Showing posts with label Secret Six. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secret Six. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 July 2018

Detective Comics #837 - Honour Among Thieves


Countdown tie-in
Dec 2007
Writer: Paul Dini
Pencils: Don Kramer
Inker: Wayne Faucher



Hot off the heels of Harley's previous release from Arkham incarceration is Detective Comics #837!

We open on the Riddler lamenting being a bit on the poor side since going legitimate but still loving the thrill of the investigation/lifestyle. The thing I like about Dini's writing is that - as well as being witty and entertaining - he genuinely seems to care for the characters he writes.

Riddler going legitimate could have been the corniest shit from the cob in anyone else's hands but here you are invested. You *want* him to do well as you see him struggling yet resisting the obvious pull back into the criminal lifestyle.

You can say the same for Harley. Dini is the best writer for her, apart from perhaps the Injustice guy. In this one book, she deals with going legitimate as well, finding her own way solo, running a team and taking down the bad guys.. and she does it with humour and without losing any of the charm that made us all Harley Quinn fans. Best of all, you get her accent without being drowned in a vat of marble mouthed exaggerations of English.

Bruce Wayne offers Riddler a gig which he readily accepts. It's to find a missing employee who seems to have absconded with a new drug that affects stamina and cellular regeneration. This gig leads him out of Gotham and into Metropolis and into the Athenian Women's Help shelter... from which he readily gets kicked out of courtesy of everyone's favourite reformed jester.

Told you. 

Yep, like the last Detective Comics issue I reviewed (here) it's another villain cross-over/team up, only this time they're both reformed.

Harley still has her trademark pigtails but has traded in her jumpsuit and prison trackies for an Amazonian stola/robe. She hasn't quite got a hang on the peaceful Amazon way though.


Sunday, 28 January 2018

DCAU: Suicide Squad - Hell to Pay



First things first - this hasn't come out yet, but we already know it's going to be better than actual Suicide Squad. Time will tell if it's as good as Assault on Arkham. Speaking of... this new Suicide Squad animated movie won't be in the same.. "universe" .... so it's not a sequel.

Yeah, that's right. This Suicide Squad is DCAU while Assault on Arkham is technically more in the Arkham game universe. Which is why everyone looks different.



It's good because Deadshot is not built like a tank in the new one (which I always thought was stupid because he's the gun guy, the sniper... it wouldn't matter if he was skinny or short. Why can I fit two of me in AOA Deadshot's silhouette alone?? Why are his shoulders so far away from his neck?? How is he alive??) I don't like Killer Frost's redesign in HTP as much as her AOA one... it just doesn't seem to have any personality?
Boomerang is pretty much the same.. that's fine. Harley...

Oh Harley.



Harley looked amazing in AOA - even if her modified bodysuit revealed her most dangerous weapon - not the dirty-bomb mallet but the razor sharp bony ass hips she had - and she was blatantly used as a sex object for most of the movie (kinda like Maggot Robbie, but the animated version at least had a character arc and some decent lines!


This HTP Harley looks kinda hideous, face wise. You guys already know that I think the blue/pink eye shadow is a terrible costume choice. At least she has face paint on her original flesh tone body, not the Joker dip dye, I guess. It just seems weird that she's wearing evening gloves and matching thigh high stockings.. with generic Daisy Duke jeans and hipster sneakers? 

Sunday, 1 October 2017

Suicide Squad New 52 #5




Alright, back to our nostalgic look at the first attempt at forcing this down our throats making Suicide Squad into a comic since the Ostrander days.

Well, there's a lot going on in the cover... but all it goes to show is that everyone in this prison is pretty darn fugly and these people really... really...REALLY can't draw sharks.

Remember that time Harley Quinn set up this awesome prison riot in order to cover her escape? No?
No, well, you don't see that at all. Which is kind of cool in theory but due to all the time skips and limited time spent on plot in this series - to me it just comes off as lazy.

Anyway, here's Deadshot killing a bunch of rando's who have the decency to only look a little shocked or annoyed about it.


Yo-Yo is in the background on the next page and his head is smaller than his feet or hands once he super-sizes... so admittedly I don't know much about this character and his skill set so either the artist sucks at proportion or Yo-Yo can conveniently alter his size on different parts of his body simultaneously.

 Waller comes on for a friendly chat about the mission - saying she's still not sure on who started this or why. All of the guards are in Z Block... for comparison the Squad is around E wing. So are they blocks or wings? Why is this comic so hard? Why are these guards so incompetent?

I mean, sure, all the inmates are super powered, super weird or super psychotic - but all the specified riot guards are contained in one area? If this facility is as long as the fucking alphabet, why are there not other divisions scattered around, or, you know, like any guards where they're actually needed?

Some of the more normal looking prisoners go to the hospital wing to take out some weakened enemies but meet Black Spider who must still be sick because he's vomiting out exposition about himself before he takes a lil' nap.


El Diablo almost goes the same way but the other prisoners are tired of hearing about back stories and not seeing them (much like recent cinema goers... hi-yoh!) so they take him out before he gets too preachy.

Look at this one guy's legs. I think it's the same guy anyway. One hairy ankle, one clean shaven ankle.

Now Waller worries about Harley Quinn while sending a wafer thin Yo-Yo to get King Shark from his drunk tank.
King Shark was on the cover doing actioney stuff but that's false advertising because he is resting his semi-aquatic butt cheeks doing absolutely nothing... apart from eating Yo-Yo.

In his defence... you really shouldn't put your face so close to a shark's mouth.






Waller takes out a scaly creep who wants her to get him off with good behaviour... not sure if he's serious or making a bad innuendo. Meanwhile Deadshot races to the guard tower to get the biggest gun he can find and then gets the plot twist shakes. Yeah, remember that nano-virus hoo-haa?
Well it's still slooooowly taking over his muscles instead of fully converting him. Deadshot is that asshole in every zombie movie who hides his infection. Don't the squad get health/body checks when the return?

Anyway, he screws up and falls from the guard tower but is totally not dead because main character.


Luckily, El Diablo uses that power that he used in the movie that everyone forgot he had in the comic because the comic was boring and forgettable.

He manages to torch everyone alive, save the day, impress Waller and get that funky Incredible Hulk style fashion going on.

Three hours later and Deadshot is in one of those suspended medical things from any sci-fi movie you can think of.

Waller knows about the virus and is working on it, Deadshot asks about the bomb even though it clearly should have gone off by now if it was still active. Why would Waller stand so close if it wasn't safe? Deadshot is brain-dead.





Out of the kindness of her heart, Waller honours their deal and arranges for a catch up with Deadshot's kid. Who looks Asian and is called Suchin. That's fine, but I'm certain she was a Caucasian kid when I last saw Deadshot's family in Secret Six.

She seems nice, but honestly, if this kid made a Wonder Woman (what does that even mean) and is then dumbing it down to do paints next.. I'd be speaking to this school for sure.
This kid also has like really pointy teeth. Is she going to be a plot twist villain? Where's her mum?
Have they changed the entire family again for no reason?

First he had a son (Eddie) that was killed for revenge story reasons, then he found out he had a daughter named Zoe (see above) the name was kept for the movie daughter (yet another race change for poor Zoe - although I'll chalk that one up to people changing roles to fit terrible actor Will Smith instead of vice versa. )



I could be wrong, maybe the new Zoe is Caucasian - but she sure don't look like her previous incarnation. Pretty sure she's part piranha in Suicide Squad.


She even looks different again in the Assault on Arkham movie, and here she looks like she's changed her eye colour and skin tone again.

Why does DC hate continuity so much?


Gah - anyway. Waller figures out it's Harley who's caused the damage because her guards did a head count. Um.. didn't El Diablo literally vaporise at least a couple of guys? Deadshot has his visit cut short and doesn't even tell his apparent daughter he loves her back. Not that she seems especially fazed by meeting her dad in this weirdo place.

 It's okay though, we totally know where she's going guys. She's got like ten million maps and appears to be driving with the windows down so they fly everywhere. Great, good work genius. Maybe Waller could follow your papery breadcrumb trail if it wasn't so obvious you were going to Gotham.

Jeez... she even wears a hat to be incognito in her clown hooker outfit after killing two guards with a Chelsea smile.
Who wrote this crap?

Bonus page:


Probably the only reasonably attractive Suicide Squad cover ever being previewed... right next to Jim Lee's terrible doom inspiring jerk off sketch.

Explain yourself Mr Lee! What the hell were you thinking?! And what the bloody heck is on her feet?! Your Hush Harley Quinn was really good.. how did you screw this up so badly?

If you read between the lines here, it does seem like the
editor is trying to ask for help/blame everyone else for Harley's inclusion/ask for more doughnuts without getting killed by the higher ups.










The Short End of the Jester Schtick

Every time something gets interesting in this series, they either decide to jump cut to somewhere else and just never go back to it or they just start explaining everything to death.

There's very little Harley Quinn in this issue because they're leading up to her big history reveal in the next two issues but with the way the other characters are.. and as much as I hate New52 Quinn - it's boring as hell without her in it. The nearest we have to an interesting character is friggin' Yo-Yo.

And for the record, Yo-Yo also appears to be trying to bone Harley Quinn so there's that reason why I hate the one female team member surrounded by a billion men. It turns into a complete shaggin' wagon situation!

If writer Adam Glass was such a fan of Harley Quinn, I don't understand why he would change her character and put her in this situation. It's like watching bad fan fiction re-enacted by cosplayers.

Again I wonder why Secret Six - a comic with interesting characters, genuine sex appeal, good scenarios and humour was canned for this universal reboot. 


Friday, 9 August 2013

Thoughts on the new new 52 Harley Quinn

This is starting to become a bit Futurama/Dr. Who with the new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-new-....somethings.

So, as we've established already..

1) DC hates any kind of continuity.
2) Harley Quinn has a roller derby outfit.

What I just realised when reading more about the proposed Harley Quinn monthly serial is that it's going to focus on what she does out of Gotham and when she's not hanging around the Suicide Squad kiddies.

So....

Hang on.

Friday, 12 July 2013

Suicide Squad #22 - Viva Las Something

We open this issue with a shocking revelation...

Harley Quinn is again a something in a terrible costume with blank eyes on the cover!
This month it's some sort of Vegas drag queen and/or clown whore.


Nice purpley tones here with swirlies action up top for foreshadowing the villain and King Shark maybe doing something. Deadshot looks funny. Well, funnier. He also looks like he's taking an oath or something. I've heard a lot of that goes on in Vegas. 

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Suicide Squad #21 - Interview with the Quinn-pire


Yeaaaah, that time again. Another 'Harley Quinn' is 'something' in a weird outfit with no pupils on a Suicide Squad cover. This time it's a Belle Reve - not Reeve? - warden with an appalling abdomen.

Anyway, opening on a Las Vegas spread for some reason, in comic Harley is wearing pants because cover Harley is stupid. Again, we never really know what the squad is supposed to be doing but, you know, whatever. Edgy new DC universe! *cough*

I mean, surely there's some heroes that could be saving the world from whatever the hell that Clayface thing is? Shouldn't the Suicide Squad be covering up Waller's boo-boos from detection? No? Oh, okay then.