Hm I dont recognize that character at all. I wonder who she is..
Harley Quinn? Really?
*sigh*
This is Suicide Squad.
I fucking love a good redemption story. There is something about a character who used to make bad choices letting his good side get the better of him that always has just been immensely satisfying to me. Recent examples: Jack Sparrow/Barbosa, Edmund Pevensie (I really can't remember the last names of the kids in the Narnia series, its something like that if that's not it), John Marston. Hm we have a problem. I'm at four characters and can't think of more with a great redemption story.
Comic book companies have a weird dynamic. Every 4-6 issues, characters we know and love have to encounter some threat that stands up to years of history and great stories. Year after year, decade after decade. At some point in the 80's and 90's, they seemed to have realized something. They sell us the hero, but what's the hero without the villain? Who is the villain? Why does he do what he does? Is he evil or just incorrectly motivated? Do heroes always have to be perfect or can they have some not so nice warm fuzzy qualities?
Paul Dini and the folks at the Batman Animated Series really is my first memory of villains being human. Freeze just wants to save his wife. Mad Hatter/Scarecrow are scorned nerds. It doesn't make them less insane at the moment, but it gives you something to relate to, a shred of humanity to not see the world so black and white. How would you react if the most important person in your life had an incurable condition and you had the science to possibly save him/her?
Anyway, long ramble there. Villain popularity began to rise in American Culture and comic book companies noticed, giving some villains spinoffs or having them form teams in order to take down threats the "heroes" won't handle. These jobs may be a little dirtier, require crossing lines most heroes won't cross, etc. Marvel has Uncanny X-Force and Thunderbolts, DC has The Outsiders and Suicide Squad.
So basically some secretive organization needs a metahuman team for the missions heroes can't do. Each villain has a bomb in their neck to make them comply. If they die on the mission, no big deal, they were criminals anyway. Lets just make this simple: look at the roster in issue #1
Amanda Waller-think like a corrupted Nick Fury. Never heard of her before this series
Deadshot-greatest assassin/shooter in the DCU. Never misses.
Harley Quinn-If I have to tell you who this is, just stop reading
King Shark-Who the fuck? Humanoid Shark.
El Diablo-Who the fuck 2?-somehow shoots fire related to his tattoos
Black Spider-"Ninja" is about the only characterization we get, Who the fuck 3?
Savant-is gone so quickly we find out nothing about him. Who the fuck 4?
Heard of any of those? Two or three right? I'll admit I'm not the biggest DC guy so some of the obscure guys may have escaped me before but I'm at 2: Deadshot and Harley. Hm. OK maybe they can do this right. They're interesting characters. Let's read a bit.
I laughed at this page but Goddamnit
This is issue 3. Much like my females in my other rant, Harley can't even keep her vag not open for business long enough to finish the first mission. Deadshot's not an idiot. He's actually one of the smarter villains in the DCU in my experiences with his character. So fucking the Joker's girlfriend? Awesome decision. Also Harley's never shown real interest in anyone but Mr. J. What the fuck? Someone just had a clown sex fetish. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
All clownphilia aside, let's talk about the actual book. For every one good thing they do, they do 6 or 7 that make no sense. For instance, Harley has a big throwdown with Joker and this re-unlocks Harley's original therapist self "Harleen Quinzell" leading to a split personality explanation of why such an upstanding young doctor fell in love with a sick fuck like Joker. Now that's cool. She's even having conversations with herself making you wonder who's really "driving" during each mission. They've got Harley actually being intelligent and making plans while "appearing" crazy. She still has the flaws of other DCU gals, but at least they're TRYING to fix it with her (Through issue 17 and the good portrayal of Harley has lasted 2 issues).
And that's the only good thing I can say about this book.
-There's some giant conspiracy going on with Waller and a terrorist organization
-Roster changes issue by issue and characters are killed or maimed constantly giving us no time to get to know or understand them
-Those roster changes are completely insignificant characters outside of Captain Boomerang.
-None of the characters, even Deadshot, have a consistent purpose or even voice to their dialogue. One second they're thinking "redemption could be cool" the next they're killing anything that moves. The next they're leading the team, in the next panel they remain totally silent for the biggest event in the issue.
There's no redemption stories going on here except for possibly Harley. It's villains being villains while someone's threatening to kill them. It could be cool if it took some time and thought to really develop these villains and let us get to know them, but it doesn't and therefore makes the book for the most part pretty damned boring.
Look back at the cover for #1. Harley. A team of 6, Harley's the only one really easy to find on the cover. Why is that do you think?
DC knows this will sell as long as Harley is involved. She's a hugely popular character, and the only one even remotely interesting in this story. They should stop calling this Suicide Squad (its not really suicide if someone blows up the bomb in your neck..) and just rename it "Harley's Devils" and turn it into a Charlie's Angels ripoff. Not that it'd be any more interesting, but at least they'd be honest about what they're selling. Basically, unless you're a huge Harley Quinn fan or a Batman completionist (2 issues tie into the death of the family arc), skip this one. It's odd I actually finished it up to the current issue.
-Oz
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