The read through continues with ‘The Nightshade Odyssey’ which contained “Suicide Squad” #9-16, “Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad” #1, part of “Secret Origins” #28 and “Justice League International” #13. These are available to read with a DC Universe Infinite Subscription.
After spending much of the first year of “Suicide Squad” publication exploring the limits of what the comic could be, writer John Ostrander and the rest of the creative team find themselves in a very different position going into year two. ‘The Nightshade Odyssey’ begins with the “Suicide Squad” with a tie-in to the ‘Millennium’ event, Week 4. * It is a dramatic and important issue of “Squad,” however as part of this collection the reader is dropped into the middle of things. It sets the table for what is an overall crossover heavy collection of tales of Task Force X. Soon after there is “Doom Patrol/Suicide Squad” special which takes place concurrently to “Squad” #11. The Task Force gets new writers for the first time when they appear in the Giffen-DeMatteis “Justice League International,” before that two-part story concludes in “Squad” #13. Moments of collision aren’t just limited to them technically interacting with another book, guest stars like Batman, Speedy, and Shade the Changing Man, appear frequently in this collection.
Outside of the ‘Millennium’ tie-in, all these crossovers work well within this collection as a contained unit. They help to fill this collection with an anxious sense of energy that is the opposite of the previous collection. The first 8 issues of “Squad” were if not calm and cool, orderly, and self-assured. As the reader works through this book that sense of order begins to dissipate under the stress of ethical concerns and the desire to keep Task Force X secret. That anxious energy is developed through a frenetic narrative pace. “Suicide Squad” just doesn’t read like contemporary comics as Ostrander is clearly writing the issue as part of an episodic and serialized narrative. There are arcs in this collection ‘The Night Shade Odyssey’ and ‘Blood and Snow’ but they are both 2-3 issues long. The crossover with JLI is setup “Squad” #10 and the plot turns into tying off loose ends from the mission to Moscow in the last collection. The Duchess showing up is a thread from issue #3. Ostrander’s structure to this series plays a medium length game where threads recur a few months later. It helps to give everything a strong episodic feel, but still have a serialized pull. Instead of going for a 6-issue arc, Ostrander hits a motif be it the ethics of Government sanctioned wet works in comparison to costumed vigilantes or their increased activity within the DCU inevitably risking their discovery. That latter point works better when you have three different moments of convergence right after each other than one long one.
Despite being thrown into the middle of it and featuring some of the crossover narrative tricks I loathe, “Squad” #9 works. At two separate points within pages of one another editor Bob tells the reader to stop and go read either “Specter” or “Detective Comics” #582, this is before you’ve read that week’s issue of “Millennium” as instructed on the cover. Those kinds of instruction are anathema to how I read comics and yet Ostrander makes it work. He keeps this issue straightforward, beginning en media res Task Force X is charged with delivering a bomb to the center of the Manhunter temple before sundown, or be blown away. The appearance of Captain Atom further underscores the suicidal danger of this particular mission and strategic withholding of information that goes on to obtain optimum performance. The emotional crux of the issue is built around the long simmering triangle-thing between Flag-Karin Grace-Mark Shaw. That emotional context had been developed from the very frist issue of “Squad” in “Secret Origins” and it comes to a head with the revelation of Karin’s betrayal and suicidal change of heart. As a reader I did not expect that to happen in this issue, but it did which is why Karin telling Shaw to give Flag one last message of “carry on … for me” landed. The reader is surprised and must process these dire consequences in the heat of the moment and Ostrander scripting it with a call back to “Secret Origins” plays to the reader who has stuck with them since the beginning. At the same time there is enough relationship melodrama that the basics get across to a reader who might just be checking in for the crossover.
Continued belowThe special featuring the Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad is notable for the fact that finally the title lives up to the name. Everyone but Flag dies, not just one of them as in the initial advertising, in a stupid mission they shouldn’t have been on in the first place. That issue sets up the continued threat that Task Force X might be used for personal or political gain. This collection ends with Waller being blackmailed to work on a Senator’s reelection campaign or else the group will be exposed. Personal gain and abuse of the nebulous cover afforded to them by the Federal Government, however, runs through this entire issue. Vixen joins the Squad in ‘Blood & Snow’ so that she can kill a drug lord. Eve Eden calls in her favor for leading that revenge mission for a personal mission of her own, saving her brother from Incubus. It is also revealed that their first domestic mission in “Squad” #4 taking care of William Hell was not actually approved. In issue #11 justifies their wetwork as “Justice” if not entirely legal to Nightshade. That arbitrary, and authoritarian, view of justice evaporates under the idea that it is the U.S. Government sanctions these actions. It reveals the Squad to be ethically no better than the extrajudicial work the heroes or villains that make up their ranks did previously. Ostrander in this batch of issues shows how fraught the nature of superhero teams like the Justice League or Avengers are, albeit not in the sustained way Warren Ellis did in “Stormwatch”and “The Authority.”
The ethically dubious nature of the Squad is called into stark contrast when they exist the hands of Ostrander and McDonell and are shaped by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis in “Justice League International” #13. By and large the issue is rightly more of a JLI than a Suicide Squad story, that deals with Batman’s plans to get Nemesis out of Russia before Rick Flag goes off halfcocked and does it himself. Artistically the book is a clear departure with colorist Gene D’Angelo punching in vibrant flats to contrast Al Gordon’s heavy inks. As one could expect the book is quiet funny with a couple of solid Squad based moments of humor like Waller calling Flag or the bureaucracy game of telephone that puts the JLI on a collison course with Task Force X.
Everything hangs together well, which is why the following “Squad” it feels like McDonnell and Bob Lewis try to copy that JLI “bwahahaha” style and doesn’t work. Their issue plays on the common trop of good guys automatically fighting each other on first site. As action with moments of physical humor there are successes in particular Captain Boomerange vs Guy Gardner. Most everyone is rendered appropriately juvenile, Batman and Flag in particular. But then it turns out Nightshade and Captain Atom are in a relationship, and they have this side conversation about how awkward it is and play fight-flirt. Technically speaking it works, it just feels tonally dissonant with “Suicide Squad.” Bronze Tiger tricking Boomerang into drinking himself into a stupor in the next issue is more “Squad” brand of manipulative black humor.
The anxiety that is running through this book comes to ahead with ‘The Night Shade Odyssey’ as Eve calls in her favor. She wants to use the Squad to rescue her brother from the Incubus in the Land of the Nightshades. Per usual, this mission does not go as planned. Once in the new realm it is revealed that brother Larry after a kiss from Aunt Beah is the new physical embodiment of the Incubus and ruler of this realm. Even by
In this mystical realm Lucke McDonnell’s art gestures towards the surreal but never fully sacrifices readability. Once they’re in Nightshade, we get a trio of pages 3-4 panel pages all centered around a central large image that approaches horror. It is worth noting that despite a high density of lines, McDonnell dosen’t crosshatch with them. Panel density returns to a more normal level in the following pages, but with a willingness to overlap or plainly drop background. The art team makes the pages look different more contained pages in “Squad” #2, but there is still a fundamental rule of thirds the everything is built on. Inccubus’ villain monologue-exposition dump looks something approaching Sam Keith art, but it never puts style above readability.
Continued belowPerhaps style could’ve come more to the forefront to at least distract from a convoluted plot that revolves around twincest. Inncubus plans to take out the Enchantress, who is really his spiritual sister Succubus, and implant her within Eve’s body via a kiss so that they may than make the beast with two backs and resurrect Azmodeus. There’s a narrative expedience that Ostrander plots with that I rather enjoy, see Vixen’s introduction in “Squad” #11 for a great example. How all of this is handled in ‘The Nightshade Odyssey’ isn’t a great example. Twincest is a bit much. and it’s all wrapped up in a matter of pages that feels kind of like he ran out of room.
‘The Nightshade Odyssey’ exposes the ethical shortcomings of the Suicide Squad bare over the course of 11 issues. It’s an interesting note to spend nearly a year’s worth of publishing on considering there’s another three to go in Ostrander’s run on the book. It pushes the series to the edge and dares itself to walk along it.
*You can listen to the DC3cast discuss the absurdity of the ‘Millennium’ event here
Status Report
- New Members: Vixen, Duchess (who is really an amnesiac Lashina), Captain Cold, and temp member Speedy
- KIA: Karin Grace, Slipknot, Psi, Mr. 104, Thinker, Weasel
- Mark Shaw leaves the team to go private
