DCnU - Suicide Squad #1 from DC's New 52

Suicide Squad is brought to you from the dark mind of Adam Glass, and the sinister pencils of Marco Rudy.

I've been a fan of Suicide Squad since day 1, when they came into existence during the Legends event back in the 80's. I have at least some comics of each of their incarnations since then. I seem to have a soft spot for comics featuring villains.

This comic is ABSOLUTELY not for those who are easily disturbed. The first half of the comic is the main characters being tortured, in gruesome and brutal ways. It starts off with a torturer inducing rats to burrow in to Deadshot's stomach, and doesn't get much better from there. This review will touch on some of these elements, so even the review might not be for those who find no possible entertainment value in this kind of thing.

And I loved it. These characters are such hard asses that they can't even be tortured. See the panel below for one of the reasons I love Deadshot so much. (Also, note the Mysterious Lady in Red on the side of the panel, observing and unobserved in a torture chamber.)

The torturer doesn't even make Deadshot want to kill him until he mentions the one person that he cares about. Up until then, it was just business. But Deadshot is so confident that he will turn the tables that he is mentally updating his list while someone tries to intimidate him. And shoves their hand into the wound the aforementioned rats just made. With a disturbing "Qwish" noise.

This is my first introduction to the Chato Santana version of El Diablo. I have a feeling that I will start learning some Spanish following this book. To me, he was one of the standout characters of the issue.

And my favorite scene of the issue? King Shark. Wow... King Shark. Feigning unconsciousness under the impact of heat lamps drying him out, luring one of the torturers in to check for vitals. Which leads to King Shark biting his arm off, which leads to this:

Disturbing and awesome. I also love that Deadshot, Harley Quinn and El Diablo all get an introspective moment on how they came to be there, while they are being tortured. King Shark? "MEAT! MEAT! MEAT!" Sure, Black Spider and Voltaic don't get their "moments" either, and Savant breaks.

All of this rendered in an art style perfectly suited to the darkness of the comic, and that unflinchingly shows you exactly what is going on in this issue.

We also see something on the last page that I thought was interesting. I made some mentions of how I expected some characters to move closer to the more widely known media versions of themselves, and when we see Amanda Waller at the end of this comic, she is thin and beautiful. Not the short, squat version of "The Wall" that has been the interpretation since she was created. Much more Angela Bassett than Nell Carter.

This book is absolutely staying on my pull list, and may have made its way pretty darn close to the top.