Artist: Patrick Zircher
Review: Will Dubbeld
I would like, if I may, to relate an anecdote I picked up in the miasma know as the Internet before the review. The originator of this story eludes me, so in the event he or she reads this article, mea culpa.
No infringement or disrespect intended, merely boosting your signal.
The timeframe for this particular story is shortly after Flashpoint, if memory serves:
"Last Thursday at Comic-Con International, during the first of four New 52 panels held by DC Comics to discuss their line-wide relaunch of superhero titles this September, a fan walked up to the microphone and posed a question to Co-Publisher Dan DiDio about the demographics of the New 52 creators:
'Why did you go from 12% in women [creators] to 1% on your creative teams?'
To which DiDio replied in a startlingly aggressive tone, 'What do those numbers mean to you? What do they mean to you? Who should we be hiring? Tell me right now. Who should we be hiring right now? Tell me.'
Who should you be hiring? How about the 11% of your creators that you at some point thought were good enough to work on your comics?"
I cannot vouch for the veracity of this statement, as I was not at CCI that particular Thursday.
Or ever.
During my tenure as the HCBs Twitternaut, however, I have heard tales, witnessed exchanges, and had brief discourse with industry folks about instances of rampant misogyny/nepotism within the business, sexual harassment at conventions, and other distasteful practices that we're all really too old and presumably too intelligent in which to engage.
The comix industry has always been perceived as a boys club, but that sorry outlook has been mythbusted by the Joyce Brabners, Wendy Pinis, Weezie Simonsons, and others too numerous to mention simply in the interest of upping my word count.
Big high fives to Gail Simone, for getting rehired by DC comics after getting fired via email by some peabrain. Despite her frequent oblique Twitter updates and her Cult of Gail followers...
I dunno, I guess I'm just more of a Kelly Sue DeConnick fan...
Point is, stop being dickbags, fellas.
The girls isn't going anywhere, and a lot of them are doing a better job at writing! Deal!
After that, forgive me if I segue into another Nu52 rant/diatribe.
Or don't.
I'll do it anyway.
I sincerely hope that comic book fans were as crestfallen after the wake of 1985s Crisis on Infinite Earths as many of us are in the swirling toiletbowl eddy of post-Flashpoint DC.
Everything from its hugely overcomplicated costume redesigns to the arbitrary erasure of years of (and I'll use this term lightly, DC) continuity, to GODDAMN WILDSTORM CHARACTERS IN MY DC, leads me to poo-poo the Nu52. Perhaps it's all a plot to further convolute Power Girl's backstory (Atlantean? Kryptonian? Arm candy for Mister Terrific?) even more.
Perhaps the random bits of conflicting history and retcons are intentional plays to toy with our weary fanboy hearts.
I'm not saying Dan Didio and Jim Lee are high-fiving over Geoff Johns (or 'DC Bendis') back, but Nu52 may have some editorial issues.
I just hope the irony of characters from The Authority existing in the DCU is not lost on Warren Ellis.
Perhaps I'm still really bitter over Before Watchmen (http://the-hammond-comics-blog.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-before-watchmen_22.html?m=0) but I tend to gravitate towards the less popular DC books. All Star Western, Whistling Skull, (the Shazam! backup story in Justice League was amazing, incidentally) dearly departed Sword of Sorcery, and the Suicide Squad.
See, I got around to it...
I adore the Suicide Squad, I always have. It's the Dirty Dozen, but starring super-villains.
If you don't think that's a great concept, you're a Red.
It's like Marvel's Thunderbolts comic, but 20+ years older.
And usually better.
A rotating roster of super-criminals whose ranks were bolstered with expendable morts who the writers could snuff at a moments notice without depleting the core group of characters was the formula, then and now.
And yes, I am mastering the art of Lovecraftian run-on sentences, thankyouverymuch.
The current incarnation of the Squad has a few familiar faces and some new blood, including:
Captain Boomerang, a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad Flash villain, but an amazing-flavored amazing member of the Suicide Squad. He throws trick boomerangs, guys.
And is from Australia. Because he throws boomerangs. Nevertheless, was always one of my favorite Squad members, because he was such a hapless fucker. "Busted by The Flash AGAIN?!!! *sigh* guess I'll do another tour with The Squad"
Or at least that's how I like to see it.
Harley Quinn, one of the worst fashion victims of the Nu52 redesigns. Poor Harley went from Carnivale Jester to leather lass, getting a slutty makeover because bewbs.
And really no other reason.
Harley has split ways with Mister J, presumably because she finds Face/Off Joker as stupid as the rest of us, and now serves in the Squad over a stint in Belle Reve prison. I nearly balked at her somewhat juvenile depiction in the book, but harkening back to her original appearances in Batman:TAS she was essentially a sadistic woman-child.
King Shark, this guy is amazeballs crazy and gets a free pass from my usual distaste for wonky DC characters. Probably because he's a giant shark-guy that eats people. Apparently he's the son of a Hawaiian shark god and, I dunno, a lady shark I guess. His Nu52 makeover changed him from a great white shark head guy to a hammerhead shark head guy, but whatever, he still eats folks.
The latest issues have introduced as members the Unknown Soldier from the latest GI Combat book, a sort of Jason Bourne/super soldier kind of chap, and some spawn of Commissioner Gordon, his craaaaaazy son from that totally kewl arc Scott Snyder wrote where he was craaaaaazy.
Not so crazy as to cut his own face off, however.
The last two noteworthy characters in the book are the closest thing to flagship characters the book has had, omnipresent in nearly every issue of every incarnation of the Suicide Squad.
Deadshot, never has a 1950s throwaway Batman villain struck it rich like Deadshot. Going from a betuxedoed mustache-twister in a top hat to a nihilistic gun-bunny with death wish, Deadshot has turned into a fan favorite over the years, spawning miniseries and a co-starring role in the lamented Secret Six comic from Auld52.
Finally, Amanda Waller, the Squad's liaison/handler/all around take no shit tough bitch. Mrs. Waller used to be a back talkin', portly African-American matron, but has since gone on a severe weight loss program and has undergone a 'hot treatment', apparently because the Nu52 has a 'no fatties' policy.
Also, she was apparently in Team 7, which was a top secret government project to PUT WILDSTORM IN MY DC!!!!!
This installment sees the Squad on lockdown in Belle Reve Prison and surprise! something goes awry. Harley escapes and goes after Amanda Waller, and releases Deadshot because they have some kinda weird 'thing' going on, the kind of thing only a murderous clown girl and a cold-blooded gunman could have goin' on.
The book is a painfully quick read, too quick, but not to the fault of the page count or the writer. It just flows in a way as to seem much shorter than it is. From Harley capturing Amanda Waller and psychoanalyzing her (because, writer Ales Kot did fans the service of remembering that she was a criminal psychiatrist before she was a wacky clown) to a pretty visceral knockdown dragout tussle between Deadshot and the Unknown Soldier, the characters play off one another very well and the art is sublime, with the colors subdued to the tone and mood of the book.
After Jim Gordon, Jr. strikes an unrevealed deal with Harley, the book returns to an earlier scene depicting a fight between the Squad and a monolithic creature composed of a pile of corpses. The issue ends with a nearly full page spread (pun not really intended) of Cheetah wielding Jesse Ventura's minigun from Predator in a rather phallic manner.
And you all heard that right, The Cheetah (usually fights Wonder Woman) straddling a minigun (big enough to be considered aircraft ordinance) and fighting a gigantic mound of undead.
And shit like that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I will continue to look forward Suicide Squad every month.
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