By: Adam Glass (writer), Clayton Henry (artist), Scott Hanna (inker), Vale Staples & Hi-Fi (colorists)
The Story: If any couple deserves the tag of “Crazy Love,” these two do.
The Review: As a rule, I have no hesitation in jumping into the middle of a series with little to no context whatsoever. In fact, it’s often more useful to judge a series’ merits that way; right off the bat you can tell how consistently solid it is without the help of strong starts, big finishes, or hype to move it along. That’s how I got hooked onto Cougar Town, strangely enough—once I saw Andy doing a Shawshank Redemption homage in a pool, I knew I’d be in for the long haul.
Actually, the Shawshank reference is quite apt in this case considering all the jailbreak elements we’re dealing with here. But returning to my point, I jumped into Suicide Squad quite easily, and even in this issue, it’s not at all difficult to follow the general plotline. What really threw me off were all the constant references to earlier issues or events from other titles, including Detective Comics, Green Arrow, and Stormwatch. It just got a little distracting at certain points, and there were definitely moments where I felt like I was missing some necessary exposition.
Those minor wrinkles aside, the issue as a whole has a rhythm that’s very easy to fall into. In contrast to the more sober tone the Squad has when Diablo and Black Spider hang around, the presence of Lime and Light (aptly nicknamed by Deadshot as “the Twitter Twins,” as they tend to talk in meaningless blurbs) and Savant bring some lightness to the proceedings. I especially appreciate Savant’s attempt to cover up his mis-shot by falling back on, “…I know. I like to play with my food before I kill it,” to which Deadshot merely replies, “Idiot.”
Naturally, since we have a Harley Quinn-centric story on our hands, most of the humor comes from her, albeit one of a very black hue. Glass has the rather daunting task of showing us the origins of Harley’s romance with Joker, and not only that, but selling it to us as credible. For the most part, he succeeds.
The first thing to his credit is he establishes a very charismatic voice for the Joker. At times Glass tries a little too hard to emulate the philosophizing clown made famous in The Dark Knight, resulting in such clichés as “I finally saw the world for the true hypocrisy it is,” and, “…once I didn’t care about the rules any more [sic], I had all the power.” For the most part, though, Glass’ Joker sounds convincing, balancing sadism and comedy deftly: ““…sorry it’s only the…finger, but it’s a real bitch trying to mule a dead body into here. God knows I tried.”
And then there’s the particular dynamic between him and Harley. As the former brilliant psychologist, Harley not only had an instinctive grasp of Joker’s true self (“…you’re just a control freak with a sick sense of humor.”), but she couldn’t be intimidated by him. Perhaps for those reasons, this version of the Joker seems to have a clearer attraction to her than his previous selves. It’s a shame he’s indisposed for the moment; their lovers’ spats and PDAs must be some sights to see.
If I were to describe Henry’s style, I’d say it blends bits of clear-cut, wholesome artists like Jamal Igle and Aaron Lopresti. Henry’s figures have similar forms and shapes to Igle, but he also has something of Lopresti’s sense of movement and drama. What really helps is Hanna’s inks, which give a rich depth to everything, giving this issue credible tension, despite its over-the-top nature.
Conclusion: A very different kind of Suicide Squad story, being more farce than thriller, but Glass makes it work, to the point that it even has echoes of Secret Six at certain points—and that’s high praise indeed.
Grade: B
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Oh, dear God. Yo-Yo’s been alive this whole time?
– And now, I officially hate Harley’s redesigned costume. Silly stripper wear is the description that springs to mind.
Grade
Conclusion