Film Review: Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018)

Release Date: March 23rd, 2018 (Anaheim premiere)
Directed by: Sam Liu
Written by: Alan Burnett
Based on: Suicide Squad by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru, John Ostrander
Music by: Robert J. Kral
Cast: Christian Slater, Billy Brown, Liam McIntyre, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Gideon Emery, Tara Strong, Vanessa Williams, C. Thomas Howell, Greg Grunberg

DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, DR Movie, 86 Minutes

Review:

“I know I’m going to Heaven – anyone who can put up with Mr. J deserves a break.” – Harley Quinn

It seems as if these DC Comics animated movies are getting better and better. Pretty much most of the stuff that Sam Liu produces and directs is top notch. Also, I love that these are for an adult audience.

While I pretty much hated the live action Suicide Squad movie, I’ve been a fan of the comics for some time. This animated feature does a pretty good job of capturing that magic in a way that the live action film completely missed.

The voice cast in this was really good too and I especially enjoyed Christian Slater as Deadshot. I hope he plays the character more in the future and if this spawned its own series, I’d watch the followups.

This movie is violent but it works, as this film is presented in a grindhouse style. Now the look of it is crisp and clean like other DC animated films but it has that modern grindhouse edge to it in it’s credits sequences, editing style and musical score. While the modern grindhouse thing really peaked with Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse movie over ten years ago, it’s interesting seeing that style in this format.

The story is also good and it sets up a situation where these characters have a sort of loophole to work around the protocols the government has in order to control these villains forced to do good. There is a lot of back stabbing, twists and turns.

This also features a ton of villains whether they are members of the Suicide Squad or not. And while a lot of characters are crammed into this 86 minute picture, everything flows well.

This is solid. It’s one of the better DC Comics animated features to come out.

Rating: 8.5/10
Pairs well with: other recent DC animated features for adult audiences.

Comic Review: Green Arrow: Broken

Published: June 4th, 2014 – September 3rd, 2014
Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Andrea Sorrentino

DC Comics, 123 Pages

Review:

Broken followed up the Green Arrow story The Outsiders War. It is also the last big story arc from Jeff Lemire.

While many people thought that Lemire’s run on Green Arrow was spectacular, I’ve felt pretty lukewarm towards it. I thought it started out well and was building towards something great but it just seems to move a long with a whimper.

It just continues to feel like it is trying to be more like the show Arrow, as opposed to the comic book series that has come and gone for decades. It’s almost too dark, too serious and just lacks the character and charisma of years of Green Arrow stories. This sort of falls victim to the gritty reboot trend in the worst way.

It sucks because I generally like Lemire’s writing but as his Green Arrow tenure ran on, it also ran dry. I’m not sure what people see in this, unless most people only really know this character from the more serious and dark television show.

Anyway, this closes out most of the big plot threads from Lemire’s time on the series.

The only real highlight of this is the artwork. Andrea Sorrentino has a real talent for capturing action in a unique and refreshing way. This guy should get more work on action heavy titles from the major publishers.

In the end, the Jeff Lemire run was a disappointment for me, especially after I heard people rave about it for a few years.

While it sounds like I’m being hard on this, it isn’t terrible. It’s decent, for sure, but it’s hardly as iconic as the hardcore Lemire fans claim.

Rating: 6.5/10
Pairs well with: The other story arcs in the Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow.

Comic Review: Green Arrow: The Outsiders War

Published: November 6th, 2013 – May 7th, 2014
Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Andrea Sorrentino

DC Comics, 157 Pages

Review:

This is the biggest story arc in Jeff Lemire’s run on Green Arrow.

This was also pretty damn intense. But as Lemire’s run on the title rolls on, I have developed a love/hate relationship with it.

For one, I’m not entirely sure of why this version of Oliver Queen lives in Seattle as opposed to Star City and it’s never really been explained within Lemire’s stories. It’s a weird setting for a DC title and maybe trying to ground this in some sort of gritty reality is why they use a real world city but Seattle is hardly some dark and gritty metropolis like Star City has been in the past.

Also, this started bringing in characters and concepts from the TV show Arrow. I’m not sure if that’s because this came out just after the show started and was at its height in popularity but the comic doesn’t need to follow the show or be a comic book version of the show. That show is its own thing and what works on TV isn’t always what works in comics, and vice versa. This is why the show has changed some things but Lemire’s run is adopting some of those changes and characters. But it is also an attempt to make this more accessible to the fans that have only watched the TV series.

The stuff between Oliver and Komodo is really good though. I like the Komodo character, what he represents and how he’s completely altered the course of Oliver’s life.

I like the mystical elements of the story, as well, and it reminds me of old school Iron Fist comics in a lot of ways.

The best thing about Lemire’s run on Green Arrow isn’t Lemire though, at least not for me. The best thing is the art. Andrea Sorrentino has such a unique and incredible style that it breathes more life into these tales. His ability to showcase action in new and exciting ways is really refreshing.

All in all, this is fun if you are a fan of the character, whether through the comics or just from the television series.

Rating: 7.75/10
Pairs well with: The other story arcs in the Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow.

Comic Review: Green Arrow: Shados

Published: July 3rd, 2013 – October 2nd, 2013
Written by: Jeff Lemire
Art by: Andrea Sorrentino, Marcelo Maiolo

DC Comics, 85 Pages

Review:

This is the second story arc in the Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow. What I’m reviewing here is the Shado story, as well as the couple single issues right after it that lead into the next big arc. The issues reviewed here are numbers 22, 23, 23.1 and 24 of Green Arrow (2011-2016) a.k.a. The New 52 run.

So reading these issues made me a bit confused over what The New 52 is to DC Comics continuity. Reason being, Count Vertigo is a new villain in the way that this story is written and the event within brought me to the realization that Oliver Queen a.k.a. the Green Arrow is really friggin’ young here. Clues to his age were in The Kill Machine but I guess it didn’t dawn on me fully until his interractions with Shado in this book. Or maybe Lemire is just writing him so that he comes off as a twenty year-old.

Ultimately, this Lemire run feels much more like it is in the tonal vein of the television show. I mentioned in my last review of Lemire’s run that this is pretty gritty and very different than what Green Arrow has been in the past. Sure, he’s had some darker, serious stories but Lemire has brought Oliver into the modern gritty reboot age with gusto.

I really like this run. However, this string of issues wasn’t as badass as the ones that preceded them. This isn’t so much filler, as it is more about fleshing out Lemire’s vision for the series.

The bulk of the story here is about Oliver going to a small European nation to find the next “dragon”. He rescues Shado from the lair of Count Vertigo, who is a dictator over the small country. We also get an origin story for this incarnation of Vertigo, which was pretty interesting.

So far, I’m happy with this run and can’t wait to get into the story arcs after this one.

Rating: 7.75/10
Pairs well with: The other story arcs in the Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow.

Comic Review: Green Arrow: Better Than

Published: June 6th, 2018
Written by: Mairghread Scott
Art by: Matthew Clark, Sean Parsons, Jason Wright, Tyler Kirkham, Arif Prianto

DC Comics, 54 Pages

Review:

I haven’t picked up a Green Arrow book since before Rebirth but he’s always been one of my favorite heroes since I got a big chunk of the ’70s Green Lantern/Green Arrow series handed down to me in the late ’80s. Plus, I’ve been rewatching Arrow lately and needed an Oliver Queen fix in comic book form.

This story arc is covered pretty briskly in just two issues, numbers 41 and 42. However, this is a story with a lot of solid action and cameos from several villains, as Green Arrow fights his way through a maximum security prison to being Parasite back into custody. The most notable of those cameos are King Shark and Count Vertigo.

I thought the story was pretty good, even if it did get a bit preachy with its message, which was about the general prison state we have in the modern world. Parasite really just wants to go off and die but Ollie is torn between his duty of bringing him back in, as he is a dangerous villain, and allowing the guy to just die peacefully in the sunlight above. A lot of this plot deals with Ollie’s reservations about his duty and how it contrasts with other parts of his personality.

Also, we get a moment between Ollie and the prison warden where Ollie expresses his frustration with how the Parasite has been treated and the warden expresses his frustrations in how the superheroes of the universe just drop of these super powered criminals and expect the system to just be able to handle it with little to no resources.

Well, at least this doesn’t preach too hard in one direction and actually offers up different views and a debate of ideas.

I thought the art over these two issues was pretty good.

Rating: 7/10
Pairs well with: Other Green Arrow stories since the start of the Rebirth run.