New 52's Suicide Squad Vol 1-5

Suicide Squad Comics Vol 1-5 by assorted artists, five books totaling 848 pages

After seeing all of the trailers promoting this movie, I went in search of the comic that started it all, or at least the next best thing. The only Suicide Squad comics I found are not from the originals, but the rebooted New 52 DC universe. (Comic readers know what I mean). In Suicide Squad a shadowy government organization, through the use of force and threats are using supervillains to fight worse evils. The cast varies from the well-known Harley Quinn and Deadshot to somewhat lesser villains like Yo-yo and Captain Boomerang.

Personally I had never read the original series, but I did enjoy reading the reboot. I think the characters were accurate and, despite some flaws, acted as expected when you force a bunch of villains to work together. There was constant bickering, fights and plots to kill each other and their employer. I am not a fan of rebooting an entire comic universe, like DC does here, but for the most part it seems to be working, though the Joker gets a hard rap.

Power Girl

Power Girl: Power Trip by Justin Grey, 392 pages

When I picked up this book I thought it was a graphic novel and not just a super heroine comic. Not that I looked to closely at the inside of the book when I picked it up but it was an honest mistake.

When I started reading it I was disappointed that it was only a comic book. While I have reviewed a couple of series on here like Hellblazer and Preacher which are certainly more comics than graphic novels they at least have a grittiness to them that helps me enjoy them. With more of the main stream comics, which I am not sure this truly is but bear with me, there is never that feeling of danger to either the planet or any characters you really care about. Sure the planet might be destroyed for an episode or two, or someone will be dead for a couple issues but eventually everything will be magically fixed. Or if fixing it would be too confusing or take too much time that just becomes an alternate dimension. It is predictable and at times seems overly repetitive. I mean why does every villain come to this town that has a superhero protecting it? Why not pick a city in the middle of nowhere? It is like these villain's want to be caught.

Since this appears to have been the first issue with Power Girl there is a brief origin story that explains her life up to present day. It even explains why she has that hole in her costume. From there it delves into a couple different plots to steal her body or control her mind. Nothing Earth destroying per say but a super genius's mind trapped in a gorilla threatens to destroy Manhattan (standard superhero stuff). Of course everything ends how we suspect and everyone is happy.

Constantine Hellblazer Volumes 1-4

Original Sins, Devil You Know, Fear Machine and Family Man by Jamie Delano, 304, 264, 240 and 277 pages

These first four volumes in the Constantine Hellblazer series represent the print issues 1-32 and cover the early years of Constantine's existence (1988-1990). While I have read some comics through the years I have never been a big fan of reading a series from start to finish. Nor had I really heard of John Constantine until the semi recent movie starring Keanu Reeves. Since then there has been a reboot of the Constantine comics and also a television series. Both of these try to bring Constantine into the modern world but I feel they lose some of their grittiness in doing so.

The Hellblazer series obviously follows the life and career of John Constantine as he learns about and combats the growing dark forces. While this is sort of the theme to every comic and superhero Constantine's attitude and approach is what sets him apart. While he will morn the death of a friend or associate he still frequently throws them in harms way either as bait or through his inexperience. The fact that you also see him smoke constantly, get drunk and generally skate by while mooching off his friends helps him seem like a normal person. Since this series reached 300 issues I guess that imaging worked.

If you like darker, almost horror, comics or if you liked the Constantine movie than I recommend you give this series a try.

Constantine: The Spark and the Flame

Constantine Volume 1: The Spark and the Flame by Ray Fawkes, 144 pages

This is a collection of the first six comics in the newly rebooted John Constantine series. My knowledge of the history and previous storylines concerning Constantine is limited to the movie by the same name. This collection of comics seems to follow along closely to that.

It is nice to see an older comic series get a reboot, if nothing else to bring it back into the main streams vision. That being said this first group of comics seem very unsustainable. I hope I am wrong but only time will tell. I will continue reading them though as this reboot deserves the chance.

Suicide Squad: Volume 1: Kicked in the Teeth

Suicide Squad: Volume 1: Kicked in the Teeth by Adam Glass, Federico Dallocchio, and Clayton Henry, 160 pages.

I've recently been getting into DC Comic's "The New 52" revamp series.  I'm a huge Batman fan, so I've been sticking within the Batman universe.  I was a bit weary of DC's recent "New 52" makeover, but after several graphic novels, you can colour me impressed.  DC's initial direction with the 52 revamp was to bring their main series to a younger audience.  With all the heroes getting a complete back-story makeover at the expense of making most DC canon now defunct.  This goal, I suspect, was to give new readers a fresh starting point, letting them explore Batman et al. without having to worry about their convoluted pasts.

After reading several of the collected series, I find the "New 52" to actually be more mature.  There is an increase in violence, gore, and the sex appeal has, in most cases, been upped.  My favourite series so far, is the Suicide Squad.  The Suicide Squad has been around for a while, but sticking with the fresh start theme of "The New 52", I'm not going to go into that.  Volume one, a collection of issues 1-7, gives the back story for this new iteration of the Suicide Squad.  What we have is a collection of villains: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, King Shark, and others, who have been placed on Death Row.  In steps the government, offering them a way to possibly see freedom again, by undertaking covert operations.  These missions tend to be nasty, illegal, and nearly always involve killing several people.  The members of the Suicide Squad have small nano-bombs placed in their necks, which can be remotely detonated, to keep them in-line.  What we have is a bunch of nasty bad guys, undertaking missions that traditionally good superheroes couldn't be seen doing - killing a pregnant woman to stop a cyborg-zombie outbreak, for example.

I love the format of the Suicide Squad, as the high death toll of its members, allows for the introduction of new B-list villains each issue.  Characters, whom otherwise, wouldn't get much page time.  There has been some controversy over Harley Quinn's sexed-up new design, but I like it.  If that makes me a misogynist, then so be it.  Comic books have, and still are, overwhelmingly read by males, and with that comes the usual pitfalls.  Let's remember, there's not too many men that can live up to the male body image portrayed in comics.  But, I suspect if sexy ladies in skimpy undies, kicking arse offends you, then you most likely aren't going to be reading many superhero comics anytime soon.

So far I'm a big fan of DC's "New 52" re-boot, and Suicide Squad is the cream of the crop for me.