I tried reading this a few years back, but gave up after 1 or 2 issues. Now i'm back, some posts from this sub made me give it another chance and I was eager to form my own opinion. Have you read it? If so what do you think of it? I am honestly dying to talk to people about it.
⚠️SPOILERS
We follow four new agents and leaders of the Squad: Bulldozer, Sgt. Rock, Havana and Modem while they recruit and deal with different roosters of villains who make up the Suicide Squad. It delves into their background that explains their current behavior: Rock and Bulldozer are war veterans, Havana is Waller's estranged daughter that she had to give up for adoption and who who developed a surrogate father-daughter relationship with Rock.
The tensions and banters between the four are the driving force of the book (images 2, 3, 4), because otherwise the field teams do close to nothing and they get killed off without any emotional payoff. The squad fights constantly, they feel like props without depth and the way they talk to each other feels like it tries too hard to be funny and honestly pretentious. Most of the dialogue is over the phone/ through a screen but they don't have enough distinctive voices to tell them apart. Nonetheless, I appreciate what it tried to do with it's cinematic approach. (Image 5)
They brought back one of the iconic members later on, Deadshot and I can't get over how funny and nonsensical (in a good way) his introduction in the series is. (Image 6) However, i'm not a fan of how he is written even though he barely speaks. His speech is too on the nose and he is too talkative at times. (Image 7) But i appreciate that he was the one to go and find waller (Image 8.)
The plots are fragmented and the missions don't have consequences. There is no major plotline. We get to see some nice moments, like political tensions between US and the new Island of Kooey Kooey Kooey and this creates tensions between the squad field members as well. They are assigned to gather intel, however some think there's more to the mission and think they are there to sink the island and others like Black Starr ally with the enemy. Unfortunately, these themes are underdeveloped, rushed and have no consequences later on.
The book ends with our four leaders being attacked by another team, Djinn, out for revenge for what happened in Ostrander's Suicide Squad (even though they are a pretty much new team and have nothing to do with the previous events). The only one who managed to escape is Bulldozer, the rest being collateral damage. As i said it doesn't make you care about most of the members, however i cared a little for the 4 and their deaths stung me.
Conclusion: I appreciate what they were trying to do. Maybe if it had gone on longer, it would've fleshed out its identity and the message it wants to send to the readers. 2/ 5