DCU Book Club Week 102: SUICIDE SQUAD: THE BLACK VAULT; Aug 24 - Aug 30

“The Black Vault” part one! When a mysterious and definitely super-important cosmic item falls out of the heavens and into enemy hands, America has only one option: Task Force X, Amanda Waller’s strike team of incarcerated super-criminals. A one-stop-shop for plausibly deniable espionage and ultra- violence, this “Suicide Squad” only handles missions they’re not expected to survive. An insane new era of SUICIDE SQUAD begins here with superstar artist Jim Lee and red-hot writer Rob Williams (UNFOLLOW, MARTIAN MANHUNTER).

Greetings!

Folks, I don’t know about you but I’ve never been more excited about the future of The Suicide Squad. Between a video game being made by Rocksteady, A brand new film on the way, and Tom Taylor’s current run on the book. There has never been a better time to be a fan of Amanda Waller’s Task Force X.

So of course we are reading some Suicide Sqaud this week. Suicide Squad: The Black Vault is the first arc of their Rebirth book. It’s an excellent place to start with the squad. I can’t wait to hear what you think! :slight_smile:

How to join the fun:

*Start reading here! (DC UNIVERSE INFINITE: Explore the Multiverse)

  • :alarm_clock:Read all Five issues between 2020-08-24T05:00:00Z2020-08-30T05:00:00Z :alarm_clock:

  • :memo:Tackle the below discussion questions at your leisure:memo:

  • :speaking_head:Let us know what you thought of the book as a whole!:speaking_head:

And that’s it! Easy right?

:batman_hv_1:Spoiler discussion begins right now!:superman_hv_1:

:clark_hv_1:Discussion Questions:clark_hv_5:

  • Is this your first time reading Suicide Squad: The Black Vault?

  • What were your expectations prior to reading?

  • Which member of The Squad was your favorite in this book?

  • What was your favorite Page or Panel?

Questions, comments, concerns? Feel Free to shoot me a message!

You can find more info on DCUBC Here!

5 Likes

Count me in!

Bookmarked for this weekend! This looks like fun!!!

Looks great! Can’t wait to read it!

1 Like

I’ll be there so count me in.

Excited to hear what you all think!

Yep, first time.

Was looking forward to the no holds barred approach to anti-heroism that only Amanda Waller brings.

Hard to say, but I’m gonna go with Katana. Mostly because of her backstory. I like that she doesn’t have to be there at all, yet because the Soultaker leads her there she enlist in the squad knowing there is something greater that she is going to be a major part of.


A look at the entire Squad, but mostly the hilarity of the Rebirth t-shirt on Harley and Digger’s “me digestives” comment. :joy:

Boomerangs tummy troubles had my in Hysterics! :rofl:

3 Likes

Katana vs Zod was absolutely incredible! Definitely my favorite panels/pages by far!

1 Like

This may seem foolish, but how to you share a specific page with a post?

On the post editor at the top, there’s a little symbol with an arrow pointing up. Click on that, and you have options to either get the photo from your device, or a url from online.

1 Like
  • Is this your first time reading Suicide Squad: The Black Vault?

Nope, read this series as it came out up until Justice League Vs Suicide Squad.

  • What were your expectations prior to reading?

Something pretty close to the movie, what with the roster being from the movie. Also wasn’t expecting the double feature of these issues back when they first came out. As cool as it would have been to see Jim Lee doing all the pages, what we got with all these awesome guest artists was pretty nice too.

  • Which member of The Squad was your favorite in this book?

Harley is always fun. Though really, all the characters have their moment to shine.

1 Like

That’s what i like about a good Squad book. It’s too hard to pick a favorite! Thanks for reading:)

Ah forgot about that, epic moment!

Thanks!

Yes first time.

My expectations of these issues were just the craziness that I have seen and read in other versions of the Suicide Squad and that is pretty much what happened.

I don’t know if she is considered a member of the team at least not in these issues but I would have to say Hack because I’m curious to know why she is there and why she has a fascination with Harly Quinn.

My favorite page was when General Zod showed up because I was not expecting him or really anyone to be in that black sphere.

HA! Exactly! My expectation for a suicide squad book: Always have no expectations!

Thanks for reading :slight_smile:

1 Like

Oh, and I kind of forgot the favorite page/panel (because I was kind of falling asleep while typing there, since work was murder that day :sweat_smile:).

I would go with not just the General Zod reveal, but what happens to Captain Boomerang. I think in the past few years, especially with the movies, some runs of SS can feel a litle safe – like, unless you’re created for the book, you’re probably not going to die. That especially holds for the three characters that I think are sort of the “trinity” of the Suicide Squad, and that’s Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang.

While we know that it won’t last very long, I did like that they at least tried to give us even a brief feeling of “anything can happen” with this series.

Also, yeah, the Zod reveal and the subsequent fight was great. It reminded me a little bit now to the Squad’s reaction to Superman in the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League trailer. I can almost hear Boomer going “Aww fuuuaaa–” :laughing:

1 Like

Also, I would recommend looking at the Suicide Squad Director’s Cut #1 issue. It’s really neat seeing the process of how the first issue (and a half) was made, especially since apparently this issue and the Jim Lee run in general was run very different from standard comic book practice.

https://www.dcuniverse.com/comics/book/suicide-squad-1-director-s-cut-2017-1/87f57d44-0bdd-4e78-b703-d10a5ba20756/

Hi. Don-el here. I occasionally sign on to see if DC Universe is still here. Howya?

Disclaimer before I give my blunt, honest reactions and reflections on this week’s curated reading from the frankly almost overwhelming DC Universe digital library (which somehow in spite of it being humongous, still has large historic gaps of hundreds to thousands of issues):

A) I have not watched the Suicide Squad movie or the Birds of Prey recent film. I may someday, but I’m far more intrigued with seeing the Weasel in the new film.

B) While I owned most of the 1980s-early 90s Suicide Squad, I did sell them about a year ago when I reduced my collection by half. I figured, “DCU is here forever, I’ll just read them here if I like, what could go wrong?”

  1. First time reading.

  2. Expectations: it would be identical to the New 52 version I have read parts of, including the limited series character focus run on Deadshot and Katana.

  3. Favorite member: while I wish the cast had been 2 or three members larger, dear departed Cap’t Boomerang.

  4. Favorite page / panel: a few, here ya go:

While at least one of these folks is a carbon copy of an X-men character, the rest remind me of characters from the current Valiant comics universe, and I am pretty sure they will have similar space-exploration-gone-wrong origin stories as the cosmonaut in Valiant Comics “Divinity.”

Nice bit of humor here with the soccer game coming in on the super science comms.

Above, from my favorite backstory; this final Waller summary illustrates that even with the best counselling money can buy today, none of us can know or be aware of all the childhood experiences and perceptions that drive us to unwanted habits / behaviors.

2 Likes