Suicide Squad #9 Review and **SPOILERS**

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brain Bomb

Writers: Rob Williams & Si Spurrier 

Artist: Riley Rossmo 

Colors: Ivan Plascencia 

Letters: Pat Brosseau 

Cover: Riley Rossmo 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: January 11, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

It’s a Suicide Squad vs. Justice League tie-in, and you know what that means! It will have no relevance to the actual event and may contradict the story therein. But that doesn’t mean it has to be a bad comic book, it can be…Riley Rossmo? On Suicide Squad? Oh no. I hate to be cliché, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this. But I ask myself What Would the Suicide Squad Do? and realize that I’d jump right into the fray, no matter how messy it is. So let’s not wade in slowly like some timid ninnies, let’s blast in like Killer Croc or Harley Quinn or some other criminal with a psychotic death wish! It’s my review of Suicide Squad #9, right here!

Explain It! 

So if you haven’t been reading Justice League vs. Suicide Squad (or at least Eric Shea’s reviews, right here), then let me bring you up to speed, at least for the purposes of this issue: the Justice League and the Suicide Squad have faced off to fight Amanda Waller’s first Task Force X squad, this one led by Max Lord, having succumbed to his superhuman charisma. So this story is about the first mission of that first Suicide Squad, led by Rustam, a fiery cutlass-wielding sheikh; Emerald Empress, a lady that owns a giant creepy eye that has some form of Green Lantern powers; Doctor Polaris, DC’s rip-off of Magneto in an all-purple costume; Johnny Sorrow, a crazy dimension-freaking magician whose ugly mug is obscured by a red mask; and Lobo, that white-skinned alien bounty hunter of yore that was the main man decades before New 52 Lobo hit the scene (check out where he is now!) Seems a North Korean scientist named Jangsun has developed some elemental monsters they’re calling gods, and Task Force X is, well, tasked with wiping it all out without creating an international incident. Yeah this seems like a great idea, sending loons like Lobo into a covert operation. Also on the team is a spindly guy in a red-and-yellow body suit named Cyclotron, who wasn’t trained with the rest of the team and has never been seen at any of their Happy Hours.

The team zips over to Korea, beats down the gods, and then gets to the god-making machine that they’re supposed to bust up when Cyclotron points out that they can use it to make themselves gods, which interests pretty much everyone but Rustam, the stooge, and Lobo, who thinks he’s studly enough. Because he’s ready to split, Waller makes a secret deal with him, for double his fee, to kill Cyclotron. Just as they’re about to go god mode, Lobo grabs Cyclotron and rips him open with his space hook after some light pleading. Cyclotron begins spazzing out, and it becomes clear that he’s a human bomb, sent by Waller to do damage control if something went wrong with the mission! Rightfully pissed off, the entire team is caught in the blast! But they miraculously survive and are returned to Belle Reve, where Amanda Waller can try again…next time, perhaps, with brain bombs! I mean that’s probably what will happen. She implies as much but we know that’s basically the direction things go.

This was a snappy little story that looked like absolute crap. I probably like Riley Rossmo’s art more than some of the other reviewers on this site, but sometimes the characters didn’t look human. Waller, in particular, looks more like Peter from the Family Guy with an afro wig. I liked the way Lobo was written especially, and wouldn’t particularly mind seeing more adventures with this crew, but drawn by someone more traditional for this kind of superhero work. Or at least present something clean. I feel like this isn’t the series that you want to saddle with a super unique look.

Bits and Pieces:

A nice enough tale of the earliest days of Task Force X that is hampered by looking like a mess. It just isn't the best look for this title, though it seems to work okay for Lobo. It has nothing to do with the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad crossover, so don't feel compelled to buy if you've been reading and enjoying that.

7/10