Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors: Tony Avina
Letterer: Deron Bennett
What They Say:
A new Squad is formed, with the same old mission: creating havoc!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of this series, working off the new animated feature, was an interesting piece that Jeff Parker got to put together. While the title was Suicide Squad we got an issue that was focused only on Amanda Waller, who really is the Squad in total while those she assembles are merely her weapons. What we got was an interesting piece that focused on Jason Blood and Madame Xanadu in surprising ways and really let Matthew Dow Smith work some creative stuff to give it a neat feeling with the designs and flow of it. It was light on story, though the threads are certainly there, but it served to introduce us to some of the basics and made clear that Waller is who this book is truly about.
This issue doesn’t disabuse me of that notion, though it fleshes out a good team along the way. Part of the fun of the old Ostrander run of material way back when was in seeing who would be put out in the field. Here, Waller’s assembling her new team that doesn’t include a solid player like Deadshot to put in the lead position, which means she has to lean on Captain Boomerang for it. The journey through Belle Reve with him at the start sets the tone with a reduction in his sentence if he survives plus just enjoying some time out of the cell. Boomerang is always interesting to me and I like that we essentially get Waller’s notes on each of them, especially the one about how Boomerang is actually a good team player like most of Flash’s rogues surprisingly are.
The central idea here is to continue from there to introduce us to each of them and some of their quirks, which also includes what their deals are for doing this. The sentence reductions don’t work for everyone as some can never be let go but some are easy, such as Doctor Polaris just wanting some over the counter drugs while Coyote will get more time in the yard and a bit more food. Bane? Bane’s just happy to kill people and he’s a solidly reliable member that knows the drill, your tank that you need and can trust as much as any of them. And while Harley Quinn is an obvious addition and is played well here with her personality mirroring that of the live-action film, I was more interested in Ms. Clay as an offshoot of Clayface that I hadn’t seen before. A small bit of background added some nice touches and has me curious just how far they’ll go with the character or if she’s just going to be fodder.
In Summary:
With no real story set here, this issue of Hell to Pay is similar to the first in that it can largely work in a vacuum. This is all standard setup material but it’s executed in a very fun way that draws you into the characters and all their quirks. Parker captures them easily enough here as they’re all distinctive quickly and have plenty of room to become more while Matthew Dow Smith plays with it all somewhat cinematically with the angles and progression through the prison. It’s a little bland if only because they’re in their prison outfits and there isn’t a chance at something really creative like we saw with Blood and Xanadu before, but what he does get to illustrate here works well and feels very grounded and connected like the first issue did. I’m still curious about the mission but more curious at this point to see who’s going to get whacked.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 28th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99
