Suicide Squad Vol. 1: The Black Vault (Rebirth)
Harley Quinn. Deadshot. Killer Croc. Enchantress. Captain Boomerang. Katana. They’re dangerous. They’re deadly. They’re deeply unstable. And they’re our only hope. They’re the characters from the smash-hit film and they’re here in this great new starting-point graphic novel, SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1: THE BLACK VAULT, as part of DC Rebirth! Assembled by the tough-as-nails intelligence expert Amanda Waller and overseen by disgraced military genius Captain Rick Flag, the men, women and monsters of the Suicide Squad—a.k.a. Task Force X—do the jobs that are too dirty for any superheroes to soil their capes over. Their latest mission should be easy enough: recover a powerful cosmic weapon called the Black Vault from enemy hands. But what happens when the Black Vault begins turning them into their own worst enemies? As the object’s dark influence spreads and the team is driven to madness and mayhem (more than usual, that is), there’s only one person sane enough to save the Squad from certain destruction…the Clown Princess of Crazy herself, Harley Quinn! Legendary artist Jim Lee teams up with writer Rob Williams and a who’s who of top comics talent for SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1: THE BLACK VAULT! Exploding from the pages of DC’s blockbuster REBIRTH event and starring the characters you love and hate from the smash-hit movie, this graphic novel is a great jumping-on point for new readers! Collects issues #1-4 and the SUICIDE SQUAD: REBIRTH one-shot, including back-up stories illustrated by such acclaimed artists as Ivan Reis, Gary Frank and Jason Fabok!
One of the things I liked about the book was the background info included so you didn’t have to be overly familiar with the characters to enjoy this. I was surprised that the violence had been toned down. I’m guessing this was written to entice all the new fans that are flocking to DC due to the movies so newbies to the series will probably enjoy it more than those who have been around so long they forget where reality begins and DC ends.
Rob Williams wrote a decent plot line that will engage the reader with its humor and well developed characters. I’m a fan of Harley Quinn’s so I was happy to see her humor had been given a chance to flex its muscle and to show she’s more than an escaped asylum candidate.
Overall I liked the art work but felt Harley’s breasts are starting to get a little out of control as it seemed like she had been given a breast enhancement sine her previous manifestations. Just because the movie was popular doesn’t mean you need to use that Hollywood money to move her up to a Triple D. Aside from Harley’s back breaking chest augmentation I liked the grittiness of the art work, its realism, the tone downed color palette and most importantly that it did such a great job complementing the literary aspect of the graphic novel.
Thank you to Netgalley and DC Comics for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from amazon.com