“New Suicide Squad” is one of the properties that DC slightly tweaked over the summer: ending the prior run, tweaking the lineup, and bringing on Sean Ryan to tell new stories with the team. Sean, while at the DC Creative Summit in Burbank, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the series, followed up with an exclusive preview of #7.
Suicide Squad has probably never had more cultural cache than it does right now – especially with the team’s appearances in Arrow, and the upcoming feature film. How does the idea of having more eyes than normal on the book impact the type of stories you’re trying to tell?
Sean Ryan: I think the biggest influence these many eyes on the book makes is that it’s making me want to tell big stories that anyone who is new to the DC Universe can jump into. That’s not always easy with character continuities and stuff like that. But what I want to make sure I do is tell stories that someone who is suddenly interested in Suicide Squad can just pick up and read. While it’s fun to tell stories that delve into the wild world of the DCU, I don’t want to the stories to get bogged down in the minutiae, so the person reading it isn’t scratching their heads confused because they never read “Outsiders” #45 from 1987.
The team has had a pretty fun lineup, especially with the Reverse Flash joining up. Is it tough to balance all the different characters and their personalities and skillsets, or do you enjoy trying to craft a story that requires both super speed and a harpoon gun?
SR: You’ve really nailed one of the more difficult aspects of the book: balancing out the skill sets. I like keeping the power levels somewhat low on the team. Like you said, having a mission where someone with a harpoon gun and super speed can both be useful is tricky. The fun part is balancing the personalities. The characters in “New Suicide Squad” are great to bounce off each other because their personalities are so strong, and for the most part, they don’t like each other. Other teams, sure there will be drama, but the Justice League basically like each other. With Suicide Squad, these people are either meeting for the first time, or flat out hate the other person. So working with those dynamics, while making them work as a team is the really fun challenge of the book.
The antihero is a popular contrivance nowadays, and there are a ton of books on the shelves that features these types of characters: what makes “New Suicide Squad” different than other attempts at a similar tone?
SR: Hmm…Well, I’m not sure what makes us totally different from those books. But what I’m trying to do with this book is to really make you care about these characters and see them as human beings. I’ve found that it’s easy to fall into the trap of writing characters like this as one dimensional “bad ass mean people.” And while they are bad guys who do bad ass things, what I want to make sure comes across is that they are human beings. Show that they aren’t just their power or one skillset. For example, in the book, Deadshot is badly injured and he’s fighting back to get back to 100 percent. But it’s tough; to Deadshot, all he really is is a guy that can shoot guns really really well. If that leaves him, what does he have left? What does Deadshot do if he’s just Floyd Lawton? I think a lot of people can relate to that. You’ve got this thing you’re good at, but what happens if you’re no longer able to do that. I think that’s scary. And that’s something that I’ll be trying to figure out as the book goes on.
Rob Hunter has done a lot of work in the more cosmic area of DC, like on “Green Lantern” – what has he brought to the book that has surprised you thus far?
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SR: Rob brings such a crazy energy to the book. The action scenes and he draws in this story arc, especially in issue seven, are bonkers. It’s been awesome.
Is there a character that, given your druthers, you’d like to add to the team?
SR: If I had my druthers…I’d love to add Rick Flagg back into the book. I think he’s a classic Suicide Squad character, and I’ve always liked having this hard ass, relatively straight-laced military guy, running around with the lunatics of this team. He’d be fantastic to have around.
Finally, what are the plans for the book as we head towards ‘Convergence?’
SR: We’ve got two issues left before ‘Convergence’ shows up, which will see the end of the current story arc in China. We introduce a super hero for China in the arc, which I’m excited about. As for the members of our team, they are wrecks. This arc is called ‘Defective’ and the whole things is feeling broken. People are lost, confused, physically destroyed, and no one is really sure where to go from here. This all leads us to our story arc coming out of Convergence where the team travels to the Middle East to take on terrorism.
In addition to our interview, the fine folks at DC Comics have provided us with an exclusive preview of “New Suicide Squad” #7, which comes out on February 11th. The series has been focusing on the newly expanded team – featuring folks like the Reverse Flash – while still focusing on ‘classic’ members like Captain Boomerang and Deadshot.
Written by Sean Ryan
Illustrated by Rob HunterAs Deadshot recovers from serious injuries in Belle Reve prison, Black Manta struggles to keep the team’s current mission in China from imploding. But after they’ve awakened the country’s newest super-weapon, the whole team – including Harley Quinn and Reverse-Flash – won’t all be coming back.
Thanks again to DC, and make sure to pick up the issue on Wednesday!
