The Glory Days are gone if they ever were
The days when you could read an issue of the Suicide Squad and each issue felt complete even as the story lead right into the next issue is now none existent. This new SS series is a sad excuse for character development. The story moves to fast without any substance and the weak and reckless use of pen to paper is sad and offensive.
I've been looking at Amanda Waller for eleven issues now, smoking cigarettes being an ass hole for no apparent reason. This time she rams a chair in the neck of Diablo, a show of power that was more deflating than threatening. The point she was trying to make was useless. Null and void even. This is not the smart and imposing women that exploded from the ashes of obscure character into A list heroin.
Deadshot is even worse. This version of Deadshot is not hard. He is not tough, not a leader and he's NOT the cool ass gun slinging don't give a damn outlaw that you love to hate and hate to love. Where the Hell is Floyd Lawton? This guy is a pretty nothing with a jacked up costume. Trick or Treat _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , but don't believe your fooling me buddy. Your using Black Spider as the whooping boy and making a real life example of a character that was already low on the totem pole to try and make this shitty version of Deadshot look his superior. Your trying to sell a professional vigilante ninja not being able to block or redirect a physical attack from a gunman. The first major offense was Black Spider getting shot from an uncharacteristic move from a man of stealth. Add in not one full detailed drawing from your artist and no, quote on quote "karate moves" have we seen in the book. Not to mention the little joke from the Ofae.
To tell the truth, if Harley Quinn wasn't on the team the book would have been cancelled. If I'm not mistaken some other writer said she was going to sit back and wait for this book to fail. Lil buddy, I hope you plan to disappoint even though this issue so disappoints.
damn i hope Adam Glass finds this blog too! good analysis of the issue of course i didn't read most of it in detail given that all i did was browse it on the off the shelf last Thursday. but i could tell it sucked. ya see OA1? it's now wonder we can't keep from trash talking all the time on our blogs about this shitty reboot. i think you'll like what i posted today on the SS blog it might make you feel a bit better.
ReplyDeleteOA1, I haven't read this issue; and from your review, I don't believe that I want to. I love Amanda Waller she is one of my favorite characters with her clandestine and commanding presence. She is one of those characters who can mind wrestle with the best of them, including Batman. Why anyone would want to downgrade her to a cigarette smoking ass#@#$ on a power trip I do not know! Some would say that this post is a little over the top, but I say it is right on target. Keep up the good work Omega!
ReplyDeletenothing over the top about at all my dear LisaGemini. given your feelings on the this issue and the SS reboot in general you my find it interesting what Adam Glass had to say about all this lambasting of his book. it's still a pretty current posting on the SS blog.
DeleteThank you LisaGemini1, not only is this the new reality of the Wall, she also has someone at home that she never wants to go home to. She says I love you to whoever it is on the other end of the phone line but obviously can't stand them. This could become a problem for me.
DeleteThe Wall I know has lost her husband and a couple of kids to tragedy. So the ones that are left is despised??? This would be taking away from this super strong African American woman that has faced and defeated the worst of trials in life and continues to win.
Young Justice has the greatest version of Black Manta to date. Geoff Johns version is just as good and had the top spot, but what Geoff did was have Manta try to kill his own son and said some things to his own flesh and blood that feeds into the stereotype that African American men doesn't love, protect and take care of their kids... which is a lie! I feel like Geoff was only trying to make the audience hiss at Manta's evil molevolence, it just came off wrong. That's why I'm not calling him all kinds of mutha fuckers. The badassery and revenge driven beat downs Manta's been giving out is what's making him the ultimate villain for me right now. The misstep of murdering two innocent people and bad parenting hasn't been seen anymore, which is good because those aren't the things needed to make Manta a premier bad guy that he is.
I hope that long ass explination kinda lets you see where I am with things. Long live the Squad.
Friendly natives that trick you into being a human sacrifice :( done a million times over.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is killing Deadshot for me. Slick talk backed up by gun play is Lawton. What was the face grab all about? Evenwith that his team doesn't even respect him.
Every opportunity they have to fight adversaries never amounts to anything. But this guy gives us pages of the team arguing and fighting among themselves. No Ostrander is he.
Omega, I just paid a visit to the SS blog and read what Adam Glass had to say about the book. It seems that he is not completely happy with the direction that the book is going in and I can agree with Shlomo on the fact that maybe the book is not all that it can be because Glass has to do what the bosses at DC want. Glass is just an employee doing his job the way the bosses say do it. The best thing about that is when the book tanks, then maybe they'll listen to the fans and give them what they want.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, even so I can write what you tell me and still maneuver enough to say and draw what I want to. To show, spotlight or degrade.
DeleteOverall I like the new Suicide Squad book. It's parts I hate. This is still one of the books I want to read as soon as it hits the shelf. I'm just waiting for the series to jump off. Waiting for the beat to start, you know what I mean, that part of the Phil Collins record from Miami Vice that just makes you do crazy shit in the air with your hands. The good part.
I just left a parting quote from John Ostrander on Shlomo's blog about how he felt Amanda Waller should be portrayed. I'll go ahead and re-post here:
ReplyDeleteHe says "You can't write her as just a ruthless hardass and just leave it at that. Amanda does have a conscience, surprisingly. It's just that she does it anyway."
Basically, he's saying that yeah she's a tough, hard-ass who takes on shit from no one, but she's more than just that. She's an actual person with real thoughts and feeling too.
I usually don't hope for books to fail and be cancelled, especially in light of these guys having to feed their families and all, even in these tough economic times, but SS really needs to be cancelled quickly before anymore irreparable damage is done to the SS's reputation.
You might be right Dale. But I really do want the book to succeed. This is the underdog team that's not full of legacy characters. And with the success of this book maybe some of the characters from Ostranders run will show up in an assist, or in the DCU somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNot omly BT, but Flagg, Orchid or Plastique. I know over at Justice League Dark Nightshade, Enchantress and Shade are on that team. I don't really like Deadman or the team and the magic crap. I want to see a superhero fight against it.
I definitely don't want the Tiger or those guys as members of the Suicide Squad ever again. I think they have out grown it. The Squad is Amanda Waller, without calling the book the Wall. Adam doesn't understand that she has to have depth. That the Suicide Squad book itself has to say something. This isn't a popcorn movie.
This is the reason the title keeps coming back and keeps getting cancelled. It's a book of social, political and racial conscious that tells a story using fictitional superheroes that people relate to. It's a hard ass balance to maintain without being preachy or to biased and still entertain.
And if your going to use loved established characters you got to know em. Inside out and upside down. That's one of the reasons no one can really do BT correctly. I try to help though :)
I agree. To use the established characters, especially in a hard reboot, and re imagining them like this, you need to keep a few things solid at their core. And reading what you've written, they've lost that. I'm not sure cancelling is the only option yet, but they do need to get it back on track, FAST, or lose everything.
ReplyDeleteTrue statement my friend.
DeleteToo bad no one up there @ DC acts like they've even heard or know about that concept. Damn it must be hard to live so shallowly like that:)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I guess I agree w/you about certain members of the old crew having outgrown the SS. I'm surprised you said that. I imagine Shlomo had a mini-stroke when you read that. But you're right.
That's why I'm bitching to hard about the fact that guys like Captain Boomerang aren't on the team; The Rogues are his true family/team, so no foul there, but BT kinda' does belong w/ the SS, if for no other reason to be Waller's sole back-up; he only guy other than Flagg she can implicitly trust to bring just about everybody home and not fuck up the mission. Plus with his fighting prowess and skills, he's a natural leader. So I think he still does have a place on the team. And while yes, there should always be new blood/victims, why not allow some of the old guard to help keep the newbies in line, or tempt them to escape.
And one last thing, I absolutely love Deadshot! And if you weren't a fan of his during or after Ostrander, then Gail Simone should've made you one, because she wrote him like almost no one else. She got him; what made him tick and made him move forward, not backwards.
I want that Deadshot back, not this sickly, pale imitation who's only claim to fame/infamy, is banging the Joker's sloppy seconds....or thirds, who knows?
Fix it DC!
Gail did get Deadshot right it's like she knew him personally. That's what I'm saying, that's a hard act to follow. So what do you do? Take Deadshot, put him on your book to help sale it but change up who the character is? It doesn't make sense to me. But after I read his Legion of Doom I would have never given him another team book to write....EVER.
ReplyDeleteHe used the L.O.D. name to sale a new version of Heat Wave. So instead of taking my favorite DC outlaw Deashot and screwing him up, why not just use your new version of Heat Wave?
hey OA1, you reading your emails any more?
ReplyDelete