Suicide Squad #1 Review

Pleased to Meet You, I’m Marked For Death  

Written By Tom Taylor 

Art By Bruno Redondo 

Color By Adriano Lucas 

Letters By Wes Abbott 

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: December 18, 2019

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Oh boy! It’s the Suicide Squad again…for the first time! Or more like the second or third time in recent memory. I didn’t realize that the “Suicide” portion of the title might apply to how the reader feels after successive reboots. Well, I was suicidal before all of this began, so let’s dive into my review of Suicide Squad #1, right here!

Explain It!

“By the end of this issue…” promises Harley Quinn on the cover of this issue, “half of this team’ll be DEAD!” And there’s a couple of familiar folks right up front: Quinn and Deadshot, lynchpins of the Suicide Squad. Then it looks like King Shark is on the team, and…Magpie? Cavalier? Zebra Man? Who gives a fuck if these people die? You might as well draw targets on their chests.

So the big surprise is that Amanda Waller has retired, and handed Task Force X over to mysterious blonde suit Lok, whose opinion of the world is very cut and dry. He’s looking to absorb the Revolutionaries, a team of ecologically-minded metahumans, into the team of criminals. Why he would want this or, despite the brain bombs, would assume this would work is a mystery. Fortune favors the bold, I suppose.

And, true to the cover’s claim, half of the Suicide Squad bites it. A few of the Revolutionaries die, too. But this scheme is successful, by and large, and now we’re gonna find out what happens when murderous criminal teammates stop being polite…and start getting real

Because Tom Taylor wrote it, the characterization is great, and some of the new characters introduced here are really cool. No, I won’t reveal anything about them, you can buy the issue for it. This is a solid issue with pitch-perfect visuals, but whether this gimmick works remains to be. At least, I’m interested in the gimmick.

Bits and Pieces:

A good opening salvo that would be tough to pull off for average creative teams. Luckily, this group is far beyond average. If we can stay at this level of excitement and intrigue, we may have a volume that works.

7.5/10