Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

Justice Is Going Down

Written By: Joshua Williamson

Art By: Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, Alex Sinclair, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: December 28, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After not really digging Joshua Williamson's run on the Flash, I was a little wary going into this event, but I have to tell you....... I don't know where this Joshua Williamson has been hiding, but I want more of what he gave us last issue in all the books he's doing.  Yeah, we had a certain amount of setup that was needed to get everyone on the Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad trolley, but even with that it was done really well and each and every character felt spot on to me.  On top of the action that the title promises, we also had Maxwell Lord showing up in this event and breaking out some of the world's worst villains in order to put together a group to help him save the world........ which in my mind means that the Justice League are in big trouble, what with Maxwell going on about how they aren't doing their job properly and they're not the only ones in trouble because as we ended the previous issue, we also found out that old Max wants his new crew to kill Amanda Waller.  Let's jump into this issue and see if the awesomeness continues and if we find out anything more about what Maxwell Lord is up to.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with us getting the lowdown on how our previous issue ended with our title fight, the Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad, about how Amanda Waller will blow up all of Task Force X's heads if they allow themselves to be taken by the Justice League.  While I was hoping that the majority of the catch up on the characters was finished after last issue, sadly, the lowdowns don't stop with Amanda Waller filling us in on the Squad's predicament.  No, instead we have to take most of the issue seeing the Justice League and the Suicide Squad fight, while they throw out some lines to make sure that you know enough about the characters going forward, like Batman's connection to Deadshot, Flash's connection to Boomerang, Jessica's anxiety, Killer Frost's abilities, Superman's vulnerability to magic and so on and so forth.  It's just a bunch of things like that that bog the issue down and let me know that the majority of the story isn't meant for older readers.  Even with that though, like last issue it was done pretty decently, where I knew what Joshua Williamson was doing, but didn't mind too much about it.......... especially with the amazing art of Tony S. Daniel making it a joy to look at.  

So yeah, while the Suicide Squad split up so that they can take the Justice League on individually, we move over to the Swiss Alps, where Maxwell Lord is trying his best to sell his new associates on helping him bring forth the new world he wants to create.  It's great too because Lobo calls Maxwell out on him having the ability to control people and how he better not be doing it to them and when Maxwell assures Lobo that he would never do such a thing, we see Maxwell's tell in the next panel, where he's wiping his nose clean of the blood, letting us know that he's not on the up and up with these big bads.  That's the thing I like about this section the most because while Lord continues to tell these villains about how he'll help them kill Amanda Waller, since that's what they really want, I found myself wondering what they could possibly have against her and really, it doesn't matter because it seems like he's simply "pushing" the idea that they have something against her into their minds.  The other cool thing to really grab onto in this section is Johnny Sorrow talking about how with his connection to multiple worlds he knows that the one they're in isn't right and he's backed up by Emerald Empress who knows that time is wrong.......... which will at some point lead her to search out Saturn Girl from what she's saying.  It's small little nods to what's going on with the big mystery of Rebirth and they don't need to be here, but this issue works all the better having them here because it adds to the epic-ness of this event, knowing that we're actually heading somewhere interesting.  

In the end, after it looks like the Suicide Squad is about to be subdued, Waller gives Killer Frost one more chance to save herself and her team from death, which means she has to use her power against Superman and when she does........ Oh Boy!  Killer Frost finds power in the last son of Krypton that she never knew she had and single handedly takes down the entire Justice League, where they wake up in special cells designed for each one of them by Amanda Waller, who in our final page welcomes the Justice League into the Suicide Squad.

That's it for this issue of Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad and even though I found myself a little annoyed that we had to spend the whole issue with our two teams duking it out so that they could let little tidbits of information about themselves out to new readers so Joshua Williamson was sure that everyone would understand all the main players of this book.......... I still feel like it was competently done like in the previous issue and when it's displayed with Tony S. Daniel's art...... Well, it's hard for me to really care because I'm getting information while being awestruck at how the book looks.  There isn't much to this issue, but what we do get looks amazing and I can't wait to read the next issue because both the Maxwell Lord plot and the Justice League plot have me equally excited.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue continues to throw information at us about who our main players of this book are........ even though they're the main players and it seems to just be there to fill up panel space and make it new reader friendly, I still found myself enjoying this issue and just loving the art in this book.  With that though, it's weird that we're getting information about the Justice League and the Suicide Squad as opposed to Maxwell Lord's new crew.  I liked this issue though and am ever optimistic that this event will be something special.

8/10