DC Universe Presents #18 – Review

By: Joe Keatinge (story), Federico Dallocchio (art), Allen Passalaqua (colors)

The Story: A village threatened by oppression—and one lone outlaw comes to save the day.

The Review: Two things you ought to know about me: first impressions count a long way with me (probably more than they should, come to think of it), but to make for that fact, I tend to bend over backwards giving folks the benefit of the doubt—even if the red flags are waving that they are, in fact, crazy people.  I think this comes across in my reviews.  I’ve forgiven and shown loyalty to many a writer based on one good showing.

Joe Keatinge really impressed me with his deft handling of Arsenal in last month’s DC Universe Presents, so I was quite eager to see what he could do with the archer’s alien bombshell of a teammate.  Starfire is such an obvious piece of cheesecake, especially nowadays, with her ever-revealing outfit, that it’s hard to take her seriously.  You can call her warrior princess and give her all the powers you want, but she’ll seem like Beyoncé with flaming hair and orange skin.

Suicide Squad #8 – Review

By: Adam Glass (writer), Federico Dallocchio (artist), Matt Yackey (colorist)

The Story: And Amanda Waller wonders why she never gets called a people person.

The Review: Perhaps the reason why team books are so popular is because they have a built-in potential for variety.  Since each character presumably brings something different to the table, you don’t have to stick to any one kind of story or tone for too long.  Of course, this requires the writer to make sure each team member actually does have a unique voice and background.  If everyone acts and talks the same, what’s the point?

Suicide Squad runs pretty close to this kind of problem.  This issue sports a couple scenes where Waller interacts with Savant and Deadshot, and aside from slight variations in their choice of words, they tend to have the same acidic sarcasm (“I’m sick of being head cheerleader.”  “Do I look like your mamma, Lawton?”).  Unlike the colorful tapestry of characters you had in Gail Simone’s Secret Six, this series has a general sameness to its proceedings which it rarely varies.

To focus the lens a little closer, let’s look at Waller.  Throughout the issue, she spouts pretty much the same threatening demeanor she does all the time.  This would be easier to handle in brief doses, but Glass seems content to let her ramble on even when no one’s listening, like in her rant to the comatose Harley: “Thank God we had a warehouse full of patsies to pin the riot and your escape on!  For all anyone knows, you never left Belle Reve and went on a crazy killing spree looking for that psychotic excuse of a boyfriend of yours.”  Besides the pointless anger, it just seems like an excuse to cover some exposition without much effort.

Suicide Squad #5 – Review

By: Adam Glass (writer), Federico Dallocchio (artist), Val Staples (colorist)

The Story: Looks like these guys aren’t interested in playing the chorus for “Jailhouse Rock.”

The Review: Although DC’s new 52 brought quite a lot of good things to the comics world, it also sent packing a few great things from the old guard.  Among the ones whose cancellation I viewed with most bitterness was Gail Simone’s Secret Six.  So perhaps it’s no surprise I had a certain animosity for Suicide Squad, clearly meant to fill the antihero team void Six left behind, and images of revamped Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller did nothing to change my mind.

But irrational prejudices always leave me feeling guilty, so I decided to do the right thing and at least give it a read-through.  And predictably enough, I felt a bit foolish after finishing this issue, because it actually it has a lot of merit.  The tone of the series is quite different from Six, of course; it has little of the wit and complexity Simone’s writing offered, and certainly it doesn’t tackle the hard questions of morality the Six encountered on a monthly basis.

What you get instead is more of a straight team book, populated with disturbed characters of varying degrees.  To give you an idea of the general dynamic of the group, I’d say the Squad falls somewhere between the classy depravity of the Secret Six and the earnest misfits of the Thunderbolts.  The feeling you get from Diablo, Black Spider, and Deadshot (the men in focus in this issue) is that while they project a pure ruggedness in action, they can also be honorable, sensitive, even affectionate, which certainly rounds their characters quite a bit.

Perhaps no one exemplifies this more than Deadshot, the one original member of the Six who managed to survive the relaunch.  In contrast to the near-total apathy of his former self, this version of Floyd Lawton is more willing to level with his teammates, and even has loved ones to long and care for.  All this makes him a little less entertaining (I’ll always remember the moment Wonder Woman threatened him with castration if he shot her, his pause, then remark that he’ll try anything once), but more accessible, so not all character changes, it seems, are bad.

Suicide Squad #2 – Review

Written by Adam Glass, Art by Federico Dallocchio and Andrei Bressan, Colors by Val Staples

The Story: Suicide Squad is dropped into…some stadium (they forgot to give us the name in this issue and I’m too lazy to go back to the last one to figure it out) and are instructed to kill everyone inside because they’ve all been turned into CRAZY TECHNO-ORGANIC ZOMBIES. Kid, meet Candy Shop. Candy Shop, meet Kid.

The Good: Man this was a good first issue. Oh wait…this was the second. Damn–would have made a much better first issue. In fact, after reading this, I’m really not sure what the point of issue one was. Everything a #1 issue should be, Suicide Squad #2 is. It gives us a story. It sets up the characters in a natural way, showing their characteristics unfold while the plot does. No shoehorning, no gimmicks. It’s…and this pains me to say after the first issue was handled so poorly…pretty well written. You actually get to feel for the characters this time. Deadshot is shown to be a capable leader of the team. Diablo’s pain is seen instead of shown. We don’t even have to know what he did to be so concerned with innocents (I didn’t care enough when I read it in the first issue and I still don’t) to feel his genuine need to redeem himself. Even Harley gets some nice character moments. But even while the other members are becoming more interesting, it’s still King Shark who’s the most fun. As Deadshot says, he’s the wild card. Predictably unpredictable. Willing to eat techo-zombie flesh.  The design of the character might not be great–and as someone pointed out last month, taken almost entirely from another series–but his character is great. I don’t even want to know his back-story. I’m perfectly happy with King Shark being King Shark (and I thought I’d hate this character the most). Glass leveled up since the last issue and is really bringing us some good material now. There are great surprises and the promise of an insane story. Let’s hope he can keep it up.

Suicide Squad #1 – Review

Written by Adam Glass, Art by Federico Dallocchio, Ransom Getty, and Scott Hanna

The Story: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to vanquish the Thunderbolts in a game of softball. And by choose, we mean “if you don’t do this, we blow up your neck.”

What’s Good: The ending. Or at least, it has the promise of being something interesting with an insane mission the Squad is thrown in to. And to some extent, we get to know our characters.

What’s Not Good: This is not a #1 issue. this is a .1 that is kind of a throwaway tale to tell between two arcs. Unfortunately, a very overused plot device takes up 90% of this first issue, and what you learn about the team from it isn’t surprising in the least. It almost feels as if Glass is relying on people having read Thunderbolts to get the gist of this book. A team of villains forced to do good but have a code among themselves. Honor among mass murderers sort of thing. But Glass is no Jeff Parker, and every turn in this issue is one anti-climatic moment after the other until the last page when they’re literally thrown into a mission that screams “yeah, this isn’t really the mission at all.”  The issue sets it up to make you want to care about Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and El Diablo. Yet the only character I really wanted more from was King Shark, and he only uttered two words the entire issue. In a mess of #1’s, this just doesn’t stand out. It’s not bad enough to fume about, but not good enough to talk about. It’s just kind of there. Even the art is lukewarm. There’s just nothing special to it. And really, the torture scene in the beginning– what exactly are they doing to Deadshot? Cooking live rats on him? I’m really confused by this. It feels like the artist and writer weren’t on the same page at all. And for some reason, Harley’s facial expressions never seem to match her dialogue.  ALSO, they spoil the first arc of Detective Comics. Not cool, DC… Not cool.

Final Thoughts: I love the Thunderbolts, and I wouldn’t mind a DC version of it, but this issue started on the wrong foot…in the wrong town. I’ll try it for a little while longer and see how the future issues turn out. Maybe it’s misguided, but I still have a little faith in this title still.

Grade: C

-Roman Colombo

Green Arrow #31 – Review

By J.T. Krul (writer), Federico Dallocchio (artist), Michael Atiyeh (colorist)

The Story: Green Arrow finished business with Prometheus in the conclusion of Justice League: Cry for Justice, but now he’s on the trail of Electrocutioner, Prometheus’ accomplice. Problem is, Green Arrow’s Justice League colleagues are on his trail.

What’s Good: I had trashed Green Arrow and Black Canary last year for what I’d considered shoddy writing and scratchy art. The cover art on this book and J.T. Krul’s name enticed me back. An added incentive for me was Dan Didio’s cryptic announcement in Toronto in 2009 that his choice of character to watch for the year 2010 was Green Arrow. If you’ve been following Cry For Justice, you can see that Didio was as good as his word (no further comment on how well Cry For Justice itself worked as a story). Am I glad DC pulled me back? Qualified yes.

The cover art alone was worth the DC price of admission ($2.99), but the real draw here is Krul’s character work (demonstrated so ably in a string of great Titans character pieces). Krul takes us through Oliver Queen’s gritty monologue and shows why he is the Green Arrow and why he is Star City’s protector. When he faces off against Green Lantern (his best friend), Black Canary (his wife) and the Flash (someone who doesn’t like him very much), the character and the conflict come out. Different sides of an argument, hardened against each other, brother against brother. Tough stuff. I thought for a second that Krul was going to let me down and have Green Arrow beat two of the three toughest superheroes in the DCU in some dumb way reminiscent of Cry for Justice. Instead, the way Oliver took down Green Lantern and the Flash was actually pretty smart. Good work, Krul!

Faces of Evil: Prometheus One Shot – Review

By Sterling Gates (writer), Federico Dallocchio (art and color)

The Story: Prometheus fans rejoice!  Following Martian Manhunter’s death at the hands of Libra, the mental blocks trapping Prometheus within his mind are shattered, and he awakens to find himself imprisoned in Blackgate Penitentiary.  If Prometheus has been catatonic for the last two years though, then who’s been running around committing petty crimes in his name?  Prometheus wants answers, and he doesn’t care who he has to kill to get them.

The Good: This is a perfect example of a great “Faces of Evil” issue.  This is a story about the villain, told from the villain’s point of view, and it isn’t afraid to pull any punches.  I was an immediate fan of this character ever since Grant Morrison introduced him in JLA, and I am so happy to see DC bring him back into the spotlight.  Gates does an outstanding job recapping the history and motivation of Prometheus while at the same time advancing the plot; and if DC were to ever consider an ongoing Prometheus series, I hope they tap him to do the job.

The Not So Good: While I admire him for handling the art and colors on this issue, I wasn’t quite impressed with Dallocchio’s art here.  It’s not crap by any means, mind you.  I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was looking at the art of a poor man’s Jae Lee.

Conclusion: With Final Crisis coming to its cataclysmic conclusion and “Faces of Evil” in full swing, this was absolutely the right time for Prometheus to make his return to the DCU, and I for one couldn’t be happier.  Welcome back, you sick bastard.

Grade: B+

-Tony Rakittke