Suicide Squad #8 Review and **SPOILERS**

Just Set the Dial to “Save the Day”

Writer: Rob Williams 

Penciller: Jim Lee 

Inkers: Scott Williams, Richard Friend, Sandra Hope 

Colors: Jeremiah Skipper 

Letters: Pat Brosseau 

Backup Layouts: Giuseppe Camuncoli 

Backup Finished Art: Francesco Mattina 

Backup Colorist: Hi-Fi 

Backup Letters: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Lee, Williams and Sinclair 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: December 14, 2016

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

What are the odds that the Suicide Squad doesn’t take one step outside of Belle Reve prison in this issue?

Read my review of Suicide Squad #8 to find out!

Explain It!

Things are pretty much where we left them last issue: the whole prison’s gone haywire, except for Harley Quinn, who was tasked with waking Enchantress from her afterglow after she’d done “it” with Killer Croc. General Zod is still waking up from his power-dampening red sun lamp being switched to yellow sun, and Croc wants to eat Harley’s face. Before he can, Rick Flag shows up and shoots Croc in the face, forcing him to drop Harley. Flag can keep from going bananas because he stuck a knife in his leg, which is admittedly pretty bad-ass. While Rick bleeds out and Croc tries to kill him, June Moon agrees to change into Enchantress, which solves one problem.

Meanwhile, Hack is talking to Captain Boomerang’s digital ghost about life and stuff, when they’re beset by a crazed Katana leading the rest of Belle Reve’s living, murderous population. Enchantress, Quinn, Flag and Croc encased in a magic cube zip by and smash into Zod’s chamber, where Croc sucker punches Zod in the jaw. Zod tosses him aside (his signature move) and sucks the breath from Enchantress’ lungs before she can cast a spell. Zod grabs Waller by the neck and is about to kill her, when Harley shocks Zod with a couple of electric cables, and this somehow stuns Zod long enough for Hack—who is fine, thanks for asking—to download Captain Boomerang into him and shut Zod off? I think? Somehow, this brings Captain Boomerang back from the dead, which I guess is just as well because I did miss the guy. In the end, Harley goes back to being nuts and everything is back to normal and I feel like I just got kicked in the goolies.

The backup is about Killer Frost being brought into the Suicide Squad, and is mostly told from her point of view, in captions, revealing how studiously “cool” she must appear to everyone. Until she meets Amanda Waller, that is, who is the coldest bitch in the DCU. Point of this inoffensive story is that Killer Frost will be part of the team going forward, I assume. I was pretty disappointed with the main story, though, this nonsense in the Russian prison and then Belle Reve went on for-fucking-ever and after so many issue there were ultimately no consequences. Rob Williams does a good job with dialogue, and there’s some pretty funny patter, but I have been pretty let down by this series overall. It has its moments, but it’s almost too quick a read for me to really sink my teeth into. I hope this series drops the backups and goes into longer-form stories after the Justice League crossover.

Bits and Pieces:

I wouldn't call the ending to this story predictable, but that's because I didn't understand about half of it. The other half was fairly stupid and contrived. Some good dialogue makes me think there's a good Suicide Squad comic lurking within, yearning to be free. I'm hoping that after the space constraints (presumably placed by Jim Lee's drawing schedule) for this series are lifted, we can get a story where they're not running around the inside of a facility for five straight issues.

5.5/10