Hungry Ghosts

New Suicide Squad #17 $2.99

So liked the recent trailer and want more or perhaps you fondly recall the original Suicide Squad by John Ostrander and have not really looked at the recent run much at all or like me are a bit of both I can say this is all round a pretty solid place to look. Tim Seeley who's written some pretty good off beat superhero stories among other things does a brilliant job of capturing the old darkly sarcastic tone of the book and sets up a framing sequence that links this story to the recent arcs from the book and allows a bit of introduction to new readers alike. Juan Ferreya who's been on the book a wile has a great grasp of the characters does some pretty fun things with the page layouts and given he's handling the coloring too it's got a very painterly look to it without losing any sense of action. As with the trailer that makes me so hopefull for the movie Tim and Juan hit real solid character beats as even if their appearance is a cameo and given the size of the cast and the page limit I'm impressed with how much I liked the issue.

I really liked the set up of the story Tim choose; its cynical in the style of the old book and posits that the UK government has too cottoned to the idea of coercing its meta human criminals into a black ops sort of force given something awful may have happened to some of its heroes. A pencil pusher is sent to get some pointers from Waller and is given a tour and a taste of what the Task Force X program is like and makes a point about how she is able to run it that is sharply socially relevant. He gives us a character intro montage allowing Harley to be creepy, cute and threatening, El Diablo to be broody, Deadshot to be well Deadshot and gives us other fun characterful bits clue in new readers. The remainder of the plot is an uncharacteristic mission were as with all good plots things go awry and point us towards the next issue.

Juan Ferreya is a name I was unfamiliar with but I will for sure be watching for it's I quite like his art. He has a deft hand for capturing expression and communicating emotion in his characters faces: the glee and childlike delight of Ms. Quinn, the malice from Amanda Waller, the fury and hunger of the Cheetah, the indignation of Cap'tn Boomerang, brooding and resignation. Juan is obviously a practiced artist and quite talented as his use of shadow and highlight particularly in the mission to China and the festival of the Hungry Ghosts it quite stunning. Sometimes reading comics you should showdown and get stuck in looking just at the art because in books like this it's worth it. I forget to do that occasionally but reviewing this I went back and wow so glad I did as the more I look the more I find to appreciate in this books artwork. His work also has so,e hints of pop art playfulness about particularly with action as well I won't ruin it but there is a marvelous piece of fun sequential storytelling that fills a two page spread. Writing about it makes me appreciate the work all the more.

Ok enough gushing about it... I'm figuring you get the picture I dug the issue. It's fulfilled more then any expectations I had going in and more. Tim Seeley, who's Sundowners I particularly lived for its weird-fiction-ness, and Juan did a particularly good job of reminding me why I loved the Suicide Squad back in the Ostrander days and why the trailer makes me hopefull. It captured the punchyness of the trailer and the reminiscence I have of the old book but is full on its own thing and I can only hope that they have a bit of time on the book or that the time they have is all this good. Recommended buy (if it seems your kind of thing and though I should not I'm adding it to my pile this week)

( .... Or the full title Hungry Ghosts or how I learned to stop worrying and love the new Suicide Squad)

 

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