Suicide Squad #5

How many C-List villains are going to die in this riot?

Nine on the first page! I wonder if any of these guys have established names?

The comic begins with Deadshot blowing the brains out of nine prison inmates. He's really thinning the ranks of possible future Squad members! And this is just Deadshot! King Shark is probably biting the heads off another nine members on page two!

Except it's only Yo Yo, Deadshot, and El Diablo currently suppressing the riot. And Deadshot is the only one using lethal force. Harley had her bomb turned off last issue too early and was taken into solitary. King Shark was placed in a holding cell and Waller wants Yo Yo to let him out because they need more muscle. And Black Spider is in the infirmary because he took one of Mad Dog's bullets last issue. Black Spider seems to be enjoying his time in infirmary a little too much.

Who does this guy think he is? Rorschach?

Black Spider kills all of the inmates in Infirmary before he collapses. Either from he pain of his wound or from being dead. It's hard to tell in a comic book unless they put little Xs on the eyes.
Deadshot runs out of ammunition and heads for the Guard Tower while El Diablo buys him some time by trying to talk some sense into the inmates. He really should just create a giant firewall to keep them at bay. But then they all seem crazy enough to just plow through the fire, so unless he's willing to kill them (he's not), he's going to end up dead.

Maybe he's just sleeping.

And then Yo Yo tracks down King Shark.

Maybe he's just sleeping as well!

Lawton finally gets to the gun at the top of the Guard Tower just as the OMAC/Rot Virus kicks in. He lets the inmates throw him from the tower since he figures it's all over anyway. With all of The Wall's players out of it, she prepares to kill the entire facility, including herself, with a nerve agent. But that's just when El Diablo wakes up a little bit pissed off that nobody cares about being redeemed the way he lovey-dove loves it.

El Diablo creates a giant firewall and the inmates that keep pressing forward instead of returning to their cells are turned to ash. Finally willing to kill, he stops the riot cold. And he makes it his mission to redeem Floyd Lawton. Good luck with that.

Lawton wakes up in medical getting cured of the virus. And then Amanda tells him she hasn't forgotten their deal. The deal was for an hour visit with this kid, whoever it is! If I knew at some point in the past, it's gone from my memory.

She's one part Asian, one part Vampire, and one part Shark.

But Amanda cuts the visit short because she's discovered that Harley Quinn is missing. And Harley was most likely the cause of the riot. So she's quickly assembling another Squad led by Floyd to go find Ms. Quinn. And everybody know where a road trip is going to take her! It rhymes with Gotham!

Harley's not going to recognize The Joker when she gets there!

Well, we got a little bit of Squad downtime! If by downtime I mean unconscious time. But Floyd had maybe five minutes with the little girl I don't recognize. And Amanda had a phone call to a loved one when she thought she was going to die putting down the prison riot. The Suicide Squad really needs a bit more of these moments if the reader is going to care about the members and whether or not they live or die. Don't just keep adding shitty villains like Yo Yo who you know are going to die because they're, well, so shitty! Let the members ride for awhile. Let us get to know them. And then surprise us when they take a bullet to the liver.

All in all, it was a good issue. But not great. So it'll remain where it was in the rankings.