Review: Pure Insanity (New Suicide Squad #1) by Sean Ryan

Pure Insanity by Sean Ryan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harley is still cool in this, so that’s a plus.
But Pure Insanity is a pretty good description of the plot. Lots of things go
BOOM!,
lots on infighting, and lots of team members come and go without much fanfare.

Deadshot, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Joker’s Daughter, and Manta make up the first round of teammates, but it doesn’t last very long. Deathstroke (it’s apparently mandated that he worms his way into every title possible) quickly leaves the team because of {insert spoilery reasons}.
Joker’s Daughter is another one that doesn’t last, and I, for one, was not sad to see her go. It appears that her superpower is running around screeching about that precious skin she wears on her face.
*shudder*
Her secondary power is pissing Harley off.

Deadshot is out of action fairly quickly as well, but he’s still on the roster, so he pops up every now and then in the story. After the first mission, Manta emerges as the leader, and stays in that position while Deadshot rests his legs in a wheelchair.

Captain Boomerang, Reverse Flash, and a whole mess of Man-Bat ninjas (no, that wasn’t a typo) all end up on the team for the next mission.
The Man-Bats really made me miss Shark King’s intelligent conversations…

As far as the missions go, they were all pretty typical ‘espionage against other countries’ kind of jobs. First up, Russia! Next up, China!
The Suicide Squad is basically just sent in to disrupt any sort of next-gen weaponry that isn’t being created by American scientists.

USA! USA! USA!

The (now gorgeous) Amanda Waller has problems of her own with her new bureaucratic co-partner, but it’s nothing she can’t handle.
She’s gonna wash that man right out of her hair…

Toward the end, the inept team manages to accidentally unleash (read: Harley pushes the wrong button) a superhero from China that was created by their scientists to become a weapon. It never says who he is, but the character looks like he’s going to become some sort of good guy.
Good job, Harley!

Overall, this didn’t suck. And I was really prepared for it to be an effort to slog through. So when it didn’t kill me, I was kinda shocked!
Nothing incredible here, but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, either.

I received a digital copy of this book for review from NetGalley and the publisher.

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Review: Flash Vol. 4 – Reverse, by Francis Manapul

The Flash, Vol. 4: Reverse by Francis Manapul
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Reverse Flash is a bad guy, in the Flash Rogues Gallery, but this version of Reverse Flash is actually more of a tragic story.

You know, it seems obvious to me that Flash just isn’t on Geoff Johns’ list of important New 52 characters. I mean he’s got a competent writer, but the storylines are shit.

So people who got stuck in the Speed Force with Barry all got some powers…and now someone kills them all off, until only Iris is left…Barry sees a slowed down video that shows his reverse symbol, and goes after Kid Flash…cue some stupid running together and making stupid conversation scenes as they burn across the world, and Bart shows what a moron he is here…saved by the Teen Titans again.

So oops, not him, well he thinks it is the rich guy who helped him save the city but turns out to have different aims…nope.

Of course, it’s DANIEL WEST! Iris’ brother, who Flash caught in issue one and sent to prison for bank robbery. Daniel, who was out of prison just long enough to make it back for the Gorilla invasion (what? ya I try to forget that too…) and saved by the Rogues…of course no, they rob everyone, and Daniel don’t like that, so he acts like a dummy, and gets blowed up real good like with all the Speed Force stuff and a monorail car…

Instead of dying, why no, it bonds to him and he discovers he can go back in time! But it is hard on him…
Then we see he killed all the others, and used them like batteries, to go back in time…

What does he go back to do? Rob a bank? Kill Flash? Ace his SATs? Escape prison? No, actually he goes back to murder his and Iris’ abusive father…who we see beat both of them and was a real asshole. We also see that Iris was one of those dumb “oh he only hit me because he was drinking, it’s not his fault!” type of victims who makes excuses. Instead, Daniel/Reverse Flash (how clever indeed) wants to kill him so his sister, who he loves, will never have to be hit again…yes it will mean Daniel escapes it too, but we see that he loves her more.

Flash stops him and gives him a lecture about not changing the past, and learning from it, stopping him by taking the Speed Force energy from him? In fact, the writer even has Flash say “I have no idea how that worked, I couldn’t explain it again if I tried” WOW. What a cop-out and lazy writing.

So back in the present, Daniel is back to normal-ish, but I’m sure he’ll return. He goes to prison, and we see flashbacks of how Iris was to him as they grew up, and she’s kinda a self-absorbed cunt…no time for her little brother…maybe he should have just been like her and embraced the punches?

Anyhow, I was really bothered that Iris doesn’t forgive him or buy his story at all, and pretty much says that her brother is dead to her, and died when he was a kid. WOW, that’s harsh…he turned into a supervillain and killer because he wanted to save you from getting beat up your whole childhood by your father…hmmm ya, I agree, what a horrible younger brother that is…

So if this is who Iris West is in the New 52, I’m glad Barry is with Penny.

Then we get a stupid tacked on story about Iris and Barry’s meet cute in Gotham right before Zero Year (because how much more can we advertise Batman???) Barry is helping out, riding alongside Harvey Bullock and his partner…there’s some shenanigans, Barry saves Iris, Iris saves Barry, and Bullock has to do something dark. Then Barry gets all goody goody on Bullock about how that wasn’t right, and Bullock puts him in his place and pretty much tells him to fuck off and grow up a little. It made me love Bullock just that little bit more.

So here’s the thing; I want to like this. I do, the art is a bit childish, but it’s not bad. It is consistent, which isn’t something you can say for a lot of books…but the plots are stupid, and Barry comes across as very naive and a little too black and white. I mean I guess he’s a cop by choice, so that tells us something…but I wish he’d show some more personality? He’s just too much wet blanket for me…

I just hope we see Wally West soon, and that Daniel West isn’t the character they used instead…ugh.

So this might not be a 2, it might be 2.5-3, but I couldn’t get over the feeling of really not liking Iris after her treatment of her brother, and I feel like they’re just in a holding pattern waiting to push Patty out of the picture.

Flash, you need to make shit interesting, because even if there’s no actual problem, you’re BORING, and I don’t feel like going out of my way to read you anymore.

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