Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Review | Tagged: amanda waller, Captain Boomerang, dc comics, Fernando Pasarin, harley quinn, killer croc, simon spurrier, suicide squad, superheroes

Suicide Squad #33 Review: An Ugly and Mean-Spirited Comic

Juan Soria is a man who was once obsessed with the superheroes of his world. However, his life turned sour, and this has led him to being imprisoned in Belle Reve and recruited for the Suicide Squad.

The Squad is responding to a sudden incursion of hornet-like aliens, and Juan and other low-powered inmates are being used as cannon fodder for the main members of the Suicide Squad.

Remember in my review for Justice League #36 when I said it's easy to critique the formula and structure of superhero comics but difficult to do it well?

This is how to not do it well. This is one of the most insufferable reading experiences I've had in some time.

Suicide Squad #33 is an ugly, mean-spirited, and endlessly smug comic book which thinks its ideas are way smarter and funnier than they are in reality. It seems to resent being a DC comic and all of its main characters.

Its running conceit, which it explains to you umpteen times during the course of the story, is that Juan is a nobody, and nobodies don't survive experiences like this. Big names and A-Listers live. It's dangerous to be around an A-Lister like the Suicide Squad, because you become a Red Shirt. Red Shirts always die.

It drags this joke out over the entire comic, explaining and re-explaining in endless narration captions.

Also, Killer Croc is constantly trying to eat Juan. This is played for laughs. Captain Boomerang wants to use Juan as a human shield. This is also played for laughs. Harley Quinn, who is barely intelligible in this comic, wants to see the cannon fodder day. This is still played for laughs. Juan is this pitiable character, but the comic seems to hate him as much as the main characters its conceit inherently resents.

Fernando Pasarin's art is the main redeeming quality, but it does help make some of this more bearable. It's at least visually appealing, and Killer Croc does look awesome. There is also a nice panel of bug-blood dripping off of Harley's hammer.

Give this one a wide berth. I do not recommend Suicide Squad #33 in the slightest.

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