Excuse the Mess…
Suicide Squad (volume 4) #24
Forever Evil
Cover Date: December 2013
Released: 9th October 2013
- Writers: Matt Kindt
- Pencilers: Patrick Zircher
- Inker: Patrick Zircher
- Colourists: Jason Keith
- Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
- Editors: Brian Cunningham / Wil Moss / Harvey Richards
There are many books that whilst I’m happy exists I’ve no real desire to follow, in general Suicide Squad is one of them. I’m fine with bickering heroes not getting along but I don’t need villainous heroes actively working against each other. And really I’ve never understood the appeal of Deadshot, I guess that cool tacit hero isn’t really my thing.
And we’re in one of the many, many crossovers of the era, this one being Forever Evil. The what’s, who’s and where’s aren’t really important all you really need to know is that all the Super Villain prisons are burning and villains are running around being… well villains. Don’t ask how this fits in with the story in Worlds’ Finest, there Pee Gee is unknown to superheroes as a whole, except Supergirl and Batman maybe, but not why you think, but the whole story there seems to be happening over months at most, so maybe this is in the small window between that and her going home?
The plot is pretty straight forward. Skinny Waller (no a fan) is trapped in Belle Reve where the Thinker is building something to do something nefarious. Her only ally in the prison, Amanda sensibly hiding out in a secret room, is the insane son of Jim Gordon, whilst among with everyone else Thinker (who looks very much like his movie counterpart, or I guess vice versa) has King Shark (who’s more Hammer Head than his movie counterpart) who wants a piece, literally, of Waller. She can’t leave the prison because in a moment of irony she has an exploding collar around her neck.
All she knows is that they’re after a secret superweapon in the Rocky Mountains, so she calls in a favour of Deadshot and a strangely quiet Harley Quinn. They go get Captain Boomerang and head out for this mission.
Meanwhile a team of heroes are gathering at said Rocky Mountain base, we see the real Waller interacting with the Suicide Squad so some shenanigans are at work! We have totally radical snowboarder Warrant, not I’ve not heard of him either, cool shade’s Steel, the Unknow Soldier and our reason for being here Power Girl! We don’t see how the last two are recruited, but we do know from the other two that they were recruited by our fake Waller.
Being the powerhouse she is Pee Gee makes short of the guards whilst the more street level heroes make there way to the mysterious weapon. We quickly find out that it’s OMAC, with the coolest mohawk I’ve even seen on him, and that the Suicide Squad have already recovered him. We have two “hero” teams so we end the issue with them about to fight!
I’ve got to respect a tie in book that, more or less, doesn’t need you to know the ins and out of the main story. I’ve never read any of Forever Evil and I still managed to follow what was going on, really I’m probably better off not knowing all the details!
And it sounds like faint praise but I didn’t hate this book, apart from King Shark (who’s a little chompy) no one is really bad in there actions so it’s two hero teams going against each other. Pee Gee doesn’t get to say or do much, but she seems in character, really with so many characters being juggled no one really gets much to do beside come in say something vaguely cool and then get on with the plot. Still it’s enough for me to be interested in what’s going to happen next, and sometimes thats enough!