Review: Justice League vs. Suicide Squad

Quick Summary

Pros: The beginning of the story is well done and depicts some fun fighting. The book’s main plot is thrilling and will constantly keep readers at the edge of their seats.

Cons: The book’s conclusion is terrible.

Overall: This is an extremely fun and enjoyable read, right up until the last couple of pages. The majority of the book is packed full of great action, memorable moments, and well executed suspense. However, the conclusion is so illogical and strange that it makes it hard to enjoy the book as a whole. If you’re the type of reader who can enjoy the journey no matter where it takes you, then you may be one of few who will thoroughly enjoy this event.

Story

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is an example of a fun and entertaining comic that is irreparably damaged by a terrible ending. The story here is great throughout and turns what could have been an extremely one-sided fight into a crazy team-up featuring a diverse cast of new and old characters. Plus, Maxwell Lord is a fantastic villain and the secret history of the Suicide Squad is a great addition to the team’s lore.

However, the book’s ending is so strange, unbelievable, and illogical that it quite nearly ruins the whole thing. Readers will have to ask themselves if a pleasant ride is worth a bad destination because this is exactly what they will encounter within Justice League vs. Suicide Squad. If you can look past the book’s ending then you’ll have a great time with this book, if you can’t then this might be a title to skip.

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The book instantly dives headfirst into exactly what the title promised, the Justice League fighting the Suicide Squad. Before reading this, I thought this fight was far too lopsided, even Simon Baz comments on the fact that Digger’s weapon is just a boomerang. However, Williamson manages to write the story in a way that shows the Justice League’s overall superiority without having them instantly overpower their enemies. Then, he twists it around and has the Suicide Squad actually snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a lucky play by Killer Frost. There are still some moments here that aren’t exactly believable but nothing that pushes suspension of disbelief too far.

While all of this is happening, we are given occasional flashes of Maxwell Lord’s current and past actions, revealing him as the book’s true villain. He tricks Amanda Waller into telling him about the first Suicide Squad and where he can find them. Then he recruits this team in order to get at an even larger source of power. Showing this alongside the main fight is a great way to build up excitement for the rest of the book and kept me interested in every page I read.

After the Suicide Squad’s “victory” the book’s real conflict begins. The two rival teams band together but are unable to stop Maxwell Lord from reaching his goal. He obtains the Heart of Darkness, mind controls most of the Justice League, and uses all this power to let Eclipso take over the world. At this point, the book is still great, in fact, some of the book’s best moments are found here. For example, Batman blowing up Lobo’s head in order to stop Maxwell Lord’s mind control was fantastic, especially in seeing how Deadshot and Lobo react to this. This is also the most exciting part of the book as it looks like Armageddon is just around the corner.

Then the last issue comes and takes all of this excitement away. Eclipso is defeated because Killer Frost is able to use “cold atoms” to turn Superman’s heat vision into sunlight, Eclipso’s weakness. This is pushing the boundaries of science even for comic books, which have an already high tolerance for bending the rules. Then, Eclipso attacks Frost and unsuccessfully tries to corrupt her, despite the fact that he was able to easily corrupt every single other member of the Justice League and Suicide Squad. This is supposed to help demonstrate Killer Frost’s redemption, which it does slightly, but mostly it just feels like a cheesy excuse for an ending.

To continue the logic acrobatics being used in this conclusion and further push the limits on believability, the aftermath of the showdown makes things worse. Maxwell Lord realizes that Amanda Waller apparently set all of this up in order to get the Justice League to accept the Suicide Squad. There are so many variables and things that could have gone wrong that it seems unlikely that Amanda Waller would do something like this, especially since the person who saved everyone, Killer Frost, is someone Waller clearly doesn’t believe in. It makes the ending worse and ruins what could have been a fantastic comic book.

(spoilers end here)

Art

With this comic coming out weekly, there was no way that one artist would be able to do the entire run. This means that a variety of artists worked on assembling this book, which also means that the art has a variety of quality. Luckily though, the majority of the book either looks alright or looks great, meaning that the book as a whole shouldn’t disappoint visually.

The book’s highlights are, without a doubt, the first two issues. Jason Fabok and Tony S. Daniel’s work looks fantastic and first the material perfectly. These are two artists who are incredibly skilled in drawing the Justice League, something that shows itself in these issues.

The low points in the book happen in one of the Suicide Squad tie-in issues. Riley Rossmo’s work in this issue is dramatically different from the art in the rest of this collection, which helps in setting this flashback issue apart from the rest of the story. This may be the issue’s only artistic positive though as everything else about it looks messy. The issue ends up concluding with a image of Amanda Waller where her neck is depicted as being as long as her entire face. This is only one issue though and doesn’t severely effect the book as a whole.

Continuity

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is a crossover event between the Justice League and the Suicide Squad comic book series. Though the event technically is set directly after Justice League Vol. 2: Outbreak (Review) and Suicide Squad Vol. 2: Going Sane (Review), the actions of those two books do not really come into play much here. Reading them will help readers understand the character in this book better but will not directly set up this book.

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad Reading Order

The story started here is almost directly continued in the new Justice League of America series, starting with Justice League of America: Road to Rebirth (Review). There are also some plot points which continue on in Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Burning Down the House (Review). Technically, the events of Justice League Vol. 3: Timeless (Review) are also set directly after this event, however it remains almost completely unaffected by what happens here.

This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below:

• Batman mentions a prior encounter with Amanda Waller, this happened in Batman Vol. 2: I am Suicide (Review).
• Harley Quinn insists that she and Wonder Woman were on good terms when they last met. This was in Harley’s Little Black Book.
• In Maxwell Lord’s interview, a number of stories from his past are brought up.
  • His dealings with the Cadmus Project and the OMAC Initiative though Checkmate are detailed throughout O.M.A.C. Vol. 1: Omactivate!.
  • His run in with S.H.A.D.E. happened in Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Vol. 1: War of the Monsters.
  • His poor dealings with Spyral are detailed in Grayson Vol. 5: Spiral’s End (Review).
  • An attack by Apokolips is show. This is a different view of the events of Justice League Vol. 1: Origin (Review).
• Simon mentions being locked up again. This is likely a reference to his initial appearance in Green Lantern Vol. 3: The End.
• Superman makes a number of statements that indicate he knows Maxwell Lord’s reputation as a villain, despite him never appearing as a villain in this continuity. This is because this Superman is from the pre-Flashpoint continuity where Lord is a villain. All of this is continuity mixing is explained by this Superman’s first foray into the world, collected in Superman: Lois and Clark (Review).
• The Heart of Darkness’s current location is explained by the events of Team 7 Vol. 1: Fight Fire With Fire.
• Maxwell Lord’s celebration is an almost direct homage to a similar scene in Watchmen.
• Steve Trevor brings up his time working for the Justice League. This started and ended in Justice League Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey (Review).