Suicide Squad 26
Matt Kindt, Patrick Zircher, Roger Robinson
Spoiler alert! You have been warned!
The series that no one is reading (but everyone should be reading) continues full-steam ahead with this perfectly placed Forever Evil tie-in storyline. Writer Matt Kindt has truly found his footing as a worthy successor and the artwork of Patrick Zircher (with a little bit of an assist by fellow great superhero/villain artist Roger Robinson) is amazing as per usual. So in a world full of bad guys, who else would we root for but the familiar faces? Even if they’re not exactly heroes, it sure is fun to see the double-crossing, the behind-the-scenes scheming, and the anyone-is-expendable storytelling each and every month. Suicide Squad continues to be the book to watch. And I don’t just mean that as a figure of speech. It’s all about presentation with this book (always has been) and it’s never felt more cinematic in its presentation. It doesn’t feel like you’re even reading. It’s like you’re watching a live-action action blockbuster with all of your favorite n’er-do-wells.
We start off with more world-building, interlacing several stories that are taking place simultaneously, highlighting the two “leaders” of the Suicide Squad. We see Amanda’s Team 7 flashback stories along with James Gordon Jr.’s chilling childhood memories as well as a nice little history of Belle Reve, dating back to the place where the bounty hunters of the wild west took their captured criminals. All of this is happening (with brilliant narration by both Waller and Gordon) at the same time as the always-excellent fights that we’ve come to love over the years in this book. Thinker versus Waller. Harley versus Gordon. King Shark versus Kamo. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! We get a role-reversal when Harley Quinn gets an explosive collar placed around her neck, a father/son grudge match between a giant killer shark hybrid and an ancient Hawaiian God, and an escaped O. M. A. C. with one mission: Kill Amanda Waller. But the Wall isn’t the only person in danger, because, as is his nature, Deadshot hasn’t died just quite yet. And he’s going to kill Harley for quite literally dropping a mountain on him.
So there you have it. Action at its finest. Humorous dialogue. Psychotic serial killers trying to one-up each other in a deadly game of posturing. And the world in flames around them, desperately waiting to see who survives the upcoming onslaught. The best part about this book is the single fact that literally everyone is expendable. Even the fan favorites can die. And no matter what happens, how it all ends, and who survives when the dust clears, the realization for us normal folks just watching the chaos always creeps into the back of our minds: Whoever wins, we lose. After all, who is really going to save the world? And, more importantly, what’s going to be their true motivation for doing so? This book rocks.
My Rating: 5/5
