Business as usual for Task Force X.
If there's any good to come out of DC's Suicide Squad movie, hopefully it'll draw more eyeballs to the work of John Ostrander. No writer has more profoundly shaped this franchise over the years. And with the anti-heroes and outright villains of Task Force X enjoying a bigger spotlight than ever, it's only proper that DC commission a new Suicide Squad comic from Ostrander. Suicide Squad: War Crimes Special #1 hardly reinvents the wheel, but ti does show Ostrander working his familiar magic with this team.
While the roster in this issue is fairly contemporary - Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, El Diablo and the obligatory throwaway villain - the tone is vintage Suicide Squad. Ostrander gives this issue a heavy political slant as the team is charged with rescuing a former US Secretary of Defense before he's put on trial for war crimes. There should always be a political slant to this franchise. The Squad aren't simply the anti-Justice League, they're the group of sorry saps forced to deal with politically thorny problems the US can't officially involve itself in. This issue speaks to that premise.
Again, Ostrander doesn't do anything dramatically new or different in this issue. The plot twists are easy to spot, and this is hardly the largest-scale conflict the team has ever grappled with. But Ostrander delivers a tightly paced, exciting script that captures so much of what made his work enjoyable in the first place. The dialogue is sharp. The character interaction is hilarious to read. Ostrander has a real knack for crafting comics that are intelligent while still embracing the larger-than-life qualities of the DCU, and this book is no exception.
Unfortunately, this is one of the cases where the script and art don't quite mesh. Gus Vazquez and Carlos Rodriguez give the issue a dynamic, energetic quality, but their collective style is a little too exaggerated for the franchise. Especially when Gabe Eltaeb's colors are factored in, the book becomes too bright and cheery for its own good. The end result is certainly still readable, and the action scenes pack a solid punch, but it's a shame there's not a little more grime and darkness in these pages.
The Verdict
This issue proves that Ostrander hasn't lost his touch with Suicide Squad. If anything, it argues that Ostrander should be playing a more active role at DC these days. Fans of the classic Suicide Squad will feel right at home with this new adventure, even if the art doesn't quite gel with the tone of the story.
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