“Nice that your monster comes and goes. You get a happy break every now and then…Mine has her claws firmly stuck inside me.”
Tom King and Mike Janin continue building up the momentum in the 3rd part of the I AM SUICIDE arc. Batman and his hand picked Suicide Squad (Catwoman, Wesker, Punch, Jewelee and Bronze Tiger) ventures throughout the Santa Prisca scape of Bane’s territory to retrieve Psycho Pirate. Batman decides for his team to split up into two groups to gain an edge in order to execute their plan. Despite all of their coordinated attempts, things aren’t what they seem. Who will stick it out with Batman to the very end? Who will turn coat on Batman and side with Bane?
Tom King continues to make the reader guess the intentions of each member of Batman’s assembled Suicide Squad. In a way it makes one think of the film Usual Suspects in terms of which individuals claim to be who they really are and where their allegiance lie. King does an interesting job at giving the characters personality, which mirrors them to the actual Suicide Squad , yet differentiating them as well. My personally favorite moment is a conversation that both Catwoman and Wesker have with one another about the concepts of duality and how they control those aspects about themselves. Although, I have to admit that I already had a feeling that a specific character was gonna be the one to spill the beans and rat on Batman and the team, but I’ll leave that for the readers to find that out for themselves.
Mikel Panin’s artwork continues to be delight to look at. His Batman has a scowl that could rival Brian Bolland’s Batman (possibly). He draws each character and environment with power and it shows within the pages that the characters travel through. Some of my favorite pages are at the intro of this issue, Catwoman and Wesker traveling through the sewers, and the final pages. It’s stylistically strong thanks to Hugo Petrus’s inks which deliver balance and tone ranging from Catwoman’s outfit reflecting light and retaining shadow to the body types of each character, make them feel unique to themselves, especially whenever Bane is on the scene. The pages where Catwoman travel through the huge pipelines and mazes of the sewers is awesome to look at and get lost looking around the splash page as Catwoman sequentially moves through it. The colors by June Chung continue to service Panin’s art style greatly, almost giving this comic a pop art feel.While this issue is not as strong as the last issue , it’s still pretty solid since it is only a puzzle piece to the entire arc. It’s still an entertaining read and I’m looking forward to how King and company will close this arc and where they will go next in their run.
Newsdesk