Series: Suicide Squad
Writer: Rob Williams
Pencils: Philip Tan
Inks: Jonathan Glapion
Summary from Comixology: “Soldier. War hero. Traitor. Captain Rick Flag was one of America’s greatest military commanders before he was banished to a secret military prison. But after years of isolation, Flag’s life changes forever when a woman called Amanda Waller offers him redemption in exchange for taking on the single most dangerous job in the entire DC Universe: keeping the Suicide Squad alive! ”
Man, what a coincidence that this comic is coming out right before the Suicide Squad movie hits theaters on Friday, you would almost think that was planned or something. But seriously, it makes perfect sense to drop this comics this week. You have people picking it up this week out of hype, and next week, if people like what they see, hopefully they will come into a comic shop and pick this book up. I personally think this is a great starting issue, as well as a great jumping on point for literally any level of a fan. Life long Suicide Squad fan, this book is for you. Just saw the trailer and want some light reading, this is the book for you.
In this issue, the Squad consist of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Boomerang, and leader Rick Flair Flag. This issue is a great “origins” story for the team. We don’t get flashbacks of who Harley, Deadshot and Boomerang were before joining the team, we just know they were bad. We don’t see action ready combat hero Rick Flag fighting overseas, but we do know shit hit the fan for him and he’s now in Guantanamo Bay for terrorism. And, we find out that in the last months of President Obama’s presidency, he finds out about Amanda Walker and Task Force X. For those unfamiliar, Amanda Walker is the government agent that leads the top secret task force.
I think Rob Williams does a fantastic job capturing the feel of these characters. Williams really seems to understand the characters of the team, and he does a fantastic job capturing the dialogue between them. I love how he has Boomerang singing soccer hooligan songs while in combat. Speaking of combat, the fight scenes are absolutely intense in this book. Boomerang slices a guys hands off, Harley and Deadshot shoot a guy in the head (each hit a different target) and the Suicide Squad has no problem detonating a bomb in a metropolitan city.
I really enjoyed the art in this book. It was very clean, but also had a gritty feel to it. A lot of dark colors and dark tones were used, which is important in a book like Suicide Squad. Everything seemed very well-organized on the pages, and the panels were easy to follow. There were a few pages that I just really enjoyed solely because of the page layouts and how the book flowed together. Philip Tan also did a fantastic job on making people look real. What I mean by this is, when looking at President Obama, I knew it was President Obama, and that’s not always the easiest thing to do in the comics medium.
If you are excited for the movie, or just want to read a book about super villains doing badass shit, then this is totally the book for you. Williams and Tan do a wonderful job at bringing this team alive on the pages. Don’t sleep on this book, and for $2.99 what do you have to loose?
Music Pairing:
Harley Quinn being a badass is awesome, and I feel like you could safely call her Miss Murder. AFI is the perfect fit for a book like Suicide Squad, and their song Miss Murder does a good job as the soundtrack.