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.

I Wear the Black Hat

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling With Villains (Real and Imagined) by Chuck Klosterman, 214 pages

I listened to I Wear the Black Hat as an audio book – it’s narrated by Klosterman and his semi-informal reading style (he’s no voice actor) reminded me of some of my favorite podcasts. I’m not sure that I would have made it all the way through this one if I’d been reading instead of listening. Many of the sports references soared over my head, but I did enjoy the discussion of NFL uniforms and how different color combinations and styles read as “villainous” (in particular, the LA Raiders’ uniforms).

The central premise for Klosterman’s essays in this volume is that a villain is the person who knows the most, but cares the least. My personal favorite was the essay about vigilantism (Villains Who Aren’t Villains), and the argument: if Batman existed in the real world, we wouldn’t actually think he’s a hero. Like every other Klosterman book I’ve read, there’s a certain amount of mental gymnastics occurring that I’m not always 100% on board with, but I generally agreed with him this time around (perhaps because I don’t have the requisite sports-knowledge to have a fully formed personal opinion). I’m not sure I’d recommend I Wear the Black Hat as a starting point for Klosterman’s essays, but those who already familiar with his work will probably enjoy it.