Scan barcode
christajls's review against another edition
3.0
I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed the story here. It's just the art that makes me roll my eyes. Can Harley have a better outfit please?
tmwebb3's review against another edition
3.0
Spotty. Art all over the map, from gritty and realistic to cartoony. Some !missions better than others. Really wanted to like it.
mckinlay's review against another edition
3.0
more like 3.5 stars. will goodreads ever add half stars?!
thursday48's review against another edition
5.0
Rating 4.5
I picked this and Birds of Prey up on free comic book day, and am just now getting around to them...Oops!
I really liked this comic. Overall I generally like don't like the Batman/DC heroes but really like their villains so this was something I was really interested in picking up and I wasn't disappointed. I really like Waller and her relationship with Deadshot. I liked Harley's story line so much I'm half tempted to pick up the other comics that tie in to this. I liked that this series doesn't really need any back story to get into it. The bad guys are given the jobs that good guys can't or won't take. Simple Enough but still interesting.
I picked this and Birds of Prey up on free comic book day, and am just now getting around to them...Oops!
I really liked this comic. Overall I generally like don't like the Batman/DC heroes but really like their villains so this was something I was really interested in picking up and I wasn't disappointed. I really like Waller and her relationship with Deadshot. I liked Harley's story line so much I'm half tempted to pick up the other comics that tie in to this. I liked that this series doesn't really need any back story to get into it. The bad guys are given the jobs that good guys can't or won't take. Simple Enough but still interesting.
perilous1's review against another edition
3.0
With hype already building up around the movie, I thought it was about time I got a feel for the series.
First off, I ADORE the premise. A crack team of super-villains, anti-heroes, and ethically-challenged mutants shaving time off their prison sentences by taking on high risk (and often morally ambiguous) missions? Harley Quinn wielding a sledge hammer along with her signature ‘crazy’? Sign. Me. Up.
We’re thrown into the concept with a good old fashioned torture scene, in which we get to see what each squad member is made of—quite literally, in some cases. From there the team’s first assignment is the site of a mass quarantine, with total slaughter of its infected techno-zombie populace as the objective. This is where it started going a bit downhill for me. The gratuitous gore level turned out to be somewhere between Spawn and Aliens--which would have been easier to muck through if there’d been more of the morbid kind of humor I was hoping for. Harley Quinn is worth an uncomfortable chuckle now and then, but for the most part, there wasn't much cause for amusement.
Diablo has all the makings for a possibly redemptive character, but with very little background on him, I had trouble becoming attached. At the very end we get a small taste for Harley’s history with The Joker, and there is a brief scene in which Deadshot interacts with what I presume to be his kid… but none of this is effectively sympathy-inducing. The plot perhaps did too good a job of driving home the point that all of the Suicide Squad is expendable. The audience is set up not only to expect little survivability, but to not particularly care what happens to any of them.
The art style is generally serviceable—effective on the dark and ominous side. Character faces were sometimes inconsistent to the point of distraction, but they conveyed the proper range of emotion. Joker was particularly well done—though he was more of a guest-star flashback than anything.
All in all, I’m left feeling pretty ‘meh’ about it. Not sure yet if I’ll read on in the series.
mossss123's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Very inconsistent is all I can say. Most of the time, it seems to be just gore and violence for gore and violence’s sake with no real plot or thematic reason for it. The art quality also varies drastically from issue to issue. Deadshot, the main character, is very unlikable. However, this could be setting him up for better things later. El Diablo is an interesting character, and his redemption is something I want to see. However, he is nowhere to be seen in the second half of the story. The book goes into Harley’s abuse and manipulation at the hands of the Joker very well, and I would like to see where that goes in the future. Despite this, the book does seem to objectify Harley whenever it can and does have some racism and transphobia done by the main characters who, to be fair, are all villains. Not the best iteration of the squad I have seen, but hopefully, the run improves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Transphobia
daphne_dlcrz's review against another edition
1.0
The art style was awful and the storylines were boring and bad.
kaylecorey's review against another edition
2.0
I will admit that I am unqualified to criticize this for a few reasons. First of all, I don't know the DC cannon well. I am aware, faintly, of which villain corresponds to which superhero, but that's it. Second of all, I don't typically like superheroes. I've read and enjoyed a lot anti-hero stock, but the few interactions I've had with the mainstreamers like Spiderman, Batman, and even the X-Men have left me cold.
I had hoped that because this was a 'bad guy' focused comic, it would work in my favor. But what struck me was that even with the theme of bad guys being forced to work in a rag-tag team there was still a line of good vs evil. No real nuance. The characters were categorically either good or bad, and there was no in-between. There was certainly past versus present version of themselves, but they had morphed into an either improved or diminished personality that took over them as a whole. It is very possibly a flaw of being saturated with characters, or maybe an assumption that enough character building had been done in other iterations of the story, but as a standalone piece, all of them fail to stand out.
Whenever a big superhero movie is coming out and I like the trailer, I make an active effort to read the corresponding comic. I will probably go see Suicide Squad in theaters, mostly because I think Jared Leto is great. So when I saw that my local bookstore had the first volume of Suicide Squad on sale, it seemed like a no brainer. I won't read any more of this series, but I'm glad to have had an introduction.
I had hoped that because this was a 'bad guy' focused comic, it would work in my favor. But what struck me was that even with the theme of bad guys being forced to work in a rag-tag team there was still a line of good vs evil. No real nuance. The characters were categorically either good or bad, and there was no in-between. There was certainly past versus present version of themselves, but they had morphed into an either improved or diminished personality that took over them as a whole. It is very possibly a flaw of being saturated with characters, or maybe an assumption that enough character building had been done in other iterations of the story, but as a standalone piece, all of them fail to stand out.
Whenever a big superhero movie is coming out and I like the trailer, I make an active effort to read the corresponding comic. I will probably go see Suicide Squad in theaters, mostly because I think Jared Leto is great. So when I saw that my local bookstore had the first volume of Suicide Squad on sale, it seemed like a no brainer. I won't read any more of this series, but I'm glad to have had an introduction.
cloudchaimber's review against another edition
5.0
Slow start, but builds to a satisfying, violent, and surprising end which bumps it from 4 to 5 stars.
mehitabels's review against another edition
3.0
So, so pretty.
Not great, but some of the prettiest violence ever depicted.
Not great, but some of the prettiest violence ever depicted.