I am back y'all and this week we are going back to another volume 1. This team up is going to be a little different than the movies that have come out recently, but that is okay it will still be fun to see what this wacky group is up to. Volume 1, Suicide Squad: The Black Vault includes Suicide Squad Rebirth issue #1 and issues #1-4. For this part 1, I am covering Rebirth issue #1 and issues #1 and 2. Time to see what trouble this group is getting into.
SS Rebirth #1: We start with a pile of photos and someone shouting that the Suicide Squad is dead. The shouting person is the President of the United States (looks a lot like Obama). He is yelling at none other than Amanda Waller, the super scary director of Task Force X. In his rant he explains the premise of Task Force X, a squad of costumed felons who run around operating on behalf of American interests and only answer to Amanda herself. He wants her to shut it down.
Amanda points out ideals have no business in reality. She argues hard that her team does the jobs no one else can or will. Doing things that neither the Justice League or the President need/want to know about. He still needs something from her, someone to represent the American people. She knows just the guy, Colonel Rick Flag. We get a quick history of how brave and great Rick Flag is. The President reluctantly agrees and hopes to never see Amanda Waller again.
We cut to Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay and a sad looking Rick. Amanda offers him a job he can't refuse. Rick is not a bad guy, he refused to follow an order that he knew would get all his men killed, so he got arrested (by someone shady and powerful) and all his men followed the order and got killed. Now he feels bad and Amanda has a way for him to feel less guilty.
She starts breaking down what the Suicide Squad is and some of its members. First is Harley Quinn (you all know who she is), next is Boomerang (it is his name and what he throws) and of course we have Deadshot (is a great shot, is not totally sold on life). Of course there are more members but that is a later discussion. Rick is not feeling it, but Amanda just unlocks his cell and lays it out for him. He can stay and rot in jail or he can come lead this team and save some lives.
Amanda starts explaining the first mission. A scientist named Mark Ljungberg, who is a meta-gene researcher and made something called a Meta-Bomb has been kidnaped and taken to Mongolia. The US can't go in but the Suicide Squad sure can and they do. We see Harley, Boomerang, and Deadshot trying to save Mark. Amanda is still narrating what the bomb does. This Meta-Bomb once it goes off will give everyone in the blast radius superpowers for 36 hours and if that person has powers it will take them away for 36 hours (damn this bomb is getting a lot done).
The Meta-Bomb goes off and now there is a town full of super powered people trying to stop this very small team from saving Mark. One super, who seems to have tentacle powers grabs Mark (forgot to say the guy is holding a briefcase that contains another bomb and blueprints) and begins to drag poor Mark away. Mark is screaming about not letting them get him or the bomb. Boomer throws a boomerang and cuts off Mark's hands, so Harley can grab the briefcase.
The conversation with Rick seems to be jumping back and forth with the action that is happening in Mongolia. The team does not think they can save Mark, so Amanda orders them to kill him rather than have him fall into enemy hands. Deadshot does indeed kill poor Mark. With tons of super people coming for them, Amanda further tells them to active the second bomb so that everyone will lose their super powers. Harley pushes the button and indeed all the superpowers are gone.
Now there are just hundreds of regular human angry people with guns coming at them. Flying in to save the day though is Rick. He swings in and in very heroic fashion calls the team to him, so they can all go save the world.
The Black Vault Part One: I Wanna be Sedated: We see Amanda Waller in a plane looking at a confidential file while she ponders the evil of the world. One pilot is looking a little nervous, so his co-pilot asks what's up. As they fly into Belle Reve, a maximum security prison for the worst of the worst, the pilot points out that his co-pilot has, "Never delivered the Devil to Hell before."
In the prison Rick and his second-in-command, Katana are putting together a five person team this time. (I guess we are to assume that everyone made it out okay from the last issue.) The five criminals chosen for the job are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, June Moone (aka Enchantress) and Killer Croc. Waller has a mission for her team of rogues that involves illegally entering another country and stealing something (the usual).
Up in space our team gets briefed on a "cosmic item" that fell in Siberia. They are told to steal it or destroy it. Killer Croc isn't feeling well, June is also not doing great, but Harley is happy to have found a Pokecutey in space (like Pokémon I think). They start dropping to Earth and it is gross as Boomerang talks about shitting himself and Croc barfs. Croc barfs so much he is drowning in his spacesuit, but Rick saves him against Amanda's wishes. It also causes the dropship to get off balance.
It is looking pretty bad, so Rick tells June to let Enchantress out. June does not want to but it is better than dying, so she does. They still hit pretty hard crashing into frozen water and it doesn't look good for our anti-heroes.
(Mini issue within the issue)
The Personal File of Deadshot, Never Miss: In the past, Kobra wants to hire Deadshot to kill Bruce Wayne. He will do it for 12 million. Cut to Amanda Waller chatting with a now jailed Floyd (aka Deadshot). She is reading Floyd his file. He has "suicidal tendencies" and loves to take dangerous missions knowing he might die, but he wont kill himself because he has a daughter, 12 year old Zoe.
In a flashback we see that Deadshot was inspired to become a masked gun for hire after seeing Batman in action. Floyd always tried to keep his daughter safe. Turns out that Kobra didn't want to pay him to kill Bruce Wayne. They had already kidnapped Zoe and would only give her back if he killed Bruce.
Deadshot knew they would not return his daughter, so he contacted Batman and they found the Kobra hideout. Batman was cool with helping as long as Deadshot did not kill anyone, but he didn't keep that promise and killed the Kobra leader who had taken his daughter. That is what landed Deadshot in jail.
The Black Vault Part Two: Blitzkrieg Bop: In Belle Reve, Waller is monitoring the situation. We also meet Harcourt from the NSA, she is there to check up on things and is also monitoring the situation. Three of the Suicide Squad team, Deadshot, Boomerang, and Rick are hanging onto an out of control rocket, trying to use it to get into the Black Vault. Kroc, Katana, Harley and Enchantress are all struggling in compromised suits. Katana is freeing everyone from their suits, but Harcourt figures they are all dead.
The other guys are fairing a little better, Boomerang is able to Boomerang the rocket into the Vault and they get in. Harcourt wanders off to update her mysterious superiors. Inside, Flag also assumes the others are dead, they aren't. Croc is a good swimmer and gets all the ladies inside with him.
Before they can get their bearings people start shooting at them. Croc tosses Katana and Harley towards the people shooting and they take them down both impressively and somehow casually. There are a lot of guys...Boomerang kills one and wants a gold star for it.
Our team moves on until they find a young woman in a cell. Her codename is Hack and for her freedom she is going to help them get into the Black Vault. She is a huge Harley Quinn fan and her power is the ability to turn herself and others into digital information thus transporting them through computer networks. She warns it will be unpleasant.
Based on the general reaction, it is indeed not great. Poor Croc gets sick again. The cosmic item seems to be a big floating ball of energy. Hack tells us that the room had been sealed and no one had actually made contact, so they seem to have activated it. She further reports that the scientists use the words, "Phantom Zone."
Flag understandably is like, nope, this is way outside of anything we have any idea how to deal with. Poor dumb Boomerang goes up to the sphere and it blasts him super dead. The act of killing him seems to have been a trigger for the thing inside the sphere to come out. There is only one bad guy that comes to my mind when you hear Phantom Zone. It is of course General Zod (classic enemy of Superman and jerk from Krypton).
(Mini issue within the issue)
Boomerang, Agent of Oz: Young Boomerang is carving boomerangs while sitting in the street and maybe he is obsessed with them because they come back, unlike his father (oof). Waller is chatting with Digger (aka Boomerang) about how he became a Captain. Digger was in the Australian Army and was eventually part of the Australian Secret Service. While serving his county in America he had a few scraps with the Flash. So he decided to go back to Australia where he was given a mission to take down a guy named The Drop Bear.
It is clear at this point that Digger is making up a story that feels a lot like a James Bond movie. (The girl's name in his story is Sheila Upforit.) Waller calls him out on his story sounding like a lot of nonsense, but decides to let him finish the story.
Captain Boomerang infiltrates the lair of The Drop Bear, that is in the hollowed out center of Ayers Rock. Waller tries to get Digger to talk more about the boy sitting in the street with the boomerangs. Digger would rather finish his story, but will jump to the end. He is trying to stop The Drop Bear's evil plan of world domination, but Bear gets the drop on him (get it?) and launches the missiles. Turns out that Boomerang had programed them to turn back around. He lived, got the girl and became a hero.
Waller calls all the BS and breaks it down to this. Digger's deadbeat dad liked boomerangs and so as a kid he carved them and got good at throwing them in case one day his shitty father came back.
Last Week: Green Lanterns Volume 2: Phantom Lantern, Part 3
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Guest Post! Squirrel Girl Volume 1: Squirrel Power
Next Post: Suicide Squad Volume 1: The Black Vault, Part 2
Note: All images belong to DC™
SS Rebirth #1: We start with a pile of photos and someone shouting that the Suicide Squad is dead. The shouting person is the President of the United States (looks a lot like Obama). He is yelling at none other than Amanda Waller, the super scary director of Task Force X. In his rant he explains the premise of Task Force X, a squad of costumed felons who run around operating on behalf of American interests and only answer to Amanda herself. He wants her to shut it down.
Amanda points out ideals have no business in reality. She argues hard that her team does the jobs no one else can or will. Doing things that neither the Justice League or the President need/want to know about. He still needs something from her, someone to represent the American people. She knows just the guy, Colonel Rick Flag. We get a quick history of how brave and great Rick Flag is. The President reluctantly agrees and hopes to never see Amanda Waller again.
We cut to Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay and a sad looking Rick. Amanda offers him a job he can't refuse. Rick is not a bad guy, he refused to follow an order that he knew would get all his men killed, so he got arrested (by someone shady and powerful) and all his men followed the order and got killed. Now he feels bad and Amanda has a way for him to feel less guilty.
She starts breaking down what the Suicide Squad is and some of its members. First is Harley Quinn (you all know who she is), next is Boomerang (it is his name and what he throws) and of course we have Deadshot (is a great shot, is not totally sold on life). Of course there are more members but that is a later discussion. Rick is not feeling it, but Amanda just unlocks his cell and lays it out for him. He can stay and rot in jail or he can come lead this team and save some lives.
Amanda starts explaining the first mission. A scientist named Mark Ljungberg, who is a meta-gene researcher and made something called a Meta-Bomb has been kidnaped and taken to Mongolia. The US can't go in but the Suicide Squad sure can and they do. We see Harley, Boomerang, and Deadshot trying to save Mark. Amanda is still narrating what the bomb does. This Meta-Bomb once it goes off will give everyone in the blast radius superpowers for 36 hours and if that person has powers it will take them away for 36 hours (damn this bomb is getting a lot done).
The Meta-Bomb goes off and now there is a town full of super powered people trying to stop this very small team from saving Mark. One super, who seems to have tentacle powers grabs Mark (forgot to say the guy is holding a briefcase that contains another bomb and blueprints) and begins to drag poor Mark away. Mark is screaming about not letting them get him or the bomb. Boomer throws a boomerang and cuts off Mark's hands, so Harley can grab the briefcase.
The conversation with Rick seems to be jumping back and forth with the action that is happening in Mongolia. The team does not think they can save Mark, so Amanda orders them to kill him rather than have him fall into enemy hands. Deadshot does indeed kill poor Mark. With tons of super people coming for them, Amanda further tells them to active the second bomb so that everyone will lose their super powers. Harley pushes the button and indeed all the superpowers are gone.
Now there are just hundreds of regular human angry people with guns coming at them. Flying in to save the day though is Rick. He swings in and in very heroic fashion calls the team to him, so they can all go save the world.
The Black Vault Part One: I Wanna be Sedated: We see Amanda Waller in a plane looking at a confidential file while she ponders the evil of the world. One pilot is looking a little nervous, so his co-pilot asks what's up. As they fly into Belle Reve, a maximum security prison for the worst of the worst, the pilot points out that his co-pilot has, "Never delivered the Devil to Hell before."
In the prison Rick and his second-in-command, Katana are putting together a five person team this time. (I guess we are to assume that everyone made it out okay from the last issue.) The five criminals chosen for the job are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, June Moone (aka Enchantress) and Killer Croc. Waller has a mission for her team of rogues that involves illegally entering another country and stealing something (the usual).
Up in space our team gets briefed on a "cosmic item" that fell in Siberia. They are told to steal it or destroy it. Killer Croc isn't feeling well, June is also not doing great, but Harley is happy to have found a Pokecutey in space (like Pokémon I think). They start dropping to Earth and it is gross as Boomerang talks about shitting himself and Croc barfs. Croc barfs so much he is drowning in his spacesuit, but Rick saves him against Amanda's wishes. It also causes the dropship to get off balance.
It is looking pretty bad, so Rick tells June to let Enchantress out. June does not want to but it is better than dying, so she does. They still hit pretty hard crashing into frozen water and it doesn't look good for our anti-heroes.
(Mini issue within the issue)
The Personal File of Deadshot, Never Miss: In the past, Kobra wants to hire Deadshot to kill Bruce Wayne. He will do it for 12 million. Cut to Amanda Waller chatting with a now jailed Floyd (aka Deadshot). She is reading Floyd his file. He has "suicidal tendencies" and loves to take dangerous missions knowing he might die, but he wont kill himself because he has a daughter, 12 year old Zoe.
In a flashback we see that Deadshot was inspired to become a masked gun for hire after seeing Batman in action. Floyd always tried to keep his daughter safe. Turns out that Kobra didn't want to pay him to kill Bruce Wayne. They had already kidnapped Zoe and would only give her back if he killed Bruce.
Deadshot knew they would not return his daughter, so he contacted Batman and they found the Kobra hideout. Batman was cool with helping as long as Deadshot did not kill anyone, but he didn't keep that promise and killed the Kobra leader who had taken his daughter. That is what landed Deadshot in jail.
The Black Vault Part Two: Blitzkrieg Bop: In Belle Reve, Waller is monitoring the situation. We also meet Harcourt from the NSA, she is there to check up on things and is also monitoring the situation. Three of the Suicide Squad team, Deadshot, Boomerang, and Rick are hanging onto an out of control rocket, trying to use it to get into the Black Vault. Kroc, Katana, Harley and Enchantress are all struggling in compromised suits. Katana is freeing everyone from their suits, but Harcourt figures they are all dead.
The other guys are fairing a little better, Boomerang is able to Boomerang the rocket into the Vault and they get in. Harcourt wanders off to update her mysterious superiors. Inside, Flag also assumes the others are dead, they aren't. Croc is a good swimmer and gets all the ladies inside with him.
Before they can get their bearings people start shooting at them. Croc tosses Katana and Harley towards the people shooting and they take them down both impressively and somehow casually. There are a lot of guys...Boomerang kills one and wants a gold star for it.
Our team moves on until they find a young woman in a cell. Her codename is Hack and for her freedom she is going to help them get into the Black Vault. She is a huge Harley Quinn fan and her power is the ability to turn herself and others into digital information thus transporting them through computer networks. She warns it will be unpleasant.
Based on the general reaction, it is indeed not great. Poor Croc gets sick again. The cosmic item seems to be a big floating ball of energy. Hack tells us that the room had been sealed and no one had actually made contact, so they seem to have activated it. She further reports that the scientists use the words, "Phantom Zone."
Flag understandably is like, nope, this is way outside of anything we have any idea how to deal with. Poor dumb Boomerang goes up to the sphere and it blasts him super dead. The act of killing him seems to have been a trigger for the thing inside the sphere to come out. There is only one bad guy that comes to my mind when you hear Phantom Zone. It is of course General Zod (classic enemy of Superman and jerk from Krypton).
(Mini issue within the issue)
Boomerang, Agent of Oz: Young Boomerang is carving boomerangs while sitting in the street and maybe he is obsessed with them because they come back, unlike his father (oof). Waller is chatting with Digger (aka Boomerang) about how he became a Captain. Digger was in the Australian Army and was eventually part of the Australian Secret Service. While serving his county in America he had a few scraps with the Flash. So he decided to go back to Australia where he was given a mission to take down a guy named The Drop Bear.
It is clear at this point that Digger is making up a story that feels a lot like a James Bond movie. (The girl's name in his story is Sheila Upforit.) Waller calls him out on his story sounding like a lot of nonsense, but decides to let him finish the story.
Captain Boomerang infiltrates the lair of The Drop Bear, that is in the hollowed out center of Ayers Rock. Waller tries to get Digger to talk more about the boy sitting in the street with the boomerangs. Digger would rather finish his story, but will jump to the end. He is trying to stop The Drop Bear's evil plan of world domination, but Bear gets the drop on him (get it?) and launches the missiles. Turns out that Boomerang had programed them to turn back around. He lived, got the girl and became a hero.
Waller calls all the BS and breaks it down to this. Digger's deadbeat dad liked boomerangs and so as a kid he carved them and got good at throwing them in case one day his shitty father came back.
Thoughts: Much like a few other titles I have covered in this blog, I have never read a Suicide Squad comic. I have seen both of the movies and based on the name, I did assume they were going to kill some people both while on missions and as members of the team. I was a little surprised that Boomerang went so early. I have also been reading the Harley Quinn comic and I wonder how the heck she is on this team while also living in New York? I guess it doesn't really matter, it just bothers me for some reason.
This first volume, even the Rebirth issue #1 was written by Rob Williams. He also wrote little mini stories. There are a few artists that worked on this volume though. First we have Ardian Syaf and Philip Tan, who worked on the Rebirth issue #1. Next we have the super talented Jim Lee who worked on issues #1-4. Jason Fabok did the art for mini story within issue #1. Issue #2 Ivan Reis was the mini issue artist. Philip Tan came back to do the mini story in issue #3 and Gary Frank was the mini story artist for issue #4. Again while there were a lot of people working on this, it always felt coherent, even in the little mini stories. If you want to check out any of these impressive creators further, click their names for their Twitter or Instagram links depending on which I found had better stuff.
Thanks as always for reading, see you all Friday to see how this little story arch ends and look forward to my favorite line and cover.
This first volume, even the Rebirth issue #1 was written by Rob Williams. He also wrote little mini stories. There are a few artists that worked on this volume though. First we have Ardian Syaf and Philip Tan, who worked on the Rebirth issue #1. Next we have the super talented Jim Lee who worked on issues #1-4. Jason Fabok did the art for mini story within issue #1. Issue #2 Ivan Reis was the mini issue artist. Philip Tan came back to do the mini story in issue #3 and Gary Frank was the mini story artist for issue #4. Again while there were a lot of people working on this, it always felt coherent, even in the little mini stories. If you want to check out any of these impressive creators further, click their names for their Twitter or Instagram links depending on which I found had better stuff.
Thanks as always for reading, see you all Friday to see how this little story arch ends and look forward to my favorite line and cover.
Last Week: Green Lanterns Volume 2: Phantom Lantern, Part 3
&
Guest Post! Squirrel Girl Volume 1: Squirrel Power
Next Post: Suicide Squad Volume 1: The Black Vault, Part 2
Note: All images belong to DC™
I would love to know if Obama has ever read any of the comics that have him in it and what he thinks of them!
ReplyDeleteLol, I have thought about that too.
ReplyDelete