Suicide Squad #39 – Rob Willaims, Writer; Neil Edwards, Artist; Ulises Arreola, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 5/10
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
An action-packed issue, Suicide Squad #39 finds the team deployed to Washington DC, which has been turned into a city full of brainwashed techno-zombies by The Wall – who is actually possessed by the increasingly unstable Hack. The character’s turn into the big bad of Rob Williams’ Suicide Squad ever since her murder has been controversial. While her argument is reasonable – Waller drafted her into a combat role over relatively minor crimes, mainly because she’s a metahuman, and she was killed for her efforts – her methods are so extreme that any likability she had in her early stories is long gone.
The issue kicks off with Enchantress being recruited by Rick Flag to join the team, which is soon dropped into Washington to take on the roaming masses. The team is as dysfunctional as ever, with Croc having massive PTSD from his near-death experience in space, reverting him back to a near-animal state when he gets burned.
The only person who still keeps him sane is Enchantress, or June Moone – which is why the Wall targets her first when he shows up. She’s sucked down to hell, claimed by her many victims, or so it seems. This is one of the best scenes in the issue, coming off as genuinely creepy, and the fact that Croc doesn’t react with rage and violence but with shock sells it pretty well. However, beyond that, there’s still relatively little for the audience to care about. The bulk of the issue is the team battling The Wall/Hack over documents from the government’s secret files. Oddly, Hack is never actually named as the villain this issue, but it’s very clear what the implication is.
Especially in the last scene, which sends Hack wildly over the moral event horizon. The difference between this and fellow anti-hero book Red Hood and the Outlaws is that book has made its edgy violent heroes likable and relatable on some level. This book has just created a band of nasty people fighting other nasty people, and that’s not particularly entertaining to read.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
