Justice League vs. Suicide Squad by Joshua Williamson

Genre: Superhero Comics

Series: Justice League (Rebirth)

Publisher: DC Comics (June 27, 2017)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Length: 312 pages

My Rating: 3 stars

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad is a book which doesn’t seem to really know what it wants to be. Is it about Suicide Squad and the Justice League clashing, or is it really about Amanda Waller’s diabolic schemes? Is Killer Frost the star, or is it Harley? I mean, the book just seems confused about its identity. And so while it isn’t bad really, it isn’t as good as it could/should have been either. A lot of untapped potential is how I’d put it.

The story starts with Killer Frost being brought into Belle Reve prison. We get a look at the Squad and Waller, then get to see our newest member of the team join in the fun.

Meanwhile, the Squad doesn’t know that Batman has finally discovered that Amanda Waller has not been keeping all the baddies locked away in Belle Reve, but has been using a group as Task Force X. So, naturally, Bats goes to the Justice League, tells them what is going on, and gets the group together to put a stop to the Suicide Squad!

What happens next is a good, old-fashioned fight between the Justice League (Who should wipe the floor with the Squad!) and our group of criminals. To give her people more of an incentive to put up a good fight, Waller tells the Squad they will fight to the death or she’ll personally kill them. (Talk about a rousing pep talk.)

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end with this titanic collision of opposing forces. Instead, writer Joshua Williamson transitions to another plot where a third group shows up to . . . TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

The Good: I liked the idea of the Suicide Squad and the Justice League butting heads. Sure, I had to suspend my disbelief that the League had never known about the Squad until now. (I mean, Batman knows everything, right?). And, yeah, I had to try hard to believe that Deadshot, Harley, and the rest of the Squad could go toe-to-toe with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the League, but I didn’t mind doing that, because the fight between the two groups was pretty cool.

The Bad: A few things really.

My first complaint was the story after the Squad and League clashed. I’m not going into it, because of major spoilers, but none of the major plots after the fight were terribly original, exciting, or realistic. I just could not force myself to believe any of it. The story was a real struggle to get through.

Second, I realized how little I care for a number of the characters here. Amanda Waller: hate her. Killer Frost: pretty boring. Boomerang: he throws boomerangs, brother; what is to like?

Third, the art was a bit up and down. Every issue had a different artist, and I did not like the constant changes. Honestly, I’ve always hated artist changes in the middle of a story arc though, so you could label this complaint just a personal pet peeve of mine.

Overall, Justice League vs. Suicide Squad was an okay read. It had some good parts (introductions to the Squad, the buildup to the clash with the League, and the fight itself), but it also had a lot of bad parts (the rest of the story arc really). What is sad is that this could have been a really cool clash between two very different teams. Instead, the SS vs JL fight comes early and ends too quickly, while the story moves past it to several more plots which I remember very little about because they were generic and forgettable.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.