issue is almost entirely devoted to the scenes of the Suicide Squad being tortured, only for Glass to reveal by the end that it is a set-up by Amanda Waller to test their resolve, rendering nineteen pages of torture meaningless. Even the three deaths of squad members feel hollow. When Yo-Yo is eaten by King Shark it adds nothing to the plot or either character; the reader had no time to connect with Yo-Yo, who had only been introduced in the previous issue, so his death accomplishes nothing more than shock value. But Glass gets even this wrong, as King Shark ate someone once before, removing surprise from the action. For anyone who is not impressed by violence for its own sake, these instances can be incredibly off-putting.

For most fans, Suicide Squad: Kicked in the Teeth will be an unfortunate disappointment. Even new readers may have trouble enjoying this series once the initial thrill of the concept wears off. I'm happy that Suicide Squad is once again a monthly series, and even happier to know that new writer Ales Kot is joining the title this May.

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