Suicide Squad Discipline and Punish Review

Suicide Squad Discipline and Punish Review By Deffinition

Suicide Squad Discipline And Punish has a lot riding on it’s shoulders. The first two entries into the New 52 were phenomenal ways to introduce the team, however, Volume 3: Death Is For Suckers felt like it was just going through the motions.

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Ending on Deadshot being shot it seemed to be stuck, rehashing the same cliffhangers and twists from the earlier stories. Discipline and Punish can either break the mould and reaffirm Task Force X as one of the best books in the New 52 or simply follow the formula and lose the unorthodox aesthetic that the team are famous for.

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I’m eager to see which one it will be.

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So let’s dive in… to Suicide Squad: Discipline And Punish.

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A Black Mirror

The books opens up amidst the after effects of Death Is For Suckers. It presents a psychological look at the Squad, with Amanda Waller using fear to control the teams. She brings a Joker imposter in to torture Harley, torments King Shark with the possibility of a normal life and let’s Deadshot know that even in death he cant escape. It’s a terrifying insight into Amanda Waller’s psyche and this could be the most sadistic we’ve seen her thus far.

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The stakes ramp up immediately when we see that she has employed James Gordon Junior, the villain from Black Mirror, to be her council and in doing so, inadvertently allowed the psychopath to fall in love with her.

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During an escape attempt, Harley ransacks the prison, holding many hostage, including Waller and it really feels like the group are finally ready to break from her grasp.

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I really found this opening far more interesting that some of the prior entries due to its return to drama and tension. Action scenes in comics can often be hit or miss. If written with no tension they bore me due to their relentless violence and lack character development. I’m happy to say that this introduction didn’t suffer from any of that at all, it was a gleaming example of how a comic should be written.. However, it quickly lost this pull on me.

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Viva Las Vegas

After dealing with the Harley situation the Squad are dispatched on a mission to Las Vegas, where they face their first real test of this book. Juxtaposing the dramatic intrigue of the opening the following chapters really lacked that sense of flair. Instead they focused on the dull action that I previously mentioned finding tiresome. We get a globe trotting Task Force X that take down giant monsters and murderous dictators but there was a lack of the distinctive personality that make readers love the Suicide Squad during these campaigns.

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As of late I think the creative team believe that the fans love the group for their wild antics during missions but I disagree. I fell in love with the team because, whether they like it or not, they are heroes. They really lack that duplicity in this section of the book and due to this it becomes bland and banal.

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No More Suicide Squad

Tying in with Forever Evil, the Suicide Squad are now disbanded. I found this to be slightly disjointed as the book never really mentions the Injustice Gang or the reason that it has changed plot lines mid arc. This makes it really hard for casual readers to be fully aware of what’s going on.

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However those in the know are treat to introspective origin stories of Harley Quinn and Deadshot. These tales come full circle and are well composed and show the fracture psyche of both team mates before they became involved in crime.

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They do feel like filler though.

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Deadshot even comments that without the Squad the members are now like bullets without a gun, aimless. That’s sort of the feeling I had of the Climax thematically. It was aimless in direction and didn’t really do much to add to the quality of this book.

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The Verdict

During the New 52 Forever Evil arc several books suffered from pacing issues due to their necessity to tie in with that storyline. This book is a prime example of that. Often feeling directionless it pales in comparison to the books that preceded it. It’s a shame as there are several points of interest set up here, none really live up to their full potential though and it’s hard to find merit in the book due to the feeling of disappointment I have upon finishing it.

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I can only recommend Discipline And Punishment to the most engrossed fan.

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That’s why it gets a…

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