Comic Vine Review

29 Comments

New Suicide Squad #3 - Pure Insanity, Part Three

3

Harley Quinn's had enough of Joker's Daughter!

The Good

I won't lie, a big reason I'm following this is because of the cast. I want to see more of Deadshot, Black Manta, Deathstroke, and Harley Quinn. Joker's Daughter, though? Well, she's just going along for the ride, I guess. It's safe to assume a fair number of you, the oh-so-loyal Comic Vine readers, feel the same way about this book. Thankfully, writer Sean Ryan makes some decent progress with a couple of the characters in this chapter. It won't blow your mind or offer a new look at the individuals, but it's just entertaining enough to keep me wanting more.

First and foremost, this chapter's a love letter to how much punishment Floyd Lawton can take. As you remember, he was shot twice in the last issue and -- totally not a spoiler -- he obviously survived the encounter. Now that he's in custody, there's remarks about how much this dude can take. It's not the most insightful or thought-provoking story arc for him, but it's nice seeing he isn't a pushover and it's fairly badass. Black Manta's essentially just acting like the leader, which is fine and all, but Harley Quinn gets the best spotlight here. Basically, Joker's Daughter is a troll (like you expected anything less from her?) and this conflict finally explodes. The battle itself isn't anything to write home about (largely because the visuals take a big drop in quality), but the dialogue is good enough and conclusion is surprisingly funny. As for Deathstroke, well, we've yet to see where that story is heading, but he does appear and you can consider my interest piqued.

The Bad

The visuals here are majorly inconsistent. Usually I can tolerate a shift from one style to the next, but the fluctuation during the big fight is shockingly drastic. The cliffhanger is smooth and great looking and most of the other work is serviceable, but what should be the biggest and most memorable moment of the book is filled with seriously rough character work. There's awkward positions, huge changes in how characters appear, and cartoonish effects which contradict the dark, violent and twisted events that are taking place. Blond's coloring is consistently good, but it really doesn't make up for this drastic shift, unfortunately.

I'm glad the dynamic between Harley Quinn and Joker's Daughter was brought forward, but everything else feels like it's just inching along and there isn't much intrigue to be found. Yeah, I'm stoked about the cliffhanger, but nothing else really has me excited or immersed in this group's mission. We continue to see how the Russian authorities are handling it, but why is time being spent on them instead of the characters this book needs to focus on and develop? We've yet to get any proper insight or critical information from their side other than "they're working on robots and don't want the world to know about it." Also, I'm really hoping there's some more depth given to Vic Sage soon. He really can't be that dumb and arrogant, right? ...right?

The Verdict

"It's okay" really is the easiest way to describe my feelings about NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #3. The overall narrative isn't doing much to win me over and what should be the most exciting bit is ruined by some stiff and seemingly rushed artwork, but I'm still interested enough to see what'll develop with several of the villains and the writing with Quinn was certainly enjoyable. There isn't a lot of substance here and I'll give this one just a few more chapters to pick up the pace and dish out bigger developments, but the ending most definitely has potential and the conclusion with Quinn was solid.