Harley’s Crew | Book Club Wks 15 & 16: Suicide Squad 21-25

Welcome back to the Suicide Squad! This round takes us to Belle Reve, Vegas, off to topple a dictator and back again. We’re nearing the end of the run, so let’s dive back in!

Suicide Squad 21-25

We’ll take the first week, (11/23 to 11/29) to read, then discuss during the second week (11/30 to 12/6). Good, bad or ugly, drop your thoughts below when you’re ready—see you soon!

:diamonds: You can join or learn more about Harley’s Crew right HERE.

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Awesome I just started reading this Series’s a couple weeks ago

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And I changed my pic what do you think

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Nice! :raised_hands: Can’t wait to see your thoughts! Nice avatar, btw!

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Thanks

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So what issues do we read

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We read up to issue 20, so this round picks up w/ issues 21 through 25.

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Oh this is a great lil run. I had to go back & refresh by looking at the issues but I remember now. Some great additional characters in this one. @Nickywood new avatar looks great!!!

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Oh I missed those book reads when we’re they

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Thanks

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U bet.

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Clicking #harleys-crew can take you to all of our reading, etc. :partying_face:

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I’m finding that to be true too. When it came out I was more apprehensive about it because I heard more lukewarm things about and, well, only so much time and money to go around and you gotta make choices. But That’s the great thing about having an app like this, being able to go back and try out stuff you wouldn’t have otherwise and finding cool stuff from it. :slight_smile:

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Absolutely. That’s why I can’t stay away from the comics section. I’ve never had so many in one place b4.

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Time to get my Suicide Squad reactions in before the end of the week. So… in my first post about this volume of the Suicide Squad, I was pretty negative. As I read through more of the series, I softened up on it a bit. I still think there are some issues with the series, but there are some good things that are happening here.

First, I like how Harley and Deadshot have partnered up to be a check against Amanda Waller. I’m still not convinced by the Harley/Deadshot ship (I just don’t see it). But it makes sense to have them be partners in crime against Waller’s control. I liked seeing Harley get a big win against The Wall here.

I’ve also really enjoyed some of the newer additions to the team. The Unknown Soldier should be an example of a hero balancing out the villains on the team. Yet, he’s so brutal and uncompromising that he’s maybe worse than the villains, so there goes that. I’m glad that Cheetah made some appearances here. She’s the perfect kind of villain for the team. My favorite newbie, though, is James Gordon, Jr. He’s a definite wild card and his infatuation with Waller is creepy in the most interesting way. Gordo, Jr. is the weirdly charismatic presence the book needed.

In my first post about this series I also (sort of) complained that the Squad wasn’t being sent on foreign, socio-political missions. We kind of get that in issue #23 which was a fun story. I say “kind of” because the mission was treated as an extended joke. That made it fun to read, but created some characterization issues (Deadshot using pheromones to seduce an opponent?). It was also not the end I pictured for long-time Wildstorm presence John Lynch. But, again, it was a lot of fun.

I think the biggest problems I had with these issues connects with the biggest problem The New 52 had overall: Editorial inconsistency. This book and many others during The New 52 had major, sudden shifts in plot and tone as editorial changes, creative changes, and direction changes would happen on the fly in this era to try to drive sales. I felt that pretty strongly in these issues especially as we got into the Forever Evil Tie-Ins. Again, this was a New 52 problem and not just a Suicide Squad problem, but it’s there.

Last word: Harley betrays the Suicide Squad!.. Again! Our girl is becoming a more troublesome Squad member than Captain Boomerang (and that’s saying something). But… it’s the Squad, so Harls could be a double-agent for Waller here. Time will tell…

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I’m way late, but here we go!
This series has had great moments/ideas, mixed w/ some questionable ones. @TheCosmicMoth makes a good point about New 52 consistency. There are some New 52 runs I absolutely love (Wonder Woman, for instance. So good!) but others have a few too many… knots in the story, that sometimes get in the way a bit. Still want to see where it’s all going. Agree w/ @Jay_Kay & @capo-mage that it’s shaped up to a overall nice run.

James Gordon Jr. is interesting. He’s seems as unpredictable as Harls— who knows what she’s really up to. Always happy to see Power Girl! I like this version of the character—even though I’ll never understand the cleavage window on her costume :laughing: I mean, I’m not complaining, but at the same time…I’m complaining a little.

And I enjoyed this panel of King, for obvious reasons. (Someone might’ve brought him inferior toilet wine. :kingshark_hqas:)

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I’m 100% the same…

This had me ROFLing :laughing:

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Only one thing for me to do here. :raised_hands:
image

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Same here. :rofl:

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Moth whistles innocently and looks away like he doesn’t know what Razzzcat is talking about.

Oh… huh? What? Wow… I guess I never noticed that before… huh…

Resumes whistling innocently.

Wonder Woman was a great New 52 book! It definitely benefited from having Brian Azzarello through most of its run. It was the same with Justice League and Johns. Those books had consistency because they had consistent direction under their writers. With a lot of those New 52 books that had the “knots,” that was not the case. Wasn’t there also that thing where they would cancel the lowest selling titles and introduce new ones every few months? That must have put a lot of pressure on the editors and creative teams to shake things up when things weren’t working. End of the day, not always the most stable era of DC, but it gave me Morrison’s Action Comics and, for that, I will always love New 52!

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