Suicide Squad New 52 #9

This issue picks up where the last one left off, and by that I means in classic New 52 Suicide Squad style it just chucks you in anywhere and continuity be damned!

The cover isn't too bad - King Shark looks ridiculous as usual, El Diablo looks like he's trying to smack Light's booty.

I know Light's doing the booty and boobies pose but it doesn't look exploitative, surprisingly. My main issue with her is that her pants meld into her boots. It's weird. Stop doing that in comics.
Also her arm thingies are missing. AGAIN. Someone fire the Suicide Squad's wardrobe department.

The background is decent, Resurrection Man is eh. True, I don't know much about this character but from what I do know he's pretty much Multi-Man but with surprisingly more in the angst department. I prefer Multi-Man.

Comic opens with Deadshot killing Mitch Shelley AKA Resurrection Man even though he's a worse shooter than my drunk aunt at the carnival.

Ohhhhh, turns out we were supposed to read Resurrection Man #8 if we wanted to know what was going on. Well fuck you, I won't do what you tell me. You're not my supervisor!!

King Shark is absolutely huge compared to his team mates and.. and as a matter of fact, what is even going on with any of these poses?

If Deadshot puffs his chest out anymore he might even fly away. Light is looking for her lost contact lens and Black Spider... well I think his head shrunk in the wash... either that or Iceberg has a really big head.









Iceberg is sent away to find a vehicle and part of me hopes for a Secret Six style ice cream truck, but like a lazy person who fears going outside I know I won't get it. Black Spider gets a couple of words instead of his usual tirade about stuff and apparently he can teleport now because he's so ninja?
I mean... did he need to throw a smoke bomb to get away from his own team or is he just wasteful and dramatic as all hell?

It's WHOM not WHO, you cur! 

Now we don't get much of Harley Quinn in this issue but what we do is indicative of her character as depicted in Suicide Squad forever more.

Basically, she's recovered from death's door and someone wisely decided therapy might help this nutcase.

Here, the shock twist is meant to be that Harley Quinn is one side of her personality and Harleen Quinzel is the other half. Which is short hand for convenient comic character with a 'split personality'. Or mass media's popular portrayal of the Madonna and the whore in one handy dandy body.

Maybe that's not fair. This Harley may indeed have Dis-associative Identity Disorder but it's a definite canon change and a bit offensive to anyone who doesn't like the usually wrong portrayal of mental health in the media.











Oh and apparently Harleen's shrink is either Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist or Jay Sherman: Movie Critic.


But is this really Harleen Quinzel again?

I personally don't think so.

You know why?








Her hair is still in pigtails and she's got her weird eye mask/make-up.. thing... on (look, does anyone ACTUALLY know what that stuff is??) when everyone knows that when she's Harleen, she takes her make-up off, her hair goes in a bun and she wears glasses.

Because Suicide Squad Rebirth #8 just pulled this shit again too.

But she keeps the booty shorts because she's a fun loving professional

I think the whole concept was stupid to start with and brings Harley one step closer to BEING the Joker. Reason being, the classic Harley Quinn was someone who was a bit crazy already, but chose to dress up like a clown to be with the man she loved and carry out madcap schemes. Point being, it was who she was anyway, she just changed her outer appearance.

This dual personalities thing just seems like an excuse almost.. like oh she has to be a craaaazzy criminal clown because she's a split personality! And it reminds me of the whole Joker 'super sanity' thing. I mean, Harley was unique for being involved in this life the way she was, but now it's another mentally ill villain?

Much like Amanda Waller cursing Harley's rampage of previous comics (like the editor's note reminding us that we should have read the previous issues. Did ya read the previous issues? did ya, did ya? Huh??) telling herself that she should have let Deadshot kill Harley...
Aww, Mandy, you don't mean that!
 Harley will never... ever die in this series so you're kiddin' no-one lady.

Anyway, back on the bandwagon - literally, because Iceberg somehow found a church bus and Deadshot decided to bemoan this vehicle AFTER sitting down and getting comfy.
Light notices the 'corpse' of Resurrection Man lighting up and Deadshot - who apparently is pissing on everyone's parade today - basically insinuates she's yapping her lips again (this is her first speaking line in the entire comic) and then he curses at Waller.

Honestly, this guy curses more than Bender.
Personally, I think he should curse himself for expecting to be coddled, for not keeping a better eye on his quarry and for generally being a dick to his teammates. I mean, damn, King Shark ate Yo-Yo and has been trying hard - albeit futilely to digest his former team-mate and he's less of a jerk than you!

Is que the only thing you have to say, Diablo?

Case in point. Remember how Lime and Light were vapid cameos and no one cared about them because they were a couple of dumb girls?

Well, Light proves her mettle here, she thinks ahead, she saves Deadshot, displays awesome mastery of her powers and has given up her dreams for fame as a villain it seems in order to get revenge on Waller.

Deadshot - despite all of his cursing Waller and hating being on the team/being a bitch - betrays her by sacrificing a useful team member - and one that could have aided him in getting to his end goal of ending the Wall.

Again, please note that he chose to kill Light.. but save Harley Quinn who tortured him and has been kind of useless as a team member in any capacity.

The Little Dorkmaid. 

Like.. I don't expect Deadshot to be a hero and I know he's not above killing team mates but this move seems redundant. Shoot - Light's barely had any screen time and she's already had more character development than the rest of this sorry squad put together, why is she the one dying?
She's got more of a reason to want Waller dead than Deadshot does and I think it could have been interesting seeing how far she got with that.

Anyway, Deadshot gets zapped anyway but *he* survives and then survives a 'fugitive jump' that thanks to some shoddy art, I can't tell if Mitch fell down, tripped, was pushed or dived down after him. The thing to take away from this scene is that a jerk in a G Damn suit of armour survived a massive dive and the guy who's thing is staying alive didn't.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Well this issue sucked. I'm not bothered about chasing down tie ins and other money grabs so there goes half the plot for me apparently. If the last page was right, the story continues in the next tie in instead of the comic for which I'm reading.

Points gained for making Light interesting, the reveal of Harley's split personality was pretty well done, the art wasn't as bad as usual and there wasn't as much exposition from Waller.

Points lost for killing Light super early, the fact that Harley is a split personality, the art losing all sight of it's proportions when it comes to King Shark and being a useless tie in.

So.... no one wins I guess.