It’s not impossible, it’s Batman.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom King
Art: Mikel Janin
Colors: June Chung
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
“I AM SUICIDE” conclusion! Batman and the remains of his team come face to face with Bane and the Psycho-Pirate in a final battle at Santa Prisca-and learn whether this was truly a suicide mission!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The “I Am Suicide” arc has been an interesting one from the start in how it was approached with Batman bringing on his own kind of Suicide Squad to deal with getting Psycho-Pirate back from Bane. There’s a decent bit of layering to what lead to it in the opening arc and there’s a good sense across these first thirteen issues of a solid enough and expansive enough story. With King working things in his own particular way and getting some fantastic artwork from Janin, it’s at least been a visual delight even if things do feel somewhat more stretched out than they should be, which in turn slowed down the momentum some.
For the final installment it also carries through that sense of just waiting for the right time, which at least means we once again get some fantastic action and tension sequences out of Janin to make the whole thing feel exciting. Batman naturally has his own crafty master plan that can deal with a range of variables so that it all goes off without a hitch, but it means taking some damn hard blows from Bane in order to get all the right pieces in position. While we’ve been given the hint that Selina changed sides it was more for show than anything else, which isn’t a surprise. That she delivers the critical blow feels a bit off but you can see how it works when she leaps into action and takes Bane down hard while he’s attempting to figure out a new way to break Batman since the physical side just doesn’t cut it.
What becomes the more interesting parts is seeing how the other elements come into play. Bronze Tiger’s bringing in of Wesker for the final moments is fun since Wesker is such an odd lack of personality character. You can see how he’s uniquely qualified to deal with Psycho-Pirate since there’s nothing to him as he’s the “real” dummy in a way and the hand is where the mind is, sort of. That’s a fun trick that can only work once so I’m glad it was used here. Of course, everything comes together in a way that gives Batman what he needs for now while also setting everyone else up for somewhat better times ahead in their own way with how he’s helping them with the imprisonment situations. For Bane, however, it puts him back in a bad place what will certainly come back to bite him in the rear someday.
In Summary:
With some amusement early on with a Waller/Pennyworth moment, this arc comes to a close and sets up things for the Justice League vs Suicide Squad event that’s rolling out. I’m not getting into that and, in fact, this marks my last issue with this series. While I can see the larger threads that Tom King is pulling with it the whole thing just lacks something to really make it resonate and connect, leaving me feeling pretty adrift even as I enjoy the visuals and spectacle of it. This arc had its moments, and a lot of it comes down to Janin’s work, but as a whole it simply felt too padded out and without enough context or meat to it for me to want to continue on top of the problematic opening arc with Gotham and Gotham Girl. I’ll likely circle back in trade form at some point but even that has me feeling a bit wary, which reinforces this as a good time to jump ship.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 21st, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
