Bell Bottom Pick: Suicide Squad #3 (1987)
What is a Bell Bottom Pick? At Comic Pants, we love the new, but sometimes we get nostalgic to talk up an older book or series and remember some greatness from “back in the day.” That “day” could be the extreme 90’s, the socially relevant 70’s, or the guys-wore-hats 50’s. Who knows? All we can tell you is that a Bell Bottom Pick is worth rifling though back issue bins for or even braving the wilds of Ebay. Our first “Bell Bottom Pick” is Suicide Squad #3 (1987).
Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Luke McDonnell
Company: DC Comics
About a year ago, during Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited series, I was introduced to an interesting team, Task Force X. The idea behind them was such a cool one, something that seemed so original: A group of misbegotten villains, currently incarcerated, are offered the chance to reduce their sentences by going on what could only be referred to as “suicide missions” for the government. Liking that idea and knowing that most of the stories used on the show had roots in their comic brothers, I went and asked some smarter people than I about such a thing existing.
That, in turn, led me to Suicide Squad, a simply addictive series that expertly incorporates the pure action and suspense of the spy genre with some of the best plots I’ve ever read. With a revolving door of unique, fleshed out and enjoyable characters that straddle the invisible line between hero and villain, how could it not be fun?
With the third issue, John Ostrander (Manhunter/Spectre) and Luke McDonnell (Green Lantern/Iron Man) weave a hopeless, yet still fantastic tale of an all out assault on the Suicide Squad’s home base, Belle Reve Prison. Their opponents? Try Darkseid’s Furies. Oh, and I do mean those people from Superman and New Gods fame. Outclassed and just plain outgunned, the Squad still doesn’t give up and fights to defend their home. Add to that a dark and at the time, cutting edge subplot involving the mind-wiping of a villain (done better here than anywhere else), and you’ve got an interesting story line that beats most comics out on the shelves today.
Probably the one thing that interested me the most before venturing onto Mile High Comics and picking up the first 20 issues (A whopping 15 dollar price tag for all of them!), were the characters, especially Deadshot, which is mainly due to Christos Gage’s mini from a year or two back. There are hundreds of books that focus on heroes and all of the baggage that comes with them. To some extent, there have been books that, as a side note, delve into the nature of the so-called villains, but I had never read one where that was the book’s main focus. In Suicide Squad, that’s what it’s about, the villains. What I found right along with Deadshot, was a group of characters that I’d seen in other books but knew almost nothing about. Characters such as: Captain Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Amanda Waller, Captain Cold, Rick Flagg, Nemesis, Enchantress and Nightshade. Each one is spotlighted in their own way, have their own identities and faults, and are absolutely captivating due to Ostrander’s respect for them and their histories.
Also worth noting is Luke McDonnell’s artwork. While some might see McDonell’s work as a sort of scratchy, unfinished product, to me it felt like a breath of fresh air. Everything about it fits the story: His depiction of the characters, the scenery and the overall mood are all spot on. His action scenes are a cut above the rest, fast moving and well constructed work that jumps right out at you. This isn’t scratchy or unfinished, people, this is just good artwork.
Still, this is a book of the eighties and because of that, there is a bit of campy dialogue thrown into the mix that can seem distracting at times. Despite that minute drawback, I found myself sucked in by the solid story. Anyone who’s enjoying Greg Rucka’s new Checkmate series or Gail Simone’s Secret Six should take note, especially, as the roots for those books appear in Ostrander’s Suicide Squad. Easy to find and entertaining to the extreme, check this Bell Bottom Pick out!
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I enjoyed McDonnell’s previous work on Iron Man and Justice League of America, but his stuff on those early issues of Suicide Squad was significantly more attractive. The reason: Karl Kesel’s inks. It’s easy to see Kesel’s influence at play there.
17 Sep 2006 at 10:38 am
QuoteSuicide Squad is one of my top five favorite superhero books of all time, and it really hit the ground running. Though my favorite stuff was in the last year or two, when the group de-costumed and went in a more espionage direction, I loved every issue. This one was no exception, and I really loved stuff like Rick Flag battling Amanda Waller over the government’s lackadaisal approach to torture (how prescient!) and the Bronze Tiger fighting a hopeless battle against Stompa.
You can definitely expect to see more Bell Bottom Picks reviews of this book in the future. It’s just kind of a shame that everyone who loves this book and has a chance to write it doesn’t quite seem to get it, and wants to make them more realistic, gritty and dark. Suicide Squad had its darker elements (it was about supervillains, after all), but it was also fun, and acknowledged that it took place in a superhero universe.
17 Sep 2006 at 3:42 pm
QuoteI believe I have an issue of that run…somewhere. However, it was the middle of a multi-part story, and it left me confused. I might give this book a shot, starting at the beginning. I’m always on the lookout for good back issues.
Nice new feature, by the way.
17 Sep 2006 at 4:21 pm
QuoteAlthough I was barely in high school when this book first hit, it had a huge impact on me that has yet to be matched by another title, and left me with so many good memories - Force of July and Manhunter storming Kobra in “The Janus Directive,” Shade betraying the team during the battle of Apokolips, Adam Cray…so many great memories. Although I was not originally a fan of McDonnell’s artwork, it quickly became as much as part of the Squad as the characters themselves. And Karl Kesel left a permenant mark on the title through his inks and pencils as well. A true tour de force of great comics, and I can only hope that the title sees new life in trade paperback form, sooner rather than later.
17 Sep 2006 at 5:07 pm
QuoteHahahaha, Bell Bottom Pick, that’s great. Anyway, Suicide Squad’s of the many series I wish they put in trades so they’d be easier to find (they don’t sell back issues at my store anymore– sigh). I’ve heard lots of good things about it, and I like what I see in those pages. I mean, any series that understands the inherent coolness of Stompa is at least worth checking out, right?
17 Sep 2006 at 11:45 pm
QuoteSuicide Squad is the first cult series I ever loved. I’ve had books cancelled out from under me before, but nothing compares to how craptacular I felt when the Squad got cancelled without ever having achieved the popularity it deserved. It did have a pretty healthy run, though - something like five or six years - and it’s been gratifying to see how well-remembered it is by other fans. Every time Newsarama or a similar site asks readers, “What old series would you like to see return?”, Suicide Squad inevitably gets several votes.
Now, while I certainly remember this particular issue fondly (and historically, because it set up the intro of a great character quite a ways down the line), I’m curious as to what made Nick pick it from the others he’s read. Nick? One thing it reminds me of is how the series could handle multiple styles of action/adventure. Much of the time the tone was down-and-dirty espionage, but it could also accomodate those larger-than-life stories that are inevitable in a superhero setting. Like the comedic issue where Dr. Light died and went to hell (multiple times). Or the arc where the Atom made his return to the DCU (guest-starring Batman, Superman and Aquaman). But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats the outrageousness of the story arc that stranded the Squad on Apokolips! Darkseid’s hometown’s never been more foreboding (or killed off more good guys) than in that arc, and it was issue #3 that surely got the idea percolating in John Ostrander’s head.
A great series and one worthy of remembrance. I really hope DC springs for a Showcase edition or, better yet, a series of color trades. Showcase would be the more strategic, economical choice, but I likes me some color.
18 Sep 2006 at 1:01 am
QuoteSidebar: one of the reasons Brad Meltzer’s on my permanent shit-list is for killing off Captain Boomerang in the pages of Identity Crisis. To anyone who’s never read Suicide Squad, perhaps a victimless crime, but for those who know what a perfectly brilliant bastard Ostrander turned the character into, a damning misstep!
It’s interesting - the series had several characters who trafficked in the ongoing theme of redemption: there was Bronze Tiger, who best emboddied it. Deadshot, who struggled with it but never seemed quite able to embrace it. And Boomerang…who never considered redemption for one damn minute. I loved that about him. He gained a few slivers of depth under Ostrander’s pen, especially in the issue that retold his origin, but his first and best duty was to play the perfect, nasty foil to everyone else. And he was great at it.
But Meltzer went and turned him fat and gave him a lame-o son and killed him off.
(spoilers)
His JLA run better be DAMN good as compensation…
18 Sep 2006 at 1:13 am
QuoteWhat was great about Boomerang was that he was the comedy relief, but he wasn’t just a joke. Here’s a guy who could be mean-spirited enough to let one of his allies take a bullet because she had been mean to him earlier in the issue. A guy who decided to take on another criminal identity to get around his pardon so that he wouldn’t have to go to jail, but he could still steal as much as he wanted.
Also a guy who got tossed into the ocean by Australians riled up by the bad image he was giving them, and the guy who tried to fire himself off a desert island by tying himself to a giant boomerang.
I was pissed that Bendis killed off Hawkeye, but that’s something that’ll be undone and forgotten. Sadly, Boomerang is probably gone for good, replaced by his far-less-interesting son.
On the upside, there are sixty-some issues of the original Suicide Squad that I can read and enjoy over and over again, even if it seems likely nobody else is going to get the characters right again.
18 Sep 2006 at 2:34 am
QuoteYou KNOW I love the Squad run. There’s a Boomerbutt-sized hole in my heart that will never be filled. Favorite Boomerang moment? When he tells Slipknot that the explosive bracelets are fake, because the people in charge are heroes. Slipknot tries to run off and gets his arm blown off, and Boomerang gets his own question about whether or not they are real answered without taking any chances. What a bastard. DAMN YOU MELTZER…
18 Sep 2006 at 5:47 am
QuoteAnd to me, the original Boomerang is an intergral component of the Suicide Squad (along with Deadshot). Without him, it simply would not be the same, regardless of how the next group eventually manifests itself.
As you say, at least there are sixty plus issues to enjoy again and again. Given how brilliant the title was more often than not, it’s enough.
18 Sep 2006 at 5:48 am
QuoteMaybe we should convince Meltzer that his explosive bracelet is just a fake.
Ah, but I kid! Look at all the nice things I said about his first issue of JLA: http://comicpants.com/?p=183
Still, Brad, I’m 90% sure the bracelet’s a fake. Maybe 95%.
18 Sep 2006 at 6:37 am
QuoteDave, I picked this issue in particular because it really gave you an overview of who everyone was and what it was they really cared about. I mean, you have Darkseid’s Furies storming your base, and what does Deadshot do? Sits in his cell because he doesn’t give a flying flip. What does Boomerang do? He runs (to get help, my tuckus!). Flagg, Nemesis, Bronze Tiger, Waller, Nightshade? They fight. Why? Because at their very cores, they aren’t bad guys and that’s made pretty apparent with the other things going on in the issue (i.e. Waller’s brainwashing of Plastique).
In other words, the issue spoke to me on a bunch of different levels. I could have easily picked the first two issues with the Jihad bunch or the mission into Russia, planned out by the Penguin (still one of the best character moments, in my opinion).
Dan, though I loved your Boomerang moment, my personal favorite is where Bronze Tiger gets him drunk enough that he passes out and the Squad takes him on the Nightshade mission. Cheesy as hell, but still funny!
18 Sep 2006 at 10:54 am
QuoteExplosive bracelets… is *that* how DC enforces exclusive contracts?
18 Sep 2006 at 11:33 am
QuoteFarabee wrote:
>Sidebar: one of the reasons Brad Meltzer’s on my permanent shit-list is for killing off Captain Boomerang in the pages of Identity Crisis. To anyone who’s never read Suicide Squad, perhaps a victimless crime, but for those who know what a perfectly brilliant bastard Ostrander turned the character into, a damning misstep!
18 Sep 2006 at 11:55 pm
QuoteUm, you sorta lost me there, Don. I see you quoted a line from one of my posts, but whatever you were going to respond to it seems to’ve been lost in translation.
I’m willing to just assume your response was gonna be, “Right on, right on!”, but who knows? It’s just possible there was more
19 Sep 2006 at 1:42 am
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