New Suicide Squad #1 (REVIEW)

Mayhem... what else can you expect from a team of super-villains?

written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)

Lots of new beginnings after the final issue of Forever Evil. With Nightwing being "retired" for the new Grayson book (check out our review here) and an New Teen Titans just coming out today (review coming soon) it looks like DC is already taking a stab at rebooting the already rebooted post Flashpoint New 52 DCU.

Now on to Task Force X... the aptly named Suicide Squad. I really enjoyed the direction the New 52 took with the Squad, throwing in Harley Quinn along with Captain Boomerang of the Rogues and Deadshot (among others) but the book started to fell stale for me, sure it invigorated a bit when the Death of the Family arc hit and the Forever Evil arc, but this new Task Force X looks to throw a bit of the drama back into Super-baddies playing Spec-ops wet work agents.

Some new additions are added to the team with much of the original team, save for Harley and Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton, being left behind. Slade "Deathstroke" Wilson seems to take the reigns as the new de-facto leader of the group, a role originally held by Deadshot, and has already shown his willingness to blow a team members brains out if they don't play nice. Aquaman's nemesis Black Manta joins along with the psychotic Joker's Daughter (the New 52's Duella Dent).

Harley's not too keen on Duella's taste in fashion...

Waller has a partner... whether she likes it or not...

No longer headed by just Amanda Waller anymore, this NEW Task Force X is run by Victor Sage. Through his orders, most of the original team was let go and the addition of Deathstroke and Joker's Daughter are on his orders. Sage referred to Waller's original team as "meh" hoping to throw in more "extreme" personalities into the mix. Why they feel the need to take a Super Villain team and inject more extreme into it is beyond me, personally this feels like an underlying ploy on the part of Sage. This theory is further backed up with the choices of Deathstroke and Joker's Daughter... the Squad already has a crazy clown girl and an expert marksmen, do they want to fan the flame of rivalry amongst already volatile villains? This new Task Force X is further troubling when it's revealed that neither Deathstroke or Joker's Daughter have the trademark bomb in their necks.

what could go wrong... right?

This first mission with the new Suicide Squad has this already volatile team tasked with striking back at at the Russian government. The Russians have been working on a top secret project and the mission involves taking out the project and planting the officials involved in the dirt. Tensions already high, Harley has issue with Joker's Daughter wearing her puddin's face and Deadshot wonders why "new-to-the-team" Deathstroke is handling the assassination, even going so far as exclaiming "what am I even doing here?" with Deathstroke responding with a "it's a good question." This first book was light on plot development but high in mayhem. The Squad takes down their marks with vicious efficiency. Jeremy Roberts isn't my favorite artist in the DC stable, but overall the book is clean. I wasn't that familiar with Sean Ryan's (the writer) work so I had to look him up.

Assassin vs Assassin...

Overall, it's a fun mayhem filled opening shot to an old series with some new tricks, hopefully they can keep this up or I may get disheartened with it like I did with the previous Suicide Squad book.

NEW Suicide Squad (NEW 52) #1
written by Sean Ryan
art by Jeremy Roberts and Blond
publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
OUT NOW