Suicide Squad 2021 Annual

Suicide Squad 2021 Annual

DC Comics 2021

Written by Robbie Thompson

Illustrated by Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira & Dexter Soy

Coloured by Chris Sotomayor

Lettered by Wes Abbott

Everyone questioned how the teen calling himself Conner Kent came to be recruited into the Suicide Squad by Amanda Waller. But as Superboy sneaks into the bowels of a top-secret Task Force X black site, what he finds changes all he thinks he knows about himself and his history. This oversize annual alters everything for the only hero on the Squad and makes him question what to do next, now that he knows the truth behind his origin.

Since it was revealed that we was a member of the Suicide Squad we’ve all wanted to know how Waller managed to blackmail Superboy to be on the team. This is the answer to that and it raises even more questions than it provides answers. We do see that Waller isn’t herself and it makes me wonder what Earth exactly this Amanda Waller is from and with her fixation on saving that Earth could she actually hail from there instead of this one? Could she have conceivably subdued her counterpart and taken her place in order to put together a team of her choosing to take them down and gain control of that Earth. I mean it is diabolical enough to have been done and being done I’ll say that much for sure and it does explain the aggression in her personality.

With a new outlook and mindset I am really enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does such a magnificent job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we’re drawn deeper into the intrigue behind everything.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen we can marvel at how well that this is being written. The layers really open up these different avenues to be explored, some of which are, others are not, but they all add this really great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

I really like the interiors here. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and while there are several artists involved the entire book looks and feels like a single creative team did it all and that’s pretty darn impressive. Backgrounds are hit or miss here and I would like to see a lot more hits than misses moving forward, where they are, lends itself to closing in the spaces and that is a missed opportunity. Still with the composition within the panels we get some great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some remarkable eyes for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work do a magnificent job showing us a great eye for how colour works.

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There are a lot of great things happening within this issue that are setting up what is to come beautifully. Between Flagg, Superboy and Waller herself we’ve got plenty of avenues to explore while still seeing what current missions they are taking on and I wanna learn why Black Canary is on this team right now as well. Who else looks like that has a sonic cry? With some stellar writing and strong characterisation that is all wrapped up in these sensationally rendered interiors it looks like nothing is what it seems with this team.