Review – Suicide Squad #2 (DC)

Publisher: DC
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artwork: Bruno Redondo
Colours: Adriano Lucas
Lettering: Wes Abbott
Release Date: 29th January 2020

With a hot start last issue (along with a suitably high body count), Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s newly-relaunched Suicide Squad continues to deliver pretty much everything you’d expect from a Task Force X series this week. Unfortunately, in some ways, that can almost be viewed as a negative as much as it can a positive. For the most part, this is very much Suicide-Squad-by-numbers, with the familiar series of complex, highly dangerous missions being carried out by a grudging group of villains and a boss that doesn’t care if they live or die.

Don’t get me wrong though, it’s still a lot of fun. Taylor also does his best to inject something a little different into the proceedings by having the bulk of the SS roster being made up of the surviving members of ‘The Revolutionaries’, a group of super powered activists with their own close-knit camaraderie and fierce grudge against the Squad for wiping out so many of their members during their ‘recruitment’.

Redondo delivers a highly energetic visual style, with a real cinematic flair and an unashamedly over-the-top use of sound effects. His character designs for the Revolutionaries are solid enough, with a couple of real stand-outs – I’m thinking Wink and Aerie in particular – and the whole thing sprints along at a fairly brisk pace with some smooth layouts along the way.

For me, the highlight of the first couple of issues has been the dynamic between Fin and The Shark. The former being one half of a pair of amphibious, telepathic twins before his brother was eaten by The Shark adds a real friction to their exchanges (as you might expect), and their brief skirmish here and the resultant jewellery addition by Fin is pure gold. Plus, in the right hands, Deadshot is one of my low-key favourite DC characters – hands that the creative team here are more than happy to provide. Oh, and we dont get too much Harley either, which is also a big plus in my book.

With an interesting twist thrown in at the end for good measure, this new Suicide Squad series is certainly off to a strong start. The idea of having Task Force X effectively merging with a group of super-powered freedom fighters adds an intriguing dynamic to the proceedings, and both Taylor and Redondo are doing a great job so far of bringing these familiar (and not-so-familiar) characters to the page. Well worth a look.

Rating: 3.5/5.

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