Suicide Squad (The New 52) Volume 5: Walled In by Matt Kindt, Patrick Zircher, André Coelho and Scott Hanna (graphic novel review).
Oddly, the fifth volume of this Suicide Squad, reprinting Amanda Waller # 1 and Suicide Squad # 24-30, titled ‘Walled In’, is appropriate because this is the end of the road in ‘The New 52’ for the series. A change in creators after the poor output displayed in volume 4 wasn’t surprising, and this new team, writer Matt Kindt and artists Patrick Zircher, André Coelho, and Scott Hanna, topping a longer creative list in the indicia, are certainly trying to up the odds even if they haven’t sorted out Harley Quinn’s insanity and speech pattern, although she at least speaks here.
This time there are two Suicide Squads, both believing they are working for Amanda Waller to get the android O.M.A.C., this time the acronym for One Man Army Construct. What one side doesn’t know is that the Thinker in Belle Reve has masqueraded as Waller in a hologram and fooled a new team. Half-way through, you have to wonder who is actually killed and what is essentially an illusion; more so, micro-bombs attached to plasters are freely given out. Oh, Power Girl, still a super-heroine, is involved, which stirs things up.
An undercurrent is a new politician in charge who likes the idea of Task Force X but wants Waller to answer to him with less power but wants to use the team abroad more than in the USA. The end of that does suggest the writers were lining things up just in case they could have gone on, but as there is no promotional material at the end of this graphic novel, it tells its own story.
As this is a continued story, you end up reading straight through, as there is a need to keep up with what is going on rather than putting it down for a rest. That is a credit to the creative team, but you need a scorecard to follow what is going on.
GF Willmetts
March 2024
(pub: DC Comics, 2014. page graphic novel softcover. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-4012-5012-6)
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