Suicide Squad New 52 # 18 - Harley Quinn branches out and Red Orchid pays the price!

"Death Blooms"
May 2013

Yeah, it's going to be one of THOSE issues, doing plant jokes to death. You would have thought that Harley had heard them all before... but then again they haven't even explained if her friendship with Poison Ivy survived the reboot. Probably not, like her on again off again immunity and her being so independent now in her new origins. Well, independent if you look past the fact that she literally has no agency in her own conception anymore or any female friends but hey!

Instead we have this... wait, what is she doing? Is she casually sitting on Red Orchid? Okay and her gentle cupping of Orchy's face is enough to render her powerless? Maybe Orchy's eyes are bugging out in fear of Harley's distinct lack of eyeballs. Wait, why are her feet so elongated? Why does she always lose her belt for these covers? Why is there such wasted potential in Orchy's plant hands?

WHY DO THESE COVERS TORMENT ME SO???


Anyway, where we last left these punks Harley was poisoned (although she's turned back to her ordinary dead clown whites now) and appears to be convulsing. Or showing off her boobs better, one of those. Yo-Yo was like any dude in this situation - thinking "oh no, my sister's killing my friends again!" Deadshot was also poisoned, but he's totally fine. King Shark and Voltaic are also there.

 Now, I can't decide which one I like more... Deadshot's choking face which makes it look like he's actually laughing and trying to get off panel so he can hide it, or Regulus and his ultra jerk smirk. Still not a huge fan of Red Orchid's bug eyes and insect arm eyebrows.


Shit, Digimon did better plant people than this. Although, for once DC didn't make a female character's boobs hang out 24/7. Hmm.... we have a conundrum.

(EDIT: I asked my husband what he thought Deadshot's expression meant and he said that he thought King Shark was giving him a bit of the backside rumpy pumpy. Now that's all I can see, making me wonder if Deadshot's 'joke' about kissing King Shark was actually a joke, and all those times he said he didn't care about King Shark... was it all a ruse for a secret romance?!)




Yo-Yo takes over the command and the internal monologue because Voltaic is a zombie and King Shark is useless. He sets Voltaic on Red Orchid (even though Red Orchid can presumably ground herself against his lightning) and tells King Shark to eat Regulus (even though that pointy helmet is bound to get stuck in Shark's throat). He will secure the package, which is some ass-hole in a burlap hood. I just noticed that Yo-Yo's enlarged hands look a lot like Red Orchid's elongated twig fingers. Is that what they're using to connect these two siblings that got different powers despite being in the same explosion? Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl, anyone?

When Yo-Yo grabs said package ass-hole, he melts.

Hey, I wouldn't lie to you, would I?

Yo-Yo makes two good points here: 1) what's so special about this guy? and 2) even black ops cannon fodder need Intel that's relevant to them. Waller's answer is "Fuck you Yo-Yo, why would the half of my black ops team that have powers need to know that the doggy-bagged random guy who is soooo not relevant to me has the power to stop your powers? So not relevant in this critical moment!"

Ahh, classic Waller. So believable.

"Oh no. What have they done to you, EXPOSITIONAL NAME DROP?!"

Gah, put him back in the bag! Yikes!

Now, we get a slight hint of Red Orchid's backstory here. Remember when she was chastising her brother for being a two bit scum bag when their father tried to get them out of that life? Well she calls Voltaic a common criminal and a one trick pony.

Oh, that was it? Hmm. I was kinda hoping to go into more detail there seeing as how we know nothing about Red Orchid apart from that brief page in the previous issue.

Also she can use a Venus Flytrap like something out of Aliens!

Meanwhile, King Shark has a heart to heart with Regulus. He tries to turn King Shark onto the people who did this to him, gets him to remember his name and pushes him to recall his mission.
King Shark (nee Nanaue) stops and is about to reveal some plot twist when Voltaic is flung backwards into him and electrocutes them with a Bzzzipt. Sounds like a bee doing up his fly. Ha!

Great, Red Orchid finally cotton's onto the fact that she's gotta put some stereotypical crap out there because no one else is doing it and it's required by law in Suicide Squad. So she starts harping on about honour and people dishonouring her, yadda yadda even though if any of these people have honour is debatable. Particularly a crime lord whose chest is basically the Demi-Gorgon from Stranger Things and a knock-off Plastic Man with a foot fetish relating to sadistic clowns.

Regulus goes to kiss Deadshot (upside down, ripping off Spiderman 2002!) when Deadshot spits in his face instead. Luckily, Regulus finds this a turn on as he carries a swab stick and holder for just this sort of occasion.

Meanwhile we spend a whole page and a half of Yo-Yo trying to revive Harley from her poison coma.. with a kiss. Yerr...um, that's a thing because it works. (It's the upside down Spiderman thing.. they're onto something!) She's actually relevant now because they need someone who does not have powers! Then she goes all "Hey look I was inspired by Batman's utility belt and somehow fit this sickle in my relatively small boot without losing any digits!"

Mate, if Batman inspired you so much, why didn't you take to wearing more clothes and Kevlar like ones at that so projectiles wouldn't damage you as much? Or get a belt like his? Or, do anything more plausible than having a fucking sickle in your boot?
............Wait, is Batman the reason she added her stupid cape to.. aww geez that's lame.


Hang on, Harley's sickle just cut Red Orchid's branch and either Red Orchid herself or the actual branch just screamed in pain... but no one else reacted or pressed the advantage? What?
Instead Harley focuses on getting Mr. Welt Face out of the way so his powers won't negate Yo-Yo's powers any more... even though Yo-Yo lost them by touch not proximity? I assume? It's actually a bit unclear. Anyway Harley gets a flail to the skull for her troubles.

You weren't so fascinated by her last time, you liar!

That'll teach her for throwing sickles around and making a fwip fwip fwip sounds when it's not even spinning. And for throwing the sickle with her blue gauntlet hand when we just saw it in her red gauntlet hand. And for knocking out Kurt.. who I'm pretty sure was barely conscious anyway.. and because that brings Yo-Yo's powers back. Regulus calls Harley the furthest thing from practical... but I think he meant to say nonsensical. Like this whole scene. Why is Regulus talking like Harley was carrying the flail around? Sure, she stole it from that Si Wang girl but we haven't seen it since.

Great, now Harley's neck stretches too!

We've sorta forgotten all about Deadshot and King Shark and Red Orchid but it's okay, they're all here, and most of them are inexplicably free for some reason?

This makes it look like Yo-Yo is yelling about plants, not Red Orchid. Good work, guys. 

Now they're all back in vines again after a brief moment where Deadshot decides to up and murder a tank full of innocent fish. What a right bastard. Waller decides to join the field after Regulus threatens to spill her secrets and steals Mr Punched in the Face a lot. Regulus and Red Orchid part amicably with no predictable villain back stabbing, which is nice to see. Lots of manners used, it's refreshing really.

Ugh, then we get some bad dialogue about Harley complaining that she's not getting fun choked and King Shark decrying vegetarianism. Well we haven't had enough kink related quips from the Quinn.

Then Yo-Yo wraps his stretched neck around his sister's similarly stretched neck and gets Deadshot to shoot his neck bomb. Deadshot's like yeah sure buddy byeeee but he couldn't manage a fatal killshot for Harley when she was actively trying to take him out.

The Short End of the Jester Schtick

In actual fact, I didn't mind this issue that much. It has it's usual shovel full of flaws and artistic... flair fuck-ups but it did make up for it with something that resembled characters meshing together.
Harley and Yo-Yo could have been a blast if he'd survived.. oh. That blast. Whoops. Too soon.
Ah well, it's not like we didn't know Yo-Yo was going to cark it. Why else give him the narrator's job? Subtlety, thy name is not Suicide Squad New 52.

I wish they had made a similar effort with Yo-Yo and Red Orchid because if they didn't keep telling you they were related, how would you know Red Orchid wasn't just a standard villain of the week?
At the end, she's saying that Ming Zu is dead and there's only Red Orchid.. so... how did that happen? Instead of getting powers was she actually possessed? Was it Regulus? If so, was it when he was coming to her for a favour or was it well before that? I mean, come on! Give us something!

No-one even discussed why Regulus had a different arm this time around. That was just bugging the shit out of me. I also want to know why Kurt Lance's powers weren't explained well or at all. I mean, last issue, someone unknown shoved him into the Squad's path. I think we were supposed to assume it was Red Orchid, but why was there no effect to her powers?

Also... Why are we calling her Ming not Min this time around? Won Fon HEY what does your editor actually do around here????

Wotta Comedian! 

Yo-Yo: I don't even want to know what else you put inside of me. 
Waller: No, you don't. 
Yo-Yo: And they call me creepy!


Waller: I need visual! Pronto!
Yo-Yo: Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm picking myself off the floor. Literally! 

Yo-Yo: If you knew that though, why smack me?
Harley: Thought I'd throw a little foreplay into the mix.
Yo-Yo: You complete me. 

Yo-Yo: You carry a sickle in your boot?
Harley: A girl must always be prepared.
Yo-Yo: For what? Harvesting wheat?

Regulus: I never got the whole flail thing. Always seemed like such an impractical weapon to carry around. 

Yo-Yo: We need a battle cry. SUICIDE SQUAD, ASSEMBLE!
Deadshot: That sounds ridiculous. Who says that?

Regulus: Damn carriers. Hard to get good service these days.

Bonus Panel!