New Suicide Squad: Futures End #1

By Sean Ryan, Andre Coelho and Blond

As week two of the Futures End event kicks off, we are treated to the Futures End New Suicide Squad. Like most of DC’s gimmick books, there are a lot of one-shots that aren’t very good and don’t matter. This issue however, is actually pretty entertaining and well written.

The New Suicide squad hasn’t been around for very long, but each issue has been fun to read. Sean Ryan uses half the squad for this one-shot and he uses them pretty well. While they have all been tampered with and are shells of their former selves, Amanda Waller is the same old badass. Ryan gives us a monologue from Deadshot, who is a very sympathetic character in this world. He has lost his right arm and he deems himself useless. Ryan shows us a man who goes from nothing to live for to one that tries to live one more time. It’s actually a very depressing tale, but that seems logical for someone in his position. Ryan’s version of Black Manta is the comic relief of the issue. He only says one thing, and it is not what you would expect. Ryan also does a good job of changing the characters from their current incarnation. Every single one of them is worse off since they’ve been tampered with, but Ryan makes them interesting with the few pages he has them for.

The art from Andre Coelho is very strong this issue. Everybody’s new look works well for them and Coelho draws them consistently, which is nice. Andre has clean, crisp lines that make each page smooth and easy to look at. His facial expressions also stand out as he draws them very well. Who knew seeing miniature versions of villains would be creepier than full sized ones, but Coelho manages to effectively weird out the reader. The most memorable panels this issue is the fight scene between a young Deathstroke and a handicapped Deadshot. Coelho draws this sequence perfectly as two deadly killers face off. It’s fast paced, violent and nice looking.

This is one of the better Futures End issues so far. Sean Ryan wrote a good issue with some well thought out plot points. The art was impressive and effective for the grim tone of the story. This issue continues the trend of fun issues from the members of the New Suicide Squad.