Suicide Squad: Dream Team #2 – Nicole Maines, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: One of the big things that has been building as we head towards the Absolute Power event is that Amanda Waller has absolutely no scruples left. While she previously showed no hesitation to capture or even kill villains, she’s now expanded to heroes and civilians alike – placing brain bombs in their heads and sending them on missions. Her new Suicide Squad contains several heroes and antiheroes, and even a family member, but none is more key to the invasion of Gammora than Nia Nal, aka Dreamer—a sweet rookie hero who is repulsed by everything she has to do here. The first part of this issue is a chaotic action segment as Waller engineers her own coup, targeting the current leader of Gammora – who happens to be the mother of Jon Kent’s boyfriend Jay Nakamura. But as the first phase of the plan reaches its conclusion, it’s time for an even more compelling showdown.
Nia has been pushed to her limit in defense of her small alien colony, which Waller threatened to expose – but now it’s been exposed anyway, and she wants answers. This leads to a fascinating showdown in the dream realm between Dreamer and Waller, as Dreamer starts to say all the things we’ve been thinking for over a year now. Waller is a fascinating character when written well, but I don’t think this current heel turn has really worked well for her—and much of this issue sounds like meta-commentary on that. There’s a flashback to Waller’s start of darkness years before she ever created Task Force X that’s really interesting—her family has been explored before, but never in any sort of definitive manner. But it’s not a surprise that Dreamer is the character Maines writes the best here, and I’m very excited for her upcoming graphic novel in April. This series, while strong, feels like a Dreamer series with everyone else in the back seat.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
