Suicide Squad #1
Written by Tom Taylor
Art by Bruno Redondo
Color by Adriano Lucas
Letters by Wes Abbot
Review by KrisK
“By the end of this issue, half of this team’ll be dead.” The cover of Suicide Squad #1 promises a lot of death and the trademark expendability that the best Suicide Squad brings. Suicide Squad reboots with DC’s King of Death, Tom Taylor. Taylor, famous for tragic and dramatic deaths in the Elseworld stories, Injustice and DCeased, brings his flair for emotional ends and efficient character growth.
The Suicide Squad, aka Task Force X, remains famous and notorious in the comics and movie world. A team compromised of incarcerated super-villains held hostage by bombs in their brains. The ransom: whatever mission Task Force X leader Amanda Waller demands. This dynamic allows the US Government to use meta-humans for their own ends. Illegal actions against terrorists and allies on soil foreign and domestic. The most famous team members include Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and The Shark.
This comic includes those three famous team members and some fresh faces of less infamy. Magpie steals stuff and is “totally out of her depth”. Cavalier wields a rapier and pretends to be a musketeer. The last new member, Zebra Man, wields telekinesis, force fields, and magnetism. (Just don’t ask him about his zebra motif.)
The opposing team this issue, The Revolutionaries, fights the man and the military industrial complex. The team roster includes too many characters to name, but a few “heroes” stand out. Osita, a super strong Puerto Rican brawler, leads the team. She towers in a room full of metas, and she believes in the cause with all of her soul. T.N.Teen, an exploding Argentinean, devotes his life to disarming the world. Lastly, Scale and Fin, twin punk Atlantean telepaths with bodies so dense, they serve as wrecking balls. As the only non-humans, their presence remains a mystery. Australia, the homeland of Tom Taylor, announces three new submarines, including nuclear weapons. The Revolutionaries set their sights on the new subs, and they succeed. Within minutes, they destroy or commandeer all three subs. Osita proves a strategic mind comparable to Batman and Bane. The Suicide Squad flies in to steal the subs back.
Tom Taylor proves he may have been the best possible choice of DC’s main writers for a Suicide Squad book. (Though Mags Visaggio or Vita Ayala certainly would write a memorable run.) He quickly creates characters with motives and personality. The team members who die in this issue die with flair. The Revolutionaries prove themselves powerful rivals for this series. When the dust settles, the Squad gets a needed upgrade in the form of powerful new members. Redondo draws a fun book, full of violent, yet playful panels. The layouts bring a humorous energy to what is too often a series full of unnecessary somberness. Lucas adds to this energy by choosing striking colors and color schemes.
Verdict: Buy! I have been reading Suicide Squad off and on since the beginning of New 52, but I have never had more fun with the series than this issue. It represents everything Suicide Squad should be.
