The read through continues with ‘The Dragon’s Hoard which contained “Suicide Squad” issues #50-58. These are available to read with a DC Universe Infinite Subscription.
The penultimate collection of Ostrander-Yale “Suicide Squad” reads like a bit of a throwback. The first three issues are a series of one shot that loosely connect and pay off a series of oblique references or narrative threads you likely wouldn’t have noticed. The next batch of issues is the titular ‘Dragon’s Hoard’ arc wherein the Squad are in a race against time to secure a weapons cache from the former Soviet Union and Yakuza! With the final issue being an overall fine, if somewhat impenetrable, tie-in to ‘War of the Gods’ crossover.
Anniversary issues are a tricky project. The idea of many Big Two books reaching 50 issues (Or half an “Azrael”) these days seems unlikely, the only recent ones that come to mind are Tom King “Batman” and “Immortal Hulk”. These are the sorts of issues that would allow for a big splashy moment of transition. Despite a willingness to continually modify and reexamine the ethical and moral framework of the “Suicide Squad,” Kim Yale, John Ostrander, and Geoff Isherwood do not use ‘Debt of Honor’ to once again rejigger the Squad or tease future developments. Instead, the creative team use this fiftieth issue anniversary, and the double size format, to tell a story that began all the way back in the pages of “Secret Origins” #14 (originally published 1987) where John Ostrander tied his new Squad to the original Squad of the Silver Age.
Originally published February 1991, issue #50 came out roughly 3 years and 9 months since “Secret Origins” #14. The thriving back catalog collections market for a series like this didn’t really exist in that way in 1991. There was no way to guarantee that readers who picked up #50 had read the previous 49 issues, much less “Secret Origins,” and so the writing team craft a story that takes into account what Ostrander had previously shown in “Secret Origins” but retell it from a different point of view to create an anniversary issue that is clearly steeped in the history of the Squad without being an impenetrable mess and more importantly one that is emotionally accessible to new readers. “Suicide Squad” is a long running series by this point and the writing team use that to their advantage by situating the emotional core of it in that age. ‘Debt of Honor’ begins about halfway through “Secret Origins” #14 as Rick Flag, Karin Grace, and the original Suicide Squad flee the Chinese army and come into contact with the local Yeti. With no better option Jeff Bright and Hugh Evans stay behind to hold the Yeti off as Karin and Flag make their escape over a bridge on thin ice. Unlike Waller’s omniscient and faux-neutral positioning in “Secret Origins” this retelling is centered on Jeff. Readers who’d started with “Secret Origins” would notice the lack of a nostalgic call to “carry on” is missing from Jeff and Hugh’s sacrifice. This issue has four credited artists, including Luke McDonnell, and these pages do not attempt to emulate a Silver Age comic the way Luke McDonnel in the original comic. The art team general go for a grittier inking with an emphasis on texture against the plainness of snow. As Flag and Karin go over the bridge the readers follow Jeff, Hugh, and the Yeti over the cliff where it’s discovered that not all of them died in the fall. Ostrander and Yale are excellent writers, but they use that trope a bit too often in this series, despite its fitting pulpy melodramatic quality.
Notably in this sequence we see Hugh go splat, or, well, “Whud!” onto the one rock. The artists and colorist Tom McCraw present a series of surprisingly gory and grisly images. The crimson red seeping out of Hugh’s corpse stands out on a page that’s dominated by cool blue and the oddly chosen purple for sky. The fall was only the start as the surviving Jeff discovers that Yeti smelled better on the outside, as crimson red again dominates the page and person as well as some light pink for intestine.
Continued belowSoon after he is captured by the Chinese his fingers, toes, lips, and noes amputated due to frost bite. He is soon passed around a series of typical American Cold War adversaries to do mad science, including the creation some of Jihad’s members. It was Jeff who pushed for the attack on New York. Throughout all the tumult he survives in increasingly, incredibly, gruesome states, eventually ending up as Koshchei the Deathless. As Koshchei he is able to mechanically resurrect the dead and fashion his own “Death Squad” – a statement bolded for emphasis by Todd Klein – for his revenge.
By telling the story of Jeff Bright Ostrander and Yale are able to once again tell the history of the Squad, befitting the anniversary nature, that is at the same its own story that is accessible to the new reader. It also continues the project of meditating on the costs of the Suicide Squad. His life is destroyed by it. His Death Squad are all former members or advisories he has necromantically resuscitated. The titular Squad isn’t even the focus of the issue, they’re always reacting forced into a rescue operation.
In his zombie like form, Koshchei offers an interesting tension to the reader. He lacks the normal attributes we would use to read body language; without that tell the reader must choose to believe him (or not). The art team do not shy away from his horrifying state and instead on page 35-36 produce a pair of close-up panels that emphasize his undeadness ironically to activate within the reader the sense that he is becoming more living. The coloring on the book is serviceable overall but the work Tom McCraw did on using various turquoises to shade the grey shape of his body is some of the best stuff in this series thus far.
The book looks like it had four different artists on it as the style of inking clearly changes form page to page in spots. This isn’t entirely bad, but it is a point of friction. The final image of ‘Debt of Honor’ the remaining Squad all splayed out on the floor of Belle Reve floor in various states of brokenness is a strong image to end the fiftieth issue on. It recognizes the physical and emotional toll of this activity in a way no number of melodramatic statements to “carry on” ever did.
Floyd Lawton aka Deadshot is probably next to Captain Boomerang in terms of characters the creative team did the most with and made into something more. Deadshot even got his own miniseries from the “Squad” creative team in 1988. And yet over the past 50 issues, Floyd hasn’t really been a central figure. He has mostly been the strong supporting character. That changes in #51 as Floyd goes off to reclaim the costume Boomerang lost at the baggage claim in the previous collection, an off-hand plot point that I didn’t think much of at the time. That costume has been found by the baggage handler Marc Pilar in Marseille, France who subsequently began impersonating the deadly marksman. Ostrander and Yale give a cliff notes version of what they did in that previously mentioned series as Floyd’s friend Henri Ducard psychoanalyzes him after Floyd fails to take a clean shot at the Deadshot impersonator, “Lawton would be shooting himself. He would be killing the part of himself with which he most identifies. A death wish is one thing, but this would be killing his soul.”
Lawton’s showdown with himself makes for a strong action sequence. Art this issue is credited to Luke McDonnell on breakdown with Geoff Isherwood doing the finishes. The showdown between dead shots emphasizes the duality Lawton feels between himself and the physical representation of his alter ego, while at the same time creating a clear sense of spatial relations. The duality between the characters makes for strong thematically rich art, but the spatial relations turn it into a compelling thriller. Their showdown is an exercise in Hitchcockian suspense as the reader can see all but isn’t sure when or if the bomb will go off.
In the end Lawton does kill himself, leaving the suit behind to become something else. Unlike the previous issue the bullet hole in faux-Shot’s head is deemphasized and inking pure black ink not crimson.
Continued belowBack during ‘Apokolips Now’ I mentioned the utterly random aside of the two bickering spirits of men called Dr. Light in hell arguing before the Devil. You’d think after fifty plus issues I’d realize Ostrander doesn’t do “random” asides and will likely pay whatever that is off … eventually. That payoff comes in #52 ‘The Death and Life and Death and Life and Death and Life of Dr. Light’ with guest artists penciler Jim Fern and inker Bob Campanella. Their art looks nothing like Luke McDonnell or Geoff Isherwood, which is good because this is an issue unlike any other “Suicide Squad.” Amanda Waller is called back to Belle Reve after Dr. Arthur Light reappears live and well on Earth. Arthur than regals Waller about his trials and tribulations under the thumb of a devil name Mister Biff A. Sopholes.
Fern and Campanella’s art fit the Looney Tunes comedy of this issue as each Dr. Light is reborn and dies soon after. It’s Ostrander and Yale’s black comedy pushed to the extreme in a lot of ways, no more understated one liners or gags. Just an entire two pages dedicated to comically showing a man suffocate to death in his own coffin. Or Jaconb Finaly being beaten to death by a family of Christians in a hilarious homage to the death of the Wayne’s. Every page is a madcap of some form or another. Even Biff gets a page dedicated to the sense of ennui he feels in Hell.
It’s the kind of issue I’d never expect out of “Suicide Squad” and yet the bones of how this series operates is clearly there. How the art team cartoons Amanda Waller is rough in spots that don’t follow the model sheet well at all. They draw her closer to the future Todd McFarlane creation Sam Burke than Amanda Waller. It’s awkward in ways I don’t think would’ve registered to most readers at the time.
The long mission of this collection ‘The Dragon’s Hoard’ is a solid mission but less interesting compared to these three issues. There is a certain Grell “Green Arrow” quality to the setting and some of Isherwood’s art but nothing worth really considering.
Next time we go on the Squad’s ‘Final Mission’ … until Ostrander returned for a mini, and a “Blackest Night” tie-in, and all those animated and live action adaptations.
