Suicide Squad #33 Review and **SPOILERS**

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The Dependable Expendable

Writer: Si Spurrier 

Penciller: Fernando Pasarin 

Inker: Oclair Albert 

Colors: Blond 

Lettering: Pat Brosseau 

Cover: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira & Adriano Lucas 

Cover Price: $2.99

On Sale Date: January 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

The psychic cosmic dinosaur Red Wave is done and dusted…I think, and now we begin a new story arc. What will it bring? A roster change-up? A ROSTER CHANGE-UP??? For Christmas sakes, this book needs a rejiggering. And maybe it’s happened, with a new writer and the dawn of a new yarn! So let’s ignore the pouters and the doubters (me) and have a look at my review of Suicide Squad #33, right here!

Explain It!

Perhaps you’re a “life of the party” popular type that doesn’t know what it’s like to be the fifth wheel at a gathering. Or maybe you’re so oblivious to social cues that you can’t gauge the temperature of a room. Here’s a tip: if you’re in a group consisting of two or more couples, then you’re probably the odd man out. But these things happen, right? Sometimes you find yourself in a group where everyone else is cliquing up without you. Or maybe your small soiree becomes a larger affair and you’re on the outs. No biggie. You can just leave the scene and keep it moving.

That is, unless, Amanda Waller’s stuck a brain bomb in your cranium and forced you to go on a mission with Task Force X. Not only will you have to go, but you know that you’re almost certainly going to die. That’s the situation facing Juan Soria, an inmate at Belle Reve with the acquired power to open any lock. The Suicide Squad has been tasked, for some reason, to clear out some alien bugs from the popular amusement park Dozey Land. It’s a little weird for the Squad to be serving corporate interests—a point Jose makes during his captioned exposition throughout the issue—but it is sort of in their wheelhouse. And there’s the conceit of the issue: the entire thing is narrated, in a sense, by Jose. And he knows that he’s been sent as cannon fodder.

There’s a funny scene when Captain Boomerang talks to Killer Croc about how Jose is expendable, while Jose is standing right there. Indeed, every member of the Suicide Squad seems to understand that Jose isn’t coming home from this one. And to drive the point home, other prisoners sent with the team, all wearing red outfits or “red shirts,” as Jose indicates, are killed wholesale. Jose, however, makes it to the end of the issue, and looks about to escape via jetpack with some other redshirts, when everyone around him is obliterated by alien laser fire. This puts him face-to-face with the worst of the alien menace—but in the company of the rest of the Suicide Squad!

This is a pretty fun issue that harps a bit too much, perhaps, on Jose’s anxiety. I mean, I get it, I would be pretty tense if I was on a suicide mission with the actual Suicide Squad. But had I come to that place, I hope that I’d be a little less wordy. Juan provides a lot of backstory for himself, including how he got his powers, and his weird incarceration at Belle Reve that involved being at the glass bottom of a pit, suspended above the entrance. This allowed him to see the comings and goings of the Squad, thereby knowing that there are always expandable members, but it’s a pretty weird way to hold this guy. I don’t really know where this story is going, and I like that fact. This could be a short story, or it could bloom into something larger. I’m interested to know where it goes.

Bits and Pieces:

A whimsical story that teases something entirely unknown, a feeling that, while reading comics, seems rare to me. The story is interesting enough, and there are some pretty funny (and some quite gross) scenes, but the pacing is a little sluggish. Still, I have no idea what's going to happen next, and I love it!

7/10