Suicide Squad New 52 #8

Nostalgia is awesome. If you asked me for ten cool things about the nineties, I could list my favourite artists, movies, video games, food franchises.... you name it. On the flip side, if you asked me for some dodgy nineties nostalgia something like this piece of... art... would be at the top of the list.

June 2012.

But it's not even from the nineties! I hear you cry. You're right, anonymous voice in my head. This is from 2012. This is not a good thing. That said.... at least four out of five characters are in proportion. What the absolute hell happened to Harley Quinn???

She's lost her eyeballs, gained some ginormous bazungas, changed the direction her hair colours go, her thigh is the same size going down to her knee and oh look. Eight issues in and there's already ANOTHER variation on her costume. Yikes.

Anyway... maybe the art is better on the inside.


Well, it is a bit but the logic is not so sound. Everything is blood stained red and that's pretty cool. Lime's death is relayed in a really awkward pose. Savant is also in an awkwarder pose than what we left him in. King Shark... likes showing off his gams in surprisingly clear sewage water.
Harley Quinn found the strength to roll over after being shot.

Wait, why was she shot? Oh yeah, she trapped Deadshot inside some random room in the Gotham City police station and put the skinned Joker face on him. Remember? There was a whole issue about storming the police station.

Soo.... why does the page say this was in Arkham Asylum?

I feel like ten seconds of fact checking would have solved this problem but no-one could be bothered. Won Fon Hey?








I have to say Deadshot's chicken coop quip is pretty good. I like how there's an extraction point B casually mentioned. Like, this must have been an off screen call to Waller to tell her it was goin' down at the cop shop. Even though as I mentioned last issue, it appeared that everyone just jumped into misguided action immediately after Harley 'surrendered' to the police. Plus, now he's gotta (presumably) fight his way out of the station that HAS to be swarming with more cops by now. Seriously.

Back at Belle Reve/Reeve, Waller is not happy with Harley Quinn. So not happy that she's gonna monologue the hell out of this scene.
Thank gosh we had a warehouse full of patsies?
More like thank gosh you're half dead so that I can exposition this whole page.

Wait.... how did they pin Harley's escape on the weirdo's in the warehouse? They never left the warehouse in Gotham and Harley was meant to be locked up in Louisiana.

Unless they mean that it wasn't reeeeaaally Harley in Gotham, just some lookalike midget, Siamese twin or transvestite? ....sure.... that'll work.
Clearly no further explanation is needed.










I think I would buy this whole Suicide Squad thing if you could actually die. See here, Waller explicitly states that she'd kill Harley Quinn if she didn't need her. Need her for what, though? Like, Harley has just broken out of prison, started a riot, blew Belle Reve's cover, and has basically led to several deaths - both good and bad people. That's a lot of naughty no nos.

Waller goes on to explain that she had to lie to her bosses and call in favours from everywhere to sweep this dirt under an expensive rug. Just tell us, tell us why you need her on the squad so much and maybe it won't be so bad! Just don't say 'because Harley Quinn.'

Anyway, Dr. Visyak (remember her from issue #4?) well she's shaken off that intense brain washing that made her kill herself - kinda - in a few short... however long it's been now. Just in time to be shot down by Waller for helping her. Nice.

They inject Harley with some cleverly code named Lazarus stuff (you can't fool me, I went to college!) and she reacts by going berserk and showing a lot more of her pasty corpse skin than I ever wanted to see. This raises some questions for me though.

Is she wearing the underpants she was shot in or what because that's gross. Secondly, what even is that stuff around her eyes? Is it meant to be faded make-up or face-paint? Is it permanently on her skin? Was it just not washed off when she was brought in for surgery? Plus I think someone re-did her nail polish. How thoughtful.

There's Waller again with the 'here's one more chance you idiot even though I don't give others half a chance!' Hey Waller, you know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome. I mean, geez, this wannabe Joker is a definite liability and doesn't seem to have any skill sets different to anyone else on the team apart from 'has tits'.

Nice try. I know there's no cutlery here. 

Anyway, moving on to our next paint with colours page, here's the freakin' happiest cult guy ever.

He'll be your best friend and make you steak and chips, engage you in witty banter and paint the town purple with you.

Man, it makes you wonder how people get involved with cults anyw.... HEY!







Is it just me or does everything in the Suicide Squad universe happen in an empty, tiled room?


Anyway, tired of berating Visyak and threatening but not really threatening her "snookums" Harley Quinn, Waller goes for a walk about the facilities. She now internally mocks El Diablo who engages in one of my own personal hobbies - screaming about shadowy things trying to get me while the prison buddies I *didn't*horribly burn to death give me gang tattoos.
It'd probably be easier if he wasn't so sweaty.

Oh wait, purple cult guy is back and taking our mysterious buddy for walkies. Despite being super mysterious, this one page has more background detail than the entire series has so far.

Next is King Shark's turn for torturous mockery. He's.. tied down to a drained pool and covered with heat lamps.

I find Shark's face here hilarious!

Yeah, turns out dehydrating a mutated shark makes it forget things. Meanwhile, it's apparently turned into night by the time she visits Light. Irony! I see what you did there!!

Now, see this here? This is some bullshit. If one person flaps their gummy Joe's and loses their head, it has to be the same for everyone. 

No matter who it is. 

Waller states here that she won't hesitate to blow Light's head up if she ever talks about the Squad like Lime did.... 

Well, let's just say she's no Harley Quinn*!

*Harley Quinn pack includes several second chances, get out of jail free cards and obligatory ass shots. 

I mean damn, Light hasn't even done anything and she's already guilty by association!

Next is Black Spider, who is in the gymnasium doing all the flips and giggles that should really be Harley's forte. Then again, you can't really do proper gymnastics in a corset and we can't have her do anything useful so...

 Black Spider actually wants to get back on the Squad even though I seem to recall him bitching about everyone last time he went with them. Whatever. Anyway, purple cult guy is back and wow, he has done a lot of work in one month! This super secret initiate is all pumped and ready to kill Waller. 

Must have been some good steak!

Anyway, one last person's spirit to crush. It's Deadshot, looking like he's wearing a bad Attack on Titan onesie and apparently getting a head start on killing the goons from the Suicide Squad movie. 

Unfortunately for Waller, he sucks so hard at shooting that he breaks his own spirit before she even sets foot in the door. 

Waller seems to think that Harley tortured Deadshot but while it was kinda messed up, it didn't seem that bad. I mean, she did cut his lip. That was kinda mean. Then she put a cut off face on him - but to be fair he was wearing his mask so it wasn't really touching him. Did I read a different comic?

 Oh, look who it is. Savant has survived his pressure mine.. uh, apparently...and has earned his freedom despite kind of screwing up the last mission? Well, alright, I guess. 

Now the purple cult guy is sending out his initiate to infiltrate the Squad. 

Hmm? Oh, right. 

DUHN DUHN DUHHHHHN.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Every time I come back to these comics they make less and less sense to me. At least this issue sort of has a point to the time skips and flash backs even if the timeline is still a bit iffy. 

Again, kinda annoyed about how Harley basically gets a pass and for no real reason? I mean, even though this is not the Quinn I like, I'm not trying to kill her off but shit, there is no consistency here. 

I can understand Waller bringing Deadshot back to life because he has shooting talent, follows orders pretty well and is somewhat bound by his own moral code. 

Harley meanwhile, is a friggin' liability and makes Waller look like a friggin' idiot. She's already shown she can replace the team members super easily so this blatant main character thing is really blah and dis-interesting. 

The issue made surprisingly good use of backgrounds, colour and perspectives so that was nice for a change. I like the nice cult guy with the steak. 

Wotta Comedian!

Deadshot: Deadshot to Waller. Cancel misery avalanche. Chicken is back in the coop. 

Deadshot: I try not to get too attached to the newbies. It makes it easier when I have to wipe your brains off my uniform. 

Waller: Do I look like your mamma, Lawton? I don't give a damn what you're sick of.