Future State: Suicide Squad #2 Review

You're A Good Man, Conner Kent

Written By: Robbie Thompson, Jeremy Adams

Art By: Javier Fernandez, Alex Sinclair, Wes Abbott, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Jeremy Cox

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: February 23, 2021

We're Earth-3 bound as we head back to the year 2030 to see what the Justice Squad, led by Kon-El, Conner Kent are up to as they're being hunted by the Suicide Squad of Earth-0. With this being Earth-3 and us having no information going into the first issue, we have no idea if anyone we've seen yet is from the Earth we all know and love or if they're dark mirror versions. Let's jump into this issue and see if we can suss out what's going on in this Suicide Squad comic. Let's check it out.

So while we could have done a bunch of interesting things in this book about which versions of characters we were dealing with since we have an Earth-3 setting but also having characters from Earth-0 crossing over into this world, we instead just say..... Everyone is from Earth-0 except for one decoy person and the story is more about making Earth-3 an alien free paradise, while the Suicide Squad is trying to get Amanda Waller back to Earth-0 because it's a shithole....... and for some reason, she can make it better but we have no context for any of this so it doesn't really feel like it matters in the end. Ultimately, all of this really just felt like it served is to tell people that Conner Kent is going to be in the Suicide Squad coming out of Future State.

As for the Black Adam back up in the 853rd Century..... This somehow feels like it has the most weight of any Future State story in that it's not only trying to go out of its way to explain what's happened in the Future State: Flash, Teen Titans, and Shazam! books, but also has a great twist to try and make sure that we have the moment in this two-month Future State hiatus to show that we don't have to have this future. It's a great backup that really should have been the "Front-up" because it does way more than the Suicide Squad story does.

All in all, I'm not a fan of the art in Suicide Squad, and anything interesting we could have done with an Earth-3 landscape was just kind of tossed away to give us a battle between the Justice Squad and the Suicide Squad and ultimately doesn't do much other than tell us that Conner Kent is a good Superman. As for the Black Adam story..... Well, this is what you're really paying for in my mind because not only does the art look great, the story is funny and feels like it has a purpose overall, even if you're not familiar with the Justice Legion Alpha team that accompanies our former Champion of the Wizard Shazam. It opens up this timeline in a way that shows that things can be changed and also explores where the magic of this era went and why it left. It's a top-notch story all around and I only wish that Suicide Squad could have been half of what Black Adam is.  

Bits and Pieces:

This issue is a mixed bag in that our initial Suicide Squad didn't live up to the hype that I had for it in that I didn't like the way it looked or the way the story played out but the Black Adam backup did all it needed to and much more. The art to Black Adam looked great and the story gives us a glimmer of hope that our heroes aren't condemned to the future we've seen over the last two months and that alone could elevate this story, but thankfully it was enjoyable throughout.

6.5/10