Book / Week 23 – Suicide Squad: Get Joker (2023)
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Art by: Alex Maleev
Colours by: Matt Hollingsworth
The first thing that caught me off guard when I opened this book, was that the primary focus in the story was Jason Todd, formerly Robin, now the Red Hood. As the book was titled Suicide Squad, the staples came to mind: Harley Quinn, Peacemaker, Deadshot, Killer Croc, King Shark, Rick Flag, and Boomerang. Basically, those that were most recently showcased in the recent movies.
But as this book’s villain spotlight is on the Joker, I guess it makes sense. The Joker killed Jason Todd as Robin after all – at the reader’s request that is. Jason Todd was the second Robin, after Dick Grayson, and was not a fan favourite. So, he was killed off and later brought back as the Red Hood - a violent vigilante.
Backstepping to the team, one of the interesting parts about the Suicide Squad is that the team is kind of like a revolving door of members – since a lot tend to get killed along the way. This book’s members include Firefly, Silver Banshee, Pebbles, Meow Meow, Plastique, Wild Dog, Yonder Man, and of course… Harley Quinn. Can’t have a Joker or Suicide Squad story without Harley Quinn.
Firefly is a Batman villain who is a pyromaniac.
Silver Banshee is a metahuman who is basically invulnerable and has a sonic scream.
Pebbles is a super strong invulnerable man, with the worst codename.
Meow Meow is another metahuman who has necrotic powers, and tentacles that come out of her mouth.
Plastique can explode another she touches. (you can maybe guess who she goes out?)
Wild Dog is basically a marksman, like Deadshot.
And Yonder Man has the ability to teleport to anyplace he can see.
The Story
The story begins with a history lesson from Jason Todd. How he died, how he came back as the Red Hood, and how he ended up in jail after getting caught taking out some of his aggression. He wass’t happy being back alive. Amanda Waller offers the same offer she always does: complete a top secret mission and we take time off your sentence. This mission: kill the man that killed you. How does she enforce and encourage this team to complete the mission? Well, she injects a nano explosive into the head of each Suicide Squad member, so if they defect, or become a liability, she can kill them. Helps keep them in line.
Red Hood is introduced to his new teammates and then they’re off to find the Joker. Their first contact is Toyman. And there’s some subtle jokes thrown around here at the Toyman’s expense.
The first swerve happens when the Joker and his goons find and attack Amanda Waller and steals the nano-bomb remote control. So now, not only does the Suicide Squad have to find the Joker, they also don’t know when or where the Joker may just take them out. But the Joker never has a plan, he just likes chaos.
After Amanda Waller gets taken out, her second-in-command calls in the back-up Suicide Squad made up of Deadshot and Peacekeeper, and some other marksmen. Essentially the big guns, to help complete the mission. The first group is just considered collateral damage at this point. Now the Joker and the remaining members have to team-up just to survive against this back-up squad.
The ending is left open to interpretation. Harley and Jason Todd have tracked Joker down to the beach, and each have a reason to kill the Joker. The next frame just shows the beach, with a “BANG” sound effect, and then the last panel we see the backup Suicide Squad marching down the beach to presumable re-capture Harley and Jason Todd, or finish everyone off.
Between the pages
The creators in this book are all great.
I haven’t read a lot of Brian Azzarello, but some. I have 100 Bullets, Batman: Broken City, Batman: Damned, Joker, this book, and his new mini-series published by Dstlry, The Blood Brothers Mother. I like his mature writing style and themes that he inserts into his books. In this book in particular, the dialogue is vulgar and raw. What you would expect to hear from hardened criminals. Not as flashy and cheesy as the main line superhero comics. The book has quite a lot of violence, and the group even hits a local strip club where Harley Quinn is forced to dance on the stage for Joker.
Alex Maleev’s art is great throughout. I love the grungey scratchy feel to the ink and line art. His other works I have include BRZRKR, Event Leviathan, original Sam and Twitch (1999-2004) and now this book.
And finally, one of my favourite colourists, Matt Hollingsworth. He has a great colouring style that adds a lot of texture to the book. I followed his colouring technique tutorials that he posted to Youtube during Covid. I have a ton of his works, but my favourites are the books that he’s done with Sean Gordon Murphy in the Batman White Knight universe, Chrononauts, The Plot Holes, and Tokyo Ghost, as well as Seven to Eternity with Jerome Opeña. I can’t praise his works enough.
Thought bubbles
I’ve always liked the concept of the Suicide Squad books because it gets to introduce a lot of insane characters. Some stick around, but a lot of them die. And that’s part of what makes it fun.
I do find it interesting that Amanda Waller has stuck around for so long. She never really seems to get her comeuppance for being one of the dirtiest players in the game. Aside from the occasional kidnapping or beat down, she’s maintained quite the tenure. She makes for a good character though. The type you love to hate. The perfect heel.
As I mentioned above, the art and colour is great, the writing is funny when it needs to be, and mature. Everything we ask for in a DC Black Label book.
And because I like to add my fan art, I’ve included Harley Quinn below. I never need an excuse to draw Harley – but this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
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Bonus read:
Wolverine: Rot (2011)
Written by: Cullen Bunn
Pencils by: Paul Pelletier
(issues 305-308)
Underneath (2011)
Written by: Ivan Brandon
Art by: Rafael Albuquerque
(Issue 309)
I think I picked up this trade paperback collection of Wolverine based on a recommendation. I follow lots of comic creators on X (twitter) and they occasionally throw out their monthly readings, and this book came through as a suggestion. I probably had Wolverine on the mind after following the work-in-progress shots that Greg Capullo is sharing from his new book written by Jonathan Hickman.
The book is ok. The story focuses on Wolverine waking up from black-outs, surrounded by dead people. An old enemy that he once fought, Dr. Rot (Bentley Newton) has resurfaced, and is playing in Wolverines head. This doctor used to operate on Wolverine and had found out some of his trigger words introduced by the Weapon X program and can put Wolverine in a rage state. He’s taken some of the grey matter from Wolverine’s head and used it to create horrible regenerative monsters. And as Wolverine kills them, he is basically killing his own memories.
The book has a lot of gore and body horror images. At one point, Wolverine takes a shotgun blast to half of his face, and as the story progresses, we get to see his face and eye heal. Gross. Overall, not a very pleasant read. But interesting. The Dr Rot story is issues #305-308.
And then issue #309, the story is about Wolverine tracking down a villain called Meltdown, who is a nuclear reactor, and is sucking the mutant powers of some local mutants to keep himself alive. This issue has some pretty good art, and is a decent one-and-done issue.
The one perk to reading this trade paperback collection is seeing an advertisement for Wolverine and the X-Men (2011) series by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo, two of my favourite creators. I have the Marvel Unlimited app, so I might go through this series during my evening quiet hours.
Fan Art
As foretold…
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Next read:
NEWBURN Vol. 1
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Jacob Phillips
Previously read:
Week 22: Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1-5
Week 21: Head Wounds: Sparrow
Week 20: The Incal
Week 19: Hexware
Week 18: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser