Some thoughts about New Suicide Squad #1

The Suicide Squad has some of the world's greatest assassins now, but is that enough to make the team better?

Amanda Waller has to follow the orders of higher roles for the first time in a while, despite that might prefer not to. However, no matter what's her opinion about the current situation of her team or  Belle Reve, she will have to work alonside Vic Sage to try to make this new group be effective or at least make it survive enough.

This is the beginning of the new volume handled by Sean Ryan. It's worth mentioning a bit of backstory here, Ryan has worked as an editor for several DC books in the past including one that most people considered the sequel of John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, Gail Simone's Secret Six. Ryan has also mentioned that he's a fan of Ostrander's series and that he has followed the history of the team for a while so his knowledge about the group is something that one could appreciate but is that enough to write a good story?

Well, I would say so since it's a nice beginning, not particularly impressive but decent nonetheless.

Let's start with the obvious, is there enough "new" to be called "New Suicide Squad"? The introduction of Deathstroke, Black Manta and Joker's Daughter certainly brings a level of power and popularity to the team that was lacking in previous incarnations despite that some of the roles might be repeated due to the previous members Deadshot and Harley Quinn, and it's a great thing that Ryan goes a little meta here and acknowledges their presence in the group as a bit redundant, but he gives enough reasons to them to be on it.

The new status quo of Task Force X and Belle Reve is also revealed and is not in Waller's position to make the orders anymore, that's why she will have to work with Vic Sage to make the new plan work (and if you don't know who Vic Sage is, he's The Question, that most likely will be an interesting plot-point in the future). The story moves at a good pace and there's enough content to satisfy the reader, some of the dialogue was a little blunt but it doesn't ruin the story.

Jeremy Roberts' artwork looks much better than what I initially thought. He's obviously from the Jim Lee's school of art, their styles are pretty similar and while Roberts' work might look a little rougher, his pencils still hold enough power to make them worthy.

This is a solid starting point for the series definitely but I hope they offer more in the following installment.