Review: Suicide Squad Rebirth #1
Submitted by:
Kelly Aliano, PhD, Comics News Editor
3 August 2016
**Issue Spoilers
to Follow**
Suicide Squad Rebirth #1 by writer Rob Williams, penciller Philip
Tan, and inkers Jonathan Glapion, Scott Hanna, and Sandu Florea, is the perfect
issue to be released this week, as the highly anticipated film Suicide Squad hits cinemas nationwide
tomorrow evening. The comic begins with
the announcement that Task Force X is over, due to its continual usage of
unconstitutional, even un-American, tactics and protocols. Is Amanda Waller fazed by this declaration
from the President of the United States?
Of course not. She reminds us
that being a leader is filled with making difficult decisions and stands by her
program, defending the moral uncertainty that is inherent in keeping people
safe. The Suicide Squad, as a concept
for a superhero book, was always a reminder of the thin line between heroism
and criminal activity. This new arc is
no exception, throwing that idea into relief in its politically charged—and
highly relevant to the contemporary moment—opening pages.
 |
| Colonel Rick Flag |
A new character
is introduced, Colonel Rick Flag, a war hero in his own right and the grandson
of a WWII-era Task Force X member. POTUS
gives Waller permission to recruit him to lead her team, as his heroism and
integrity seem above reproach.
Recruiting Flag not only serves as the inciting incident for a new
narrative arc, but also gives Waller a reason to give the exposition for the
Squad, including laying out its members and the justification for its
existence, for Flag and, ostensibly, for any readers new to the world of
Suicide Squad. She gives Flag a
breakdown of the mission—one that seems designed to save lives—and then the
action cuts to the current members of the team, engaged in the crisis. Flag doesn’t believe these villains will do
the right thing; Waller convinces him that they will, if under his command.
This issue, like
all good anti-hero stories, is deeply embedded in the theme of moral
relativity. Gray areas are EVERYWHERE in
this book and that is highlighted by the exceptional color work by Alex Sinclair. The questions of whether following orders or
doing the “so-called” right thing are never cut and dry in the world of
superhero comics… because such actions are never definitively “right” or “wrong”
in the real world either. The Verdict: One of the best Rebirth titles
so far. For a book that could have been
nothing more than a tie-in to a blockbuster movie release, the issue is
literate and compelling and asks hard and important questions about why we
fight and what it means to be a hero.
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