This Thing Never Works Like it Should
After a disastrous first mission, the New Suicide Squad is being sent out on their second mission set in China dealing with the manufacturing of meta humans. I overall enjoyed the first arc of New Suicide Squad “Pure Insantiy”, mostly for Vic Sage’s rather meta reasoning for why the Squad is now was made up of Black Manta, Harley Quinn, Deathstroke, Joker’s Daughter, and Deadshot. With all that squared away, issue 5 “Defective” reorients the Squad more in the direction of the previous New52 Squad.
There is a nice kind of glee to be had with this book, or other constantly changing team-up books. For this new mission the Squad is composed of Black Manta, Harley Quinn, New52 Reverse Flash (Danny West), Captain Boomerang, and “some Ninja Man-Bats we rounded up a few years ago” according to Waller. Yes Ninja Man-Bats, I wonder if they’re like King Shark (who was Shark made Man…I think). Where else would we see this assemblage of low tier villainy, slapped together for no other reason than someone might as well use them. The recovering Deadshot dosen’t take kindly to being replaced by Captian Boomerang, “Ah come on! That stick tossing, pouch jumper?! Can’t you see I’m hurt enough over here?”
Rob Hunter’s art was the main detriment to this book. It is both inconsistent and too angular when he attempts at cartoonish humor. Deadshot’s reaction to the Captain Boomerang news is a perfect example of this, he suddenly looks as if he is mid werewolf transformation. The image is too sharp and not stretched enough to elicit a humorous reaction and with no background it just looks out of place on the page. There is also the cell of Amanda Waller in the shower on page 3 where either the point of view wasn’t fully taken into or account or Waller’s upper torso is 2.5x the size of her waist, in this panel only. Hunter’s overall art for the issue gave me this bad 90’s vibe, with its heavy black inks, cross hatching and muscle definition. He deserves credit though for the awesome splash page where the Ninja Man-Bats are massacring the poor guards.
As poor the panel of Waller in the shower is, the silent opening (post credit page) was a nice little peak into Waller’s sparse living quarters. No bedframe, phone and tablet plugged in next to the mattress, and equally sparse kitchen area. It isn’t what I’d imagine Waller living in but this is supposed to be a younger Waller.
From a plotting perspective, “Defective” goes off of the typical act 1 playbook. Setting everything up and ending with the Squad staring down a horde of half baked test tube meta humans. It is mostly effective and writer Sean Ryan gets some nice lines in, even if they are under cut by the art.
I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at weekntv.com and comicweek.com