Hit and Miss
Banner. Ick. Leave it as a corner. Blue clashes a bit with the red. Getting lazy about this. Overall though, this is a really solid cover. The background's DANGEROUSLY close to being phoned in, but manages to be just moody enough to scoot by. The solo focus on a single moment doesn't always work, but in this case it does, because you spend the entire issue wondering if it was just a cool image, or an actual event.
Sigh. Suicide Squad has got to be the most erratic of the New 52. Seriously, I've given this series scores ranging from 4 to 1.5. This series has had some excellent issues, and some godawful ones. All under a single writer within seven issues. Not to mention this series has had the least consistent artist schedule of the New 52. This issue we get Clayton Henry again, but also Ig Guara. I LOVE Ig Guara, but he doesn't bring his full A-Game here. I'm not saying he did a bad job, just that he didn't do a job worth gushing and ignoring the inconsistency. It just adds more style clashing. There's also the rotating cast, the one GOOD erratic part of this series. But this issue is a continuation of the previous one, so there's no exploration of that this time for me to talk about.
But there is something else. This issue continues to do Harley justice. I saw a lot of reviews complaining that her descent into madness was because of a bad boss. Except, I don't really see what they're talking about. The bad boss was just the specific snapping point. She had a history that Joker alluded to that predisposed her for some psychological issues, then, as per her original origin, underwent some subtle and gradual manipulation from The Joker; finding out her boss was using her notes to write a book and credit it to herself was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. This was really the first indication that her boss was bad anyways. It's not like she was slowly demoralized into insanity. Seriously people, how did you get that interpretation from this?
And then they do The Joker incredible justice, when he dips Harley in the same chemical as him. This implies a foundation for my favored Joker origin. While the events don't matter, the important thing is that The Joker was already insane before he fell. The chemicals were an awakening. They didn't MKAE him insane, they FREED his insanity, freed his inhibitions, let him realize the nature of his madness; and they did the same for Harley. This shared baptism is actually a very interesting change, and definitely a welcome one.
And then, this issue ALMOST justifies Harley's romp with Deadshot back in the third issue. She sees just a flash of Mister J in him. The commanding coldness shines through; so it's he, who she knew would be the one to reach her, who she places Joker's face on, and starts asking him why he left her, as she straddles him, tied to a chair. It's a wonderful moment of complete insanity for Harley.
But unfortunately, the pendulum begins to swing back in the other direction. Just when I thought DC hadn't ruined Amanda 'so-called' Waller enough, but they just can't seem to stop writing her the complete opposite of the powerful woman she used to be. Yes, it makes perfect sense that she'd give a warning when one of her team is about to reveal the truth; but she would have a COLD and ANGRY expression, not a PANICKING one. Ugh. It seems minor, but its representative of a huge part of her personality. She rarely EVER loses her cool, and more often than not, she fuels it further into rage instead of fear. She CONSTANTLY exudes an atmosphere of complete confidence, its a huge benefit to her ability to intimidate. If Amanda Waller is going to show a moment of weakness at a pathetically simple glitch such as this....
In Conclusion: 3/5
Yes, this one is definitely biased. DC continues to get one of their greatest characters wrong at literally every single turn. This is ridiculous, is it so horrible to have a powerful female character who's not sexy and attractive? Oh wait, she's not really a powerful character anymore either.
Still doing an excellent job with Harley though. She had one of the most airtight origin stories, so retelling it had extreme danger of being rehashing or ruination; but the changes made are both interesting and welcome. I really wanted to like this issue more, due to the handling of Harley, but the continued inconsistency; and utterly atrocious handling of Amanda wouldn't allow me to go any higher than I did.
