Suicide Squad #8

I think Diablo has the advantage here. Unless Deadshot is planning to take him out with the bullet that passes through Harley's head.

I'm beginning to believe that the editor's don't even read the comic they're supposed to be editing. Last issue ended with a bunch of Squad members still in Gotham Police Headquarters. Deadshot had Harley and the mission was technically over. This issue begins with a few panels on Page One showing the situation each Squad member had been left in. And a tag explaining their location.

Remember that part where I said they were in Gotham Police Headquarters?

I suppose I could blame a number of people working on the book for fucking up their current location. But ultimately this is something Sean Mackiewicz, Rickey Purdin, Pat McCallum, and Rachel Gluckstern should be responsible. Yeah. Four editors. FOUR. And not one of them doing their fucking job. Did they scan the page and just go, "Yeah, Arkham Asylum is spelled correctly. Don't want another fuck up like how we spelled the prison "Belle Reeve" instead of "Belle Reve" last issue. Boy, that was embarrassing!" How do they expect a simpleton like me to follow this comic when they keep putting the Squad in random locations! Fuck you, Rachel Gluckstern especially! I've typed your Goddamned name before!

The Squad meets up in fifteen minutes at the extraction point somehow. There are still 19 pages left to explain how Savant got off the pressure mine and how Deadshot untied himself and how Harley didn't bleed out from he gunshot in her abdomen and how King Shark didn't get Hepatitis C from diving into the Gotham Sewer.

At first I couldn't believe that Amanda had enough favours to keep a whole police station from blabbing about Harley and Deadshot and the Dead Girl in Green but then I realized it was a Gotham Police Station. Money talks! And keeps people from talking too!

Back at Belle Reve, an unconscious Harley is threatened by Amanda Waller. She just can't go three panels without threatening someone's life. I think it's from her Community College days where she took Strong Black Women 101. I personally thought it was more convincing when she looked like Shirley Hemphill instead of Angela Bassett.

I could buy Shirley making Batman back down. It always scared me a little bit when Raj and the gang would step into her restaurant. Sort of like when the Marshall's would enter the Sleestak cave in Land of the Lost.

Harley is injected with the Lazarus Agent by their team doctor, Visyak. She was the one brainwashed by Basilisk and rescued (or kidnapped?) by the Squad a few issues ago. Whatever the Lazarus crap was brings Harley back to consciousness. It's hard to know if I should remember what or where the Lazarus Junk came from since they're using such a cliche name for something that brings you back to life. Is that what this stuff just did? Was she clinically brain dead lying on the table until injected with that stuff? I don't know! I can't remember everything. I thought the Lazarus Virus was the thing that made everyone into robot zombies. Perhaps it was and this was Batch 17 of the Lazarus Virus which Amanda has had Dr. Visyak working to make into a serum that can bring people back from near death. Or death even!

I should stop speculating on minor details. I'll never finish reading this stupid comic book that even the stupid editors don't bother reading.

In another part of the prison, Diablo is having his prison tattoos put back on. When he uses his powers, his tattoos fade. But I thought they just came back naturally over time. I doubt he has access to any special chemicals so it's probably just something inside of him that creates the power and the tattoos can be any piece of shit design with crummy prison made ink.

Amanda checks up on the rest of the team. King Shark feels he should be done but Amanda won't cut him loose. She keeps him dehydrated and under heat lamps. She also knows he ate Yo Yo. Black Spider is back up on his feet and good as new. It sounds like Dr. Visyak injected him with the Lazarus Serum as well. Light is in shock and creating images of her dead sister. Deadshot is at target practice scoring 30 out of 120. He's rattled for some reason but Amanda is still counting on him to be team leader. And throughout all of this, the reader keeps seeing flashbacks across the past year from the point of view of some unknown assassin being trained by Basilisk to kill Amanda Waller.

Amanda actually lets Savant walk having done his time. So she does keep up her end of the deal sometimes. I guess it's not so much about the amount of missions she promises as it is the amount of reform she sees in the prisoner. Savant was a good boy that towed the line and followed orders. So he's actually released even though Amanda would like to keep him on as leader. But he earns his name and declines.

Once all the catch up is caught up, the team is ready to go on its next mission. It looks like Deadshot, Light, King Shark, Diablo, and Black Spider are the team.

Do they have to kill him just the one time or make sure he never Resurrects again?

Yes, they're going after Resurrection Man. I think this mission will either fail or Amanda Waller has a hidden agenda. Perhaps she just wants some of Mitch's blood to test for her Lazarus formula and make it so it can actually bring people all the way back from the dead. Then she can keep her Squad together forever!

More flashbacks about the assassin and how the assassin needed to be in place before the first mission. I guess I should throw out my guess for who it is: Dr. Visyak. Although Deadshot is a good guess for the "last person you'd suspect" shocker ending twist.

I guess I should have finished reading this page before making my guess! High profile crime? It has to be Deadshot.

The assassin isn't revealed at the end of this issue. It shows each of the still living members approached for the first mission and accepting. Of these five, it would seem only Deadshot and Black Spider could be the assassin. And I think Black Spider isn't a criminal. Although he could have done some vigilante thing that got him put in prison. He's probably more of the guy the reader wouldn't expect than Deadshot because he's supposed to be a good guy. I guess we'll find out who it is when they fail to kill Amanda Waller!

Suicide Squad Issue #8 Rating: No change in the ranking. I really liked the pacing of this issue and they finally had some down time instead of being thrown instantly into a mission like they'd been doing. But I'm punishing this comic because the editors pissed me off one too many times for not doing their job.