by John Ostrander
(Author), Geof Isherwood (Illustrator)
Publisher: DC Comics
(December 12, 2017)
Softcover, 232 pages
Collecting issues 50 (a
double sized issue) - 58 of the original series from the 1980s. Actually, most
of these issues travel into the 90s when comic books started to go bad. The
degradation occurred mostly due to the rise of Image comics, which suddenly took
a large chunk of the market with substandard material made by renegade creators
from Marvel. They hit with an impact and it rippled across the industry. Comics
with intelligence were out. What was needed was guys with large muscles
constantly beating the crap out of each other- not plot or characters.
Ultimately, Image lived up to its name- it was all image with no substance, but
not before significant damage was done and great comics like these were
canceled. It was around this time that I quit collecting comics for most of the
decade.
Suicide Squad
wasn’t entirely cancelled yet, however. This is merely the penultimate book
leading up to the concluding story. Once again, the squad is sucked into
various missions taking place all across the world. I will say this about the
title, it really gave you a sense of worldwide geo-politics in a superhero
world. Most of the follow up titles all seemed so American-centric, as if no
other places existed on Earth, or that they wouldn’t have their own squads.
The
main story of this collection, “The Dragon’s Horde”, takes place all over the
map from Afghanistan, to Japan, to Cambodia, to America. At the tail end of
Russian-occupied Afghanistan, a general betrays his own troops and smuggles
thousands of weapons to a cache in Cambodia with a plan to sell them onto the
Yakuza. Sounds like a spy novel. Essentially it is, only with superhero teams
for the Russian, Japanese and our dear old Suicide Squad added into the
mix. Intelligent, violent, and all sorts
of fun.
Book-ending
the main tale are a few shorts. The double sized issue takes a look back at the
original two iterations of the Suicide Squad from the 50s and 60s. Following that is a solo issue dealing with
Deadshot and his psychosis. A further one focuses on the deceased Dr. Light and
his return to this side of the river Styx - easily the weakest of the stories.
The
last issue in this volume is part of the forgettable D.C. crossover event for
1991, War of the Gods. It spanned
twenty five issues across different titles like Dr. Fate, Wonder Woman, Starman, Animal Man, Hawk and Dove,
The Demon, etc. ad nauseam. In this
storyline, after the Amazons announced themselves to the world, Circe has been lurking
behind the scenes watching Diana's every move. Circe is responsible for a
series of brutal murders where various artifacts of power have been stolen. The
Amazons are framed for these crimes and public hysteria is whipped up against
them. Not that great. The big event results in nothing permanent happening in
the DC universe. Presented only in single issues, a slice of a much larger pie,
it was forgettable. I found myself rushing through it, so as to get back to
stories actually important to the title.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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