Now that’s a rough mission.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Agustin Padilla
Colors: Tony Avina
Letterer: Deron Bennett
What They Say:
Setting her Squad loose on the high seas, will the Wall regret her decision to lead this mission?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a lot of fun setup the last time around in Belle Reve where we got to see Waller putting together her Squad, Jeff Parker takes us right into the action and gives us an almost video game-like start to the issue. Throwing us right into the action and “reminding us” of the mission is a fun way to start an action game and I can already envision a Suicide Squad game in the same manner. This issue changes up the art side as Agustin Padilla takes over for it while Tony Avina gives it some continuity with the color design. Padilla and Dow Smith have different art styles but I really like what Padilla brings to the book here as it gets very gritty and Tony Avina nails some really striking pages because of it, particularly involving Polaris.
The premise for the mission is actually a lot of fun. With Vandal Savage having been killed there’s not a ton of attention on his heir, Scandal. His daughter doesn’t know about his death yet and is holed up on a medical ship that she’s taken over where her love in Knockout is looking less likely to live by the minute. Waller wants the team to capture her and avoid killing any of the medical folks or Knockout as she wants to use Scandal to deal with the splintering of Vandal’s empire, offering some protection of sorts for Scandal and the opportunity to hunt down trouble that will let Waller get ahead of a lot of things. It’s the usual gray area that you’d expect her to work in but it’s an ideal storyline overall.
With it being at sea we get the fun of a group of “pirates” attacking the ship just before the Squad gets there, which means a horde of faceless ninja-like people that are trying to take out Scandal. The Squad itself doesn’t get a ton of time here once they get a handle on the situation but you have some fun moments with Harley and Ms. Clay as they showcase their particular strengths. While we also get a controlling moment for Coombs by Waller, the real winner here is Doctor Polaris. He’s tasked with making sure the bullets from the attackers don’t come through, leaving him to use his magnetism powers to repel the bullets. When he ends up taking out a large group by throwing them back he expects grief from Waller but instead she simply doesn’t care because he’s doing his job. The shift from somewhat neutral to glee over what he’s allowed to do is great and I absolutely love Padilla’s panels with him as it’s just rough and raw in a wonderful way.
In Summary:
The Hell to Pay storyline moves forward a bit more here as we finally get a mission and I’m enjoying the heck out of it. The series kicked off in an unusual way with its focus on Blood and Xanadu with Waller before it shifted to the usual “collect the players” installment we got the last time around. Here, it feels like some real forward motion and a lot of great carnage playing out thanks to some solid scripting from Parker and some fantastic artwork from Padilla. The pairing works very well and I love some of the quirks that Parker brings into it in playing with the characters. But I really like the concept of the story for this mission and the way it unfolds here. The book started out solid but it’s working a very good upward trend for me.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 4th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99