Suicide Squad #24 Review and **SPOILERS**

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Amanda Waller? I Never Meta

Story: Rob Williams 

Art: Agustin Padilla & Juan Ferreyra 

Color: Adriano Lucas 

Lettering: Pat Brosseau 

Cover: Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas 

Cover Price: $2.99 

On Sale Date: August 23, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Man, Eric and Jim excoriated the last issue of Suicide Squad on the podcast, huh? I didn’t mind so much, but I have to admit they were probably more critical of the actual story. Me, so long as I get an experience comparable to the Last Action Hero, I’m happy. Well, henceforth I demand more coherence from my comic book stories, and I’m trying out a new writing style that you can check out in my review of Suicide Squad #24, right here!

Explain It!

Consider that, until recently, the belief that criminals could be rehabilitated was not commonly held; indeed, criminals were tortured or punished and expected to tow the line out of fear, not enlightenment. It was only when the concept of a penitentiary, a place where someone could practice penitence in solitude, was introduced that society began to believe that the criminal mind was not an inherited deficiency. Under the proper conditions, it was said, a ne’er-do-well could be transformed into a productive member of and contribute to society, which is preferable to keeping someone imprisoned on the public dime.

If the idea of criminal rehabilitation is true, then Amanda Waller is truly the worst human being in the DC Universe. Let’s even pretend that being a member of her Task Force X, performing the sorts of clandestine assassinations and black ops wet work that isn’t discussed in most government circles, is an inherently good thing; the Suicide Squad is still forced to do this work on penalty of instant death. So they contribute to society, in a sense, while still retaining all of their criminal impulses. This works fine, from society’s standpoint, unless the criminal in question defuses their brain bomb somehow and escapes incarceration. Which happens in pretty much every issue of Suicide Squad. So there are flaws in the program.

The situation this issue is that post-having-grabbed-Killer-Frost-for-Waller’s-crazy-witch-hunt, Harley Quinn isn’t feeling too hot about the leading the team anymore, and Katana feels the same way, particularly when her sword keeps reminding her of what a lame-ass she’s been to follow Waller’s orders so blindly. They decide to team up and stop Waller’s crazy crusade for Direktor Karla, while Batman makes his way into Belle Reve to retrieve Killer Frost and, assumedly, whup Amanda Waller something fierce. While it looks like Waller is a pawn for Karla and his organization known as the People, it turns out waller was controlled by the Gulag, one of the members of that Russian Annihilation Brigade, all along! And the People’s war against the world’s superheroes has been initiated!

I don’t know if Jim and Eric will want to eviscerate this issue, but I enjoyed it well enough. There’s an interaction between Batman and Killer Croc, and Katana finally dealing with the fact that she works for Waller without a brain bomb was overdue. Visually this looked terrific, everything looked bombastic and I thought I sensed the influence of Juan Ferreyra during certain scenes—and I was wright! The art style helped the whole thing look more cinematic, which only validated my usually-held requirement that each issue of Suicide Squad be as good as the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle the Last Action Hero.

Bits and Pieces:

Allegiances are broken, new alliances are formed, and few jokes are bandied about in this solid issue of Suicide Squad. There's still the problem of each character having something to do in every issue, but there is some forward movement on the story and a reveal that makes continued reading worthwhile. Plus: Batman! Who could ask for more?

7.5/10