SUICIDE SQUAD #1

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Monday, September 17, 2001

I love Keith Giffen. He's one of the few writers out there who can make me laugh my head off and make me vastly uncomfortable all at the same time. That's exactly the reaction I have to the new SUICIDE SQUAD series. For once in its history, the Suicide Squad is exactly what its name implies: a group of people sent on a dangerous mission in the full knowledge that, even if they succeed, they'll probably die. Given current real life events, the nature of the book also hits awfully close to home and it couldn't have come at a better time. The twist in the DC Universe, though, is that this group is made up of former supervillains who have been imprisoned and offered a chance at freedom if they survive their mission which of course is extremely unlikely.

This issue, it's the Injustice Gang Major Disaster, Cluemaster, Clock King, Multi-Man, and Big Sir that get the dangerous mission, with expected results. But whoever said "Getting there is half the fun" could have been talking about this story, since it's Giffen's well-scripted dialogue as the former partners in crime snipe at each other as they head for their doom. Watching it all from a distance is their "supervisor" Bulldozer, who's quickly coming to the conclusion that taking this job from the mystery man behind the project wasn't such a good idea after all.

I do find myself wishing that Giffen were also illustrating this story as well as writing it, though he's proven with loads of prior series, including my favorite incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes back in 1990, that he can take a reader through a complex story better than any other artist can. I'm also not a big fan of the blocky, cartoony style of Medina and Sanchez. Their style fits in well with the larger than life plotlines of SUPERMAN, but it's not as well suited to the 'blood, guts, and glory' SUICIDE SQUAD. It's also not always clear exactly what's going on: the resolution of this first mission takes a few passes before you realize what the images are telling you, and the surprise revelation of the man behind the Suicide Squad program is only a surprise if you can recognize him in the first place. Had Giffen been drawing as well as writing this, I'm sure there'd be no confusion on either of these points, nor the discomfort associated with watching characters who look like they just stepped from the latest WB cartoon series getting ripped to bloody shreds.

Once these things become clear, though, there's no confusion about how brilliant Giffen's story is, or what a great idea this series has struck upon. Now, if they can only keep from killing off every single minor villain in the DC Universe, they might even have an ongoing series with some staying power as well.

SUICIDE SQUAD

Grade: B

Issue: No. 1

Author(s): Keith Giffen, Paco Medina, Joe Sanchez

Publisher: DC Comics

Price: $2.50