The Face of Fear Returns
I love the set of Capullo Mask covers, but I did really like the original solicited cover for this issue. The graves and the laughter formed and intensely creepy tone. This one's still awesome like all the Mask Covers.
Ok, I gotta say this is one of the best Suicide Squad issues yet. The whole opening funeral scene was phenomenal. Harley's funeral dress was AWESOME and so her kind of thing, and Amanda was much closer to The Wall than ever before. She made such callous remarks to dampen Deadshot's heroic sacrifice, and I'm almost certain she's going to use the tech from Resurrection Man's hand they reference to bring him back. Because The Wall gets her damn way, and one of her best tools, Deadshot, is not allowed to die without her damn permission.
But The Joker interrupts this somber occasion to bring his gal some news. He's been watching her, and he knows everything. Like myself, he's pretty pissed that she threw herself at Deadshot, and he's not afraid to show it. I can see why Harley said it wasn't her Mr. J anymore. He's been abusive before, but this is on a whole other level, right in line with his overall portrayal in this arc. Adam Glass has been hit or miss with me on this series, but he writes a damn excellent Joke. Possibly with notes from Snyder, but still.
The only problem is that the bookends of this issue take place before and after the scene from Batman #13-14 with Harley, and they couldn't just repeat that, so there's the 'interruption' of the stuff going on for the rest of the team. It's an awkward transition, to say the least, but I don't know how else they could have done it. In this middle portion we get some tidbits about the rest of the team in the wake of the entire first 12 issues. In this way it comes at a bad time, since Death of the Family should be a good jumping on point for new readers, but this is the epilogue to a year's worth of story. Batgirl's issue last month was similar, but it was just the climax to a 4 issue arc. But if you're already reading, there's an intriguing scene with King Shark and Yo-Yo, and El Diablo may FINALLY be ready to stop WHINING.
In Conclusion: 4.5/5
This is definitely my favorite issue of Suicide Squad. Adam Glass gets to write a terrifying Joker and a terrified Harley. She's spent most of this series putting forth a brave face because she's stared evil incarnate in the face and kissed it. But that very evil that desensitized her to fear is back and worse than ever. It's quite a treat for followers of this series, and even the Death of the Family scenes should be great for new readers. The rest is also good for followers, but not for new readers, and it doesn't exactly mesh well with the rest of the issue.
