New Suicide Squad #1 (DC)

CREDIT: DC Comics

Rating: 2.5/5 – Being ‘New’ Doesn’t Mean it’s Better.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Shawn Hoklas.

The Suicide Squad has had a rich history in the DCU. John Ostrander brought the title and the team to greatness in the early 1990s and since then, they’ve bounced around a bit from mini-series to guest appearances, but never seemed to find the same success they had with Ostrander at the helm.  With the New 52 reboot came a relaunch of the Suicide Squad and it had some moderate buzz with characters on the team like Deadshot and and the new version of Harley Quinn. After thirty issues the series came to an end, but an announcement quickly came that the series would be getting a relaunch along with a new title, New Suicide Squad.

With this new series comes some new characters: Deathstroke and the Joker’s Daughter. Penciler Jeremy Roberts does a solid job with the art, considering this is one of his first penciling gigs. Roberts got his start at DC by winning the controversial DC open talent search from last year. Although he’s been working as a colorist and designer for over a decade, since winning that contest he’s only done one interior penciling job on an issue of Stormwatch. His art feels stiff at times but considering the amount of work he’s done it’s a great start. Unfortunately the story behind Robert’s artistic journey is better than the story we get in this debut issue.

With Amanda Waller no longer head of the Suicide Squad, newcomer Mr. Sage controls the team and the addition of the new members. We see just why he chose the team members that he has as the group heads to Russia to keep the country in line, as well as find some top secret projects that their government is working on. The idea behind the mission feels uninspired, while the dialogue throughout feels forced. Although there’s some solid action scenes, there’s not much here that grabbed my attention. Writer Sean Ryan didn’t make me feel for the characters, nor the danger that they’re in.

This new Suicide Squad benefits from a compelling and creative lineup of characters, but unfortunately the writing doesn’t match. The plot lacks that same creativity, and the story fails to put these characters into more complex situations in order to create chemistry. Overall this first issue fails on the writing side and has trouble making me care enough to pick up the second issue, especially after the weak last page ending. Since it’s only a first issue, there’s still time for this series to turn around, but if the next few issues fail to deliver, I can’t see this series becoming a success.

Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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