Batwoman, Suicide Squad Issue 1

Mr. Soot must have been filled with the spirit of vengeance when he gave me these two kick ass issues. If 90% of the DC 52 comics were like this I would go insane with joy. But they’re not. Alas, lets not focus on the negatives! Just the positives. And I’m pretty positive Mr. Soot is practicing with nunchucks…

                                       Batwoman 1

Right off the “bat” (see what I did there?!) this issue grabs your attention with the art. Its amazing. This ghost lady shows up in the bedroom of these kids and weeps as she takes them away. Batwoman shows up and chases her away. Not really though because the kids are now missing. She promises the parents that she will rescue the kids. The police make no such promise. Other kids are missing and they have no leads or clues.

Kate Kane aka Batwoman is at home with some chick named Bette aka Flamebird go out on a small crime fighting spree and Batwoman decides that she doesn’t want to do it again. She says she spent more time watching Flamebird’s back than she was. Black Mask is also sending an agent to Gotham to get Batwoman. Dude looks very cool by the way.

Back home Kate’s dad shows up unexpectedly and she airs all of their dirty laundry! In one splash page they show the characters entire history which is an amazing accomplishment. The issue ends with Batwoman investigating a lake where kids bodies were found when Batman shows up and says he has a proposition for her.

This issue was pretty damn cool and was written well by J.H Williams III and art by W. Haden Blackman. Every page looks like it took time and effort and was super amazing. I like this issue because they managed to cover so much, mostly because the way the pages were set up Blackman was able to convey so much emotion in such little space. I would so pick up the next issue.

Suicide Squad 1

How many times have you opened up a comic book and the first page is someone being tortured by having a bucket full of rats on their bare stomach with a blowtorch being used to make the rats attempt to chew their way free? That’s what I thought. Suicide Squad starts off with the entire team being tortured for information about who sent them.

Deathstroke is the one being tortured with rats. Some dude with fire powers named El Diablo is being beaten and having bags of salt poured on him. Harley Quinn has a jumper cable attached to her cheeks. King Shark is sitting in front of heat lamps. He bites someone’s arm off. Voltaic is being beaten. Some guy named Black Spider is laying on the floor dying. Some dude Savant ends up spilling the beans about their mission and thinks he will be safe. He’s not. He gets killed. The team has guns held to their head, with Deathstroke telling them they’re holding the gun at the wrong place, and it turns out…surprise! It was a test.

They are being held by their boss and it turns out that out of 37 candidates they are the six that made it. This was a great issue with story and art by Adam Glass and Federico Dallocchio. The different look of Harley Quinn and Deathstroke was cool and I’m not a fan of King Shark but I am now after that one shot of him biting that guys arm off and screaming “Meat! Meat! Meat!” I forgot to mention, but during the torture they also managed to explain each characters origin and how they got where they are.