[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Rob Williams
Artist: Scott Hannah, Diogenes Neves
Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Summary
“SQUAD ON TRIAL” starts here! When Amanda Waller awakens in prison, brain bomb implanted in her head in an ironic twist, there’s only one man who can save her—but does Rick Flag WANT to? Even if Rick could climb out of the whiskey bottle he’s hiding in, swimming in guilt for allowing his former teammates to die, why would he save Waller, when the Task Force X mastermind might be responsible for those very teammates’ deaths? All this while Killer Croc contemplates if life is even worth living…
Positives
Looming endings can have a way of affecting a books story. Its no secret Suicide Squad will end at book 50, so starting a new story with a climactic end surely makes sense. The Squad traveling to Russia to save their once fearless leader now trapped and bombed provides a whole new layer to the group where alone they must follow Colonel Flag and be placed in positions they never thought possible.
Negatives
This was a tough one. A very boring book used only for setup toward a grand finale. Nothing is wrong with setup books but they do need to have a cohesive story and a gripping plot to draw the reader in and excite them for the next issue, this did neither. Colonel Flag being set up as a nice guy with a bad secret cliche is not something we needed, we know Flag and the basis of his character. The Squad seems like a group of people who have never met nor had experiences together before, a good chunk of the book is dedicated to the team passing through traps and security measures like its their first time and it just seemed daunting for a long time running book.
Verdict
Theirs really not much to say about this one, its bland and disappointing. Suicide Squad has a long history of being the other comic, the one the outsiders read who don’t want the mainstream heroes, for those that connect with the rag tag bunch and its sad to see the final stories in a long lineage of great stories. I hope it will return and when it does with a brand new direction that sets it apart from what we are seeing now, bland set ups to glorified one shots with climatic ends. The book has so much potential and in the future i hope its realized.
