#there’s a whole comic about him breaking out from Blackgate! it’s really good! :)

[suhmayzooka]

some panels i like from huntress/spoiler: blunt trauma that i like

[stephanie’s inner monologue: huntress moves like a tiger. cold. professional. and maybe a little bit cruel. way past anything i’ve ever seen the guys do to a hood. with her it seems more personal.]

i really think steph’s insights into helena’s fighting are really interesting, especially how she notes that it seems more “personal” than how the other bats fight. 

[stephanie: the way you took down czonka...

helena: yeah?

steph: you didn’t give him a chance. just put a hurt on him in a hurry.

helena: is that a criticism?

steph: no way! i thought it was cool! robin always plays so fair. like these creeps deserve a break.

helena: well, i’m tired of playing by their rules, you know? gotham needs buttkickers, not shining knights.

steph: ain’t that the-- you smell something?]

another thing i like—steph being a little fangirl over the huntress haha. i’m not super familiar with stephanie, but it’s interesting to see that she doesn’t immediately shun helena for being violent. 

it’s interesting to me to think of all the capes’ stances on crimefighting, mercy, justice, and retribution in relation to each other. from cass’s “nobody dies” to bruce’s “if i allow myself to go down that path i’ll never come back” to dick “i lost all control, i let anger carry me” grayson, to jason beheading guys, to helena’s own opinion (which IMO is more complex than the “she’s set apart from the bats because she shoots people!” that certain comics/people make it out to be, but whatever, not the point)

[helena: this is a waste of time.

steph: we couldn’t leave him there to burn.

helena: why not? he’d probably love it. he was trying to kill us, remember?

steph: robin and i have talked about this and--

helena: great! so you bought into their philosophy, huh? live and let live and all that BS. but what if you’re not as fast as they are? or as good as they are? or as strong as they are? have you thought of that, little miss crimebuster? well, you end up dead or worse at the hands of these sick monkeys. i say mercy is strained here, you got me? i say they get what they deserve. the next mook who crosses my path? i aim for his eyes.]

but it’s interesting to see steph has limits. she stops helena from attacking arthur brown, despite how much steph hates her father 

[helena: the blond is your father, huh?

steph: yeah, but he was never around much. in and out of blackgate all the time.

helena: sounds like a break for you.

steph: i know he’s a total creep but i don’t want him dead, huntress.

helena: you don’t know what you want. the cluemaster doesn’t get a pass just because he’s your dad.

steph: you think i’m out here for the fun of it? do you know what it’s like trying to live down having a major hood for your father?

helena: try living down a whole family of major hoods.]

steph has a level of connection to crime that the other bats don’t, simply by virtue of being related to a (big name? minor?) criminal. it’s a connection she shares with helena, of course, and i think that gives the two of them a different approach/insight to crimefighting. the other bats have been the personal victims of gotham’s criminals, but steph and helena have a personal connection to crime itself. it’s an interesting parallel and i’d like to see it explored more

this is only one issue, but i really like the parallels drawn between helena and stephanie in regards to their criminal families,, and their contrasting crime fighting philosophies. i realllyyyy think helena and stephanie could’ve had a really interesting dynamic (like... helena was a “batgirl” too!) but ofc steph has to go fake die soon adhlakjshdaljkshd

[tessatechaitea]

Suicide Squad #11

So nobody else is going to do it? It's up to me to tell John Romita Jr that he is a terrible artist? Fine.

Why work on an interesting or convoluted plot when you can just break it down into its simplest component parts? Killing people for freedom! America!

• Look at Deadshot in that above panel. How the hell does he see out of the scope on that mask? Who has eyes placed that far on the outside of their face?! Has John Romita Jr. ever actually seen the face of a person? • Everybody's costume is different. The pretend reason is that they're all wearing their Tibetan Attack Action Figure outfits. The real reason is almost certainly that John Romita Jr. decided he didn't need any reference pictures and maybe even threatened to quit if the editor didn't stop criticizing his work. • As the Suicide Squad begins killing the bad guy bastards, one of them yells, "They've found us! Wipe the hard drive! Do it now!" I guess they're busting a Tibetan child pornography ring. • Nobody is close enough to the computer to wipe the files. Seems like a mistake since yelling "They've found us!" suggests they knew somebody was looking for them. Luckily, the computer was built with a "Delete Hard drive?" section with two big buttons, Y and N. Although why would you need the N? The question and buttons would still be there waiting for somebody to press the Y! Unluckily, the guy trying to wipe the hard drive knows too much about the Suicide Squad for his own good.

I don't think the whole Task Force X philosophy is working. Everybody knows they work for the United States government. And even if they can't prove it, the results of Squad missions always seem to be advantageous to the United States.

• Harcourt is currently in charge of the Squad because Romita can't draw fat people. • I don't know what has happened to Rob Williams but he's decided the Suicide Squad is a farce. Killer Croc is shyly admitting his love to Enchantress. Enchantress is spouting over-the-top semi-intelligent death metal lyrics. The souls in Katana's sword are dying to go shopping. And Harley is still acting in that trying too hard whimsical way to show that her insanity places her outside of fear. I don't mind if the Suicide Squad becomes a dark comedy. But this writing with the tongue firmly in the cheek is as terrible as Harley's solo comic book. I love a comic book that makes me laugh. But I abhor a comic book that tries to make me laugh and doesn't even come close. • Meanwhile, Rustam blows one wall on Blackgate Penitentiary and all of the criminals go free. Serves Blackgate right for letting all of the inmates hang out in the outer courtyard of the prison at night. • Even though Jim Lee isn't currently doing the art on this book, it's still split into two stories. The next story gets to focus more on Amanda Waller because Eddy Barrows is doing the pencils and he can sort of draw a slightly larger than skinny woman. • The second story begins with Amanda telling her sad story to General Zod. Zod, for some reason, has been removed from his Phantom Zone Sphere. There will probably be plot reasons later that necessitated this change. • This second story takes place after the first one. The Squad has been given a night off and they're spending it in New Orleans. Amanda decides to go join them.

"Been sat here." Rob Williams just outed himself as a Brit! Not that he was probably trying to hide it. But Flag would never say "been sat here"!

• Waller takes a walk down a dark alley and gets shot by some guy wielding two pistols. I guess she just got killed by Grifter. Does he still exist in this universe? Bah, it was probably somebody else. So I guess she's dead now. She totally seems like a good candidate for the first character to die and stay dead in the Suicide Squad. No tricks here! The Ranking! -1! The writing was not enjoyable and the art was terrible.