DC Comics reviews for 8/22/18

Suicide Squad Annual #1

This annual is a dark story even by Suicide Squad standards. With a breakout in Belle Reve and half the team in Atlantis, Amanda Waller has to assemble an all-new and all-expendable Suicide Squad.

For some reason, writer Cullen Bunn doesn’t address the fact that there are some regular Squad members sitting out the Atlantis mission. But as the story unfolds, it’s clear he didn’t need a lot of survivors coming back from this one. That’s a little disappointing considering some of the characters have some name value and deserve better fates than a throwaway Suicide Squad mission.

Waller dispatches the team to retrieve a prison with an overly aggressive dark side. Since this pursuit takes place in the bayou, the Squad and the prisoner have an unanticipated third party on the playing field in The Swamp Thing. This was a sensible annual cameo even though Swamp Thing really wasn’t essential for the story.

One by one, the Squad finds themselves horrifically outmatched and no chance of survival. Bunn tells the story like a horror movie, but it’s hard to see Waller’s end game here as her team is handcuffed right from the start. Even with cannon fodder characters, Bunn does a great job of making them engaging enough so there’s some remorse their screen time is so limited.

Ronan Cliquet knocks out the art. Cliquet has become a bit of an underrated artist with a style very reminiscent of cover artist Paul Pelletier. Given the tone of the story, Cliquet’s clean style might not have been the best fit, but it’s hard to knock a good artist. Jason Wright returns from a long stint on Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps to provide quality color work.

As an annual that doesn’t feature any of the regular members besides Waller, this isn’t essential reading. It does capture the darker side of the Suicide Squad and the somewhat shocking events show there’s no guarantee that every mission will be a success.

Rating: 8 out of 10