DC Comics’ new Suicide Squad series kicks off this week with an incredibly strong creative team behind it and we’re going to ignore the abundantly dark cloud of the recent movie looming over its head. This is comics, people, and we all know the comic is always better. Or that's what I usually tell people. The issue opens with the team being assembled by Amanda Waller and the team are informed that they are going to besent on a mission to retrieve something and they might not be coming back from it… Pretty standard stuff for this bunch of characters and by this point in the issue, I’m already weighing up which one of these guys won’t be missed if they kill ‘em off to try to shock me/the audience… As you can expect, things quickly go to shit for the team before they even get to where they’re going, and it’s fun to read.

The art in this issue from Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair is great, there's no doubt about that. I’m really liking the character designs, too. I like my Killer Croc when he’s lookin’ more monstrous than human, so this design sits really well with me… Everyone on the art team shines on the page, I especially like Alex Sinclair’s color work in this issue. Good job, man.

On the writing side of things, Rob Williams is a great choice for this title. He does his thing in this book. There’s a good balance of funny moments and serious moments chucked in by Williams. One scene in particular sticks out involving Killer Croc, which I won’t spoil for you here. All in all, it’s a good start to a series but I do have a couple of things which have me conflicted about scoring this issue now. I’m happy to see Jim Lee doing art on an ongoing series again but... This first part is too damn short!

When I started reading, I was pretty sad to find the main part of the story ends after only thirteen pages. I understand Jim Lee’s a busy guy running DC, but I was hoping for a full issue of Lee art. That’s my main gripe, but I understand. I just hope the page count doesn’t drop from there. Fingers crossed.

Although I'll never claim I'm a huge fan of The Suicide Squad, I am a big fan of the creative team picked for this series. There just isn't enough of Jim’s art it for me (I might have mentioned that already.) With the first part of the main story finishing on the thirteenth page, I think the pacing of the story has suffered a bit and it's kinda hindered my ability to make a fair judgement on the writing side of things. I'd say Rob Williams does the best with what he has in the thirteen pages but I would've liked to have seen what this first issue would have been like if it was twenty pages long. It feels and reads like the first part should’ve been longer.

After the first part of the story finishes, the remaining seven pages of story are made up by a backup story written by Williams and drawn by Jason Fabok, which focuses on Deadshot. You get some lovely artwork there courtesy of Fabok, really dynamic scenes and it’s a fun little story with a cameo by [SOMEONE YOU LIKE]. So by the time I finished it, I’d gotten over the fact the main story ran shorter than I expected.

Verdict: Though disappoint at first, I’m still going to say buy it. Read it and make up your own mind. Though I see it as a bit of a false start considering the level of talent involved, I'm hoping there's a bit more story in the second issue that’ll takes it up a gear because I really want to follow this book and tell you how great it is later on down the line. Rob Williams does great work. I loved Martian Manhunter. I love his 2000 AD work and I love creator-owned series Unfollow. I know he can tell stories, I just don't think he's had a fair chance to get going yet with this title. It’s definitely a comic I’ll be keeping a close eye on.

[su_box title="Score: 3/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Suicide Squad #1 Writer: Rob Williams Artist: Jim Lee, Scott Williams Colorist: Alex Sinclair Publisher: DC Comics Price: $2.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

[/su_box]

By Chris Tresson