Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Parker
Art: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors: Tony Avina
Letterer: Deron Bennett
What They Say:
Blood promised aid to Waller’s team, but his idea is surprisingly unhelpful.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a pretty good run of issues so far, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay suffers a bit this time around in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on. Jeff Parker has consistently wowed me over the last couple of years with a number of projects he’s worked on and there’s been some very fun stuff in this series. This installment has him working with Matthew Dow Smith again, who also has some strong projects in his resume, and the look of the book is once again solid. I’m just not sure that the combination worked right this time to bring the story forward in an engaging way that connects and that’s a big part of what this installment focuses on.
With the Gentleman Ghost having taken over Bane for the moment, and it is just for the moment, the book goes into action mode with lots of fun bits. Having Etrigan show up with Jason Blood essentially using a form of him to try and put one over on Ghost makes sense, but the way it plays out is confusing and uncertain, partially because I felt like I wasn’t getting who the characters were at time and the uncertainty of what was happening. It also doesn’t help that as the fight goes on and we get our twists and turns with Ghost out of Bane’s body and making other moves that we get Deadman popping up out of nowhere as a favor owed to Blood – one that he’s displeased about executing since he’s missing some fun at the Garden. It’s an element that helps to make this feel part of a larger and active world but coming in the midst of other confusing action pieces it fell flat for me.
The back and forth of the fight culminates with a last minute “save” of the ghost that they were after to find out about the Key that they’re trying to locate – a plot point that feels a bit elusive at times in the series. This has a bit of a flashback tale come forth from the man that was the thirteenth smith to work on it and it provides the clues that are needed, at least according to Jason, while everyone else is just kind of in a “Huh? What?” moment. Delving into something that Vandal Savage was involved in definitely is a good plot point overall and we’ve seen some good stuff with it such as with Scandal and the fallout from Vandal’s apparent death, but it hasn’t felt like there’s a cohesive piece moving everything forward clearly.
In Summary:
Something just felt off here and a lot of it comes to the flow of the action and it not connecting well for me even with a couple of read-throughs to ensure it wasn’t just an “in the moment” problem. There are fuin bits with the fight itself and I do like Deadman so seeing him was definitely enjoyable if unexpected, combined with a flashback piece that felt like it was just a tad too long. With a lot of strong and fun issues prior to this I’ll just chalk it up to a transitional piece in a way as we move forward with what’s next but it was a bit disappointing.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 9th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99
