Review: Suicide Squad Vol. 3- Death is for Suckers

Quick Summary

Pros: Parts of the narrative are fun and have good levels of action.

Cons: The opening chapter is lackluster and is incredibly damaging for Harley Quinn as a character. The book’s focus on Yo-Yo is uninteresting. The conclusion has a illogical plot twist and a boring cliffhanger. The artwork here is not that good.

Overall: While previous volumes in this series were able to mix interesting stories with fun action, this volume fails to do either. Instead, it tells stories that are so contrived that they aren’t fun and focuses on a character that no one cares about. This and some lackluster artwork make for a rather poor reading experience. Those truly dedicated to the Suicide Squad may enjoy aspects of this collection, but those looking for a good read should look elsewhere.

Story

Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers, by Adam Glass, takes an alright series and turns it into something far worse. The story here is not nearly as appealing as it was in previous volumes, for a multitude of reasons. The Joker’s inclusion hurts Harley’s character, mismanaged focus keeps the attention on Yo-Yo instead of a more interesting Squad member, and the volume’s attempt at a cliffhanger conclusion is laughably predictable. Overall, this is a disappointing volume and an unfortunate turn for the series as a whole.

(spoilers start here)

Death is for Suckers starts out with a lackluster Death of the Family (Review) tie-in that proves itself to be incredibly damaging for Harley Quinn as a character. In many comics, the Joker’s violent and unpredictable nature lends itself to revealing hidden truths about heroes or forces them to face something they have been denying. However, in this particular encounter, it only manages to reduce Harley Quinn’s independence into something she was forced into after he threatened her life, rather than something she realized she needed on her own. In addition, the entire idea that Harley was not the original Harley seems ridiculous and appears to have been almost immediately wiped from DC’s continuity because it was such a poor decision. This entire portion of the collection was poorly managed and is a pain to read.

From here, things start to temporarily improve. The next portion of the book contains some mindless action and a vaguely interesting plotline. It also starts a unique conspiracy between Harley and Deadshot, one that has the potential to play out well in the future.

However, this portion of the book also suffers from a disappointing shift in focus. The entire arc centers around Yo-Yo who, up until this point, has had almost no character development at all. Then, all of a sudden, Yo-Yo starts receiving copious amounts of character development and is subsequently killed off. It feels as if this character development was added to make his death more significant or meaningful, yet it comes too late and simply ends up being uninteresting.

The book’s conclusion does not fair much better, as it has an illogical plot twist and a completely uninspired cliffhanger ending. The Squad’s decision to magnanimously follow Amanda Waller seems completely contrary to their previously established character traits. In addition, concluding the book by having Deadshot “die” again is getting old and fails to illicit any excitement at this point.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Death is for Suckers starts out with some average looking artwork from Fernando Dagnino. His work here doesn’t look great, but it also doesn’t look bad. Characters have acceptable levels of detail and the entire portion of the book is structured well.

However, the rest of the collection sees a significant decrease in artistic quality. This portion of the book, which is primarily penciled by Henrik Jonsson, features contorted bodies, bizarre facial expressions, and a general lack of detail. It does not look good and makes the already disappointing story even harder to enjoy. Because of this, the overall artistic appeal of Death is for Suckers is very low.

Continuity

Suicide Squad Vol. 3: Death is for Suckers continues the story from Suicide Squad Vol. 2: Basilisk Rising (Review).

The story here continues in Suicide Squad Vol. 4: Discipline and Punish (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The beginning of this collection contains a tie-in to the Death of the Family (Review) event.
• Amanda Waller’s connection to Kurt Lance is detailed in Team 7 Vol. 1: Fight Fire with Fire (Review).