While far from perfect, this issue of Suicide Squad offers an average but illogical conclusion to the arc.
While Amanda Waller was outside of Belle Reve Penitentiary, a ghost attacked the building. This ghost was a former Suicide Squad member Hack, who has returned from the grave to find a killer. When the rest of the Squad returned from a mission, Hack ambushes them. She beats them all and holds them hostage, demanding Waller point to the killer. Amanda, being the cold-hearted tactical monster she’s always been, blows up Hack and the Squad’s server to which they were connected. Can Task Force X recover after all of this?
**Some Spoilers Below**
Story:
Despite blowing up the servers, Hack is still alive and drags the Squad into her digital plane. While there, she begins questioning the members and attempt at deducing the culprit. In the real world, Amanda shows up with the Black Ops forces to retake Belle Reve. She expresses doubt in taking it back, due to the amount of damage Hack had done. Knowing this will be the end of Task Force X, she allows Rick Flag to bring in the team’s replacement, the government issued metahuman, “The Wall.”
This is not a fantastic issue, but it’ll do. There was a strange amount of tension within the digital space, despite the readers knowing the culprit. It pulls you in and is genuinely interesting, but then you remember how we got to this point over the span of three issues, it begins to unravel. The lack of logical thinking on the characters parts is the downfall of this arc and it’s still shown here. The only other positive is that it is able to set up the next arc and the status quo of the Suicide Squad well.
Art:
Like last issue, the art of this story is fantastic. Jose Luis masterfully pencils this issue. The best of it is, once again, whenever Hack is using her powers. The digital design of their use looks amazing and makes me wish she was still a regular member. Adriano Lucas continues to impress with his color work, especially with The Wall. It’s not hard to make a hero look patriotic, but Lucas’ colors with Luis’ illustrations make a true red, white, and blue American hero. The art tries hard to save the illogical story and truth be told, it almost did. Almost.
Conclusion:
This story could have been a standout part of this creative run, but instead remains an illogical blur. There are some distinct points in the story, but the flaws of the whole arc are still apparent. The fantastic art does its best to salvage the story, but in the end, there’s just not enough to justify the price. Either wait for this to go on sale or when the story is in a collected edition.
