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geekwayne's review
3.0
'Suicide Squad, Volume 3: Burning Down the House' by Rob Williams collects Suicide Squad #11-15 and the War Crimes #1 special. The art alternates between John Romita Jr. and Eddy Barrows.
This story takes place after the events in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. Rustam is still out there and still wants revenge on Amanda Waller, but she is on leave while the Suicide Squad is being looked in to. The Squad goes on a raid into Russia only to find out that it's like their targets knew they were coming. Then Rustam and Burning World attack Blackgate prison and the Squad has to take them down. With Waller out of play, possibly permanently, can the team do what they need to do? And how does Lex Luthor play into everthing?
It's a big confusing story arc. Characters feel a bit tacked on in places. Even when they get a break and some downtime, they don't feel genuine to me. Since the art varies greatly issue by issue, that kind of knocked me in and out of the book as well. I much preferred the Eddy Barrows art over John Romita Jr.
The War Crimes special included written by John Ostrander was a much better plotted story. It included some different Squad members in a story that felt very much like the kind of thing the Suicide Squad would be sent out on.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
This story takes place after the events in Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. Rustam is still out there and still wants revenge on Amanda Waller, but she is on leave while the Suicide Squad is being looked in to. The Squad goes on a raid into Russia only to find out that it's like their targets knew they were coming. Then Rustam and Burning World attack Blackgate prison and the Squad has to take them down. With Waller out of play, possibly permanently, can the team do what they need to do? And how does Lex Luthor play into everthing?
It's a big confusing story arc. Characters feel a bit tacked on in places. Even when they get a break and some downtime, they don't feel genuine to me. Since the art varies greatly issue by issue, that kind of knocked me in and out of the book as well. I much preferred the Eddy Barrows art over John Romita Jr.
The War Crimes special included written by John Ostrander was a much better plotted story. It included some different Squad members in a story that felt very much like the kind of thing the Suicide Squad would be sent out on.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from DC Entertainment and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
jonnywarlock's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
miamollekin's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sblake33's review
4.0
This is by far the best volume in the run. One of the things I didn't enjoy about volume two was that they squad was separated, and when not together the characters don't shine as much. But let me tell you, they shined in this volume! Also, this volume wasn't short, it was a fully fleshed out story arc and thank the heavens for that. I like that the squad feels more like a team now, not just a group of people forced to be together. They fact that they all came together with no force involved? Hell yes! Storyline was great and interesting, definitely has me excited to see what happens next!
Side notes:
An Enchantress transformation that didn't have June screaming and begging, oh my heart.
Waylon & June are my OTP!
Honestly, I'm not surprised by what happened to Hack, but boy am I pissed!
Also, Amanda was a beast in this volume but she was drawn poorly thorough out this entire volume. In the last issue she look great though. Amanda "the wall" Waller is my favorite.
Waiting for Harcourt to die
Pissed Flag and Katana aren't getting together. I wanted this ship so bad.
Also, waiting for Williams to do more with Katana.
Floyd Lawton is pretty great.
Digger Harkness? I wAS ROOTING FOR YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!
Waylon & June in the swamp, making plans, being extra specially cute - I die.
Side notes:
An Enchantress transformation that didn't have June screaming and begging, oh my heart.
Waylon & June are my OTP!
Honestly, I'm not surprised by what happened to Hack, but boy am I pissed!
Also, Amanda was a beast in this volume but she was drawn poorly thorough out this entire volume. In the last issue she look great though. Amanda "the wall" Waller is my favorite.
Waiting for Harcourt to die
Pissed Flag and Katana aren't getting together. I wanted this ship so bad.
Also, waiting for Williams to do more with Katana.
Floyd Lawton is pretty great.
Digger Harkness? I wAS ROOTING FOR YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!
Waylon & June in the swamp, making plans, being extra specially cute - I die.
medusax0's review
4.0
This is by far the best volume in the run. One of the things I didn't enjoy about volume two was that they squad was separated, and when not together the characters don't shine as much. But let me tell you, they shined in this volume! Also, this volume wasn't short, it was a fully fleshed out story arc and thank the heavens for that. I like that the squad feels more like a team now, not just a group of people forced to be together. They fact that they all came together with no force involved? Hell yes! Storyline was great and interesting, definitely has me excited to see what happens next!
Side notes:
An Enchantress transformation that didn't have June screaming and begging, oh my heart.
Waylon & June are my OTP!
Honestly, I'm not surprised by what happened to Hack, but boy am I pissed!
Also, Amanda was a beast in this volume but she was drawn poorly thorough out this entire volume. In the last issue she look great though. Amanda "the wall" Waller is my favorite.
Waiting for Harcourt to die
Pissed Flag and Katana aren't getting together. I wanted this ship so bad.
Also, waiting for Williams to do more with Katana.
Floyd Lawton is pretty great.
Digger Harkness? I wAS ROOTING FOR YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!
Waylon & June in the swamp, making plans, being extra specially cute - I die.
Side notes:
An Enchantress transformation that didn't have June screaming and begging, oh my heart.
Waylon & June are my OTP!
Honestly, I'm not surprised by what happened to Hack, but boy am I pissed!
Also, Amanda was a beast in this volume but she was drawn poorly thorough out this entire volume. In the last issue she look great though. Amanda "the wall" Waller is my favorite.
Waiting for Harcourt to die
Pissed Flag and Katana aren't getting together. I wanted this ship so bad.
Also, waiting for Williams to do more with Katana.
Floyd Lawton is pretty great.
Digger Harkness? I wAS ROOTING FOR YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME!
Waylon & June in the swamp, making plans, being extra specially cute - I die.
babettes's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Enchantress and croc are so cuteeee
quirkycatsfatstacks's review
3.0
I received a copy of Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Burning Down the House from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Suicide Squad volume three is back, continuing from where volume two left off. Unfortunately there is an artist switch a little less than halfway through. Maybe it’s because I liked Jim Lee’s work so much, but I just found myself struggling to enjoy the new art style as much as the old. Thankfully it isn’t distracting, so I was easily able to focus on the plot instead.
Volume three is pretty heavily focused on Waller and the situations she gets into/causes. So if you’re not the biggest fan of Waller (which I kinda get) then you may not love this volume so much. There’s actually quite a lot going on because of this. We have traitors and double agents and backstabbers, the works. Needless to say there’s a lot of intrigue and confusion.
Everything sort of starts off with a recovery of a US asset (for lack of a better description) that’s been taking overseas by a competing force (I’m being a bit vague here so as to not give away all the details). While it was interesting to see some of the different members of Suicide Squad (about half the team was made up of “new” members) we didn’t get much time to see them. Additionally the constant perspective shifts combined with the undercover uniforms/masks made it more difficult than normal to tell who was who. For a minute there I even thought Waller had blown DeadShot’s neck bomb. You can imagine how alarming that was! Otherwise it was a pretty typical and enjoyable Suicide Squad mission.
The itty bitty break the team got was fun to see: just a few minutes of insight to some of the characters in their downtime. Harley’s break didn’t really surprise me (though again I find myself confused with how this fits in with her standalone comic timeline), nor does Flag’s (of course he would spend it checking up on everyone else). DeadShot’s break was…heartbreaking to say the least. And Boomerang’s? His was pretty interesting. He appears to be struggling with his identity after the whole dying and Hack bringing him back to life bit. It was unexpected depth for that character, but not unappreciated.
So…Waller…she’s a bit of a hate her but can’t live without her character. We’re not meant to like her character, obviously, but I also don’t see the Suicide Squad working without her (unless she got replaced by somebody that was equally ruthless). I’m saying this so you know that I truly never believe it when it’s set up to look like Waller dies. I just can’t picture it, and therefore don’t believe it. Unfortunately this resulted in some breaking the immersion for me, because I couldn’t get into the plot as much because of the intro to it.
I mentioned earlier there were a lot of backstabbers and double agents and the like in this volume, and I meant it. There’s at least one double agent (feel free to guess who) per side (even though the “other side” isn’t terribly clear yet), one traitor, one body, and a whole lot of confused Suicide Squad members. I ended up being totally wrong about the traitor, I think. They may have still be a double agent, that part hasn’t been clarified yet, or I got confused by it. Like I said, lots going on.
Speaking of the team, it was interesting to see how they all reacted once their bombs were turned off. Some of them were predictable, but others less so. I wish they had had more time to be free and show us what they would have done (obviously this doesn’t apply to Harley so much, since we can easily look towards her comics to see that).
All in all I think this was a pretty decent Suicide Squad volume. Not their best work, but certainly not the worst either. Ironically I think there was too much exposition for a Suicide Squad plot – if we’re being honest with ourselves that isn’t exactly the reason we read these comics. It’s for the fight scenes and the bucket loads of witty comebacks (which I totally envy). I’ll be curious to see what happens in the next volume, seeing that this plot is all wrapped up.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Suicide Squad volume three is back, continuing from where volume two left off. Unfortunately there is an artist switch a little less than halfway through. Maybe it’s because I liked Jim Lee’s work so much, but I just found myself struggling to enjoy the new art style as much as the old. Thankfully it isn’t distracting, so I was easily able to focus on the plot instead.
Volume three is pretty heavily focused on Waller and the situations she gets into/causes. So if you’re not the biggest fan of Waller (which I kinda get) then you may not love this volume so much. There’s actually quite a lot going on because of this. We have traitors and double agents and backstabbers, the works. Needless to say there’s a lot of intrigue and confusion.
Everything sort of starts off with a recovery of a US asset (for lack of a better description) that’s been taking overseas by a competing force (I’m being a bit vague here so as to not give away all the details). While it was interesting to see some of the different members of Suicide Squad (about half the team was made up of “new” members) we didn’t get much time to see them. Additionally the constant perspective shifts combined with the undercover uniforms/masks made it more difficult than normal to tell who was who. For a minute there I even thought Waller had blown DeadShot’s neck bomb. You can imagine how alarming that was! Otherwise it was a pretty typical and enjoyable Suicide Squad mission.
The itty bitty break the team got was fun to see: just a few minutes of insight to some of the characters in their downtime. Harley’s break didn’t really surprise me (though again I find myself confused with how this fits in with her standalone comic timeline), nor does Flag’s (of course he would spend it checking up on everyone else). DeadShot’s break was…heartbreaking to say the least. And Boomerang’s? His was pretty interesting. He appears to be struggling with his identity after the whole dying and Hack bringing him back to life bit. It was unexpected depth for that character, but not unappreciated.
So…Waller…she’s a bit of a hate her but can’t live without her character. We’re not meant to like her character, obviously, but I also don’t see the Suicide Squad working without her (unless she got replaced by somebody that was equally ruthless). I’m saying this so you know that I truly never believe it when it’s set up to look like Waller dies. I just can’t picture it, and therefore don’t believe it. Unfortunately this resulted in some breaking the immersion for me, because I couldn’t get into the plot as much because of the intro to it.
I mentioned earlier there were a lot of backstabbers and double agents and the like in this volume, and I meant it. There’s at least one double agent (feel free to guess who) per side (even though the “other side” isn’t terribly clear yet), one traitor, one body, and a whole lot of confused Suicide Squad members. I ended up being totally wrong about the traitor, I think. They may have still be a double agent, that part hasn’t been clarified yet, or I got confused by it. Like I said, lots going on.
Speaking of the team, it was interesting to see how they all reacted once their bombs were turned off. Some of them were predictable, but others less so. I wish they had had more time to be free and show us what they would have done (obviously this doesn’t apply to Harley so much, since we can easily look towards her comics to see that).
All in all I think this was a pretty decent Suicide Squad volume. Not their best work, but certainly not the worst either. Ironically I think there was too much exposition for a Suicide Squad plot – if we’re being honest with ourselves that isn’t exactly the reason we read these comics. It’s for the fight scenes and the bucket loads of witty comebacks (which I totally envy). I’ll be curious to see what happens in the next volume, seeing that this plot is all wrapped up.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
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