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Pretty good. I liked the art a lot. The story has been done before, but it worked well in this setting. Looks like there's more to come. Good thing. I'm curious to learn more about these characters. ( )

Hello there, Goodreads! Why yes, I have retreated into comic books and fantasy pretty much entirely! I am fending off what has turned out to be a rather impressive case of the blues (five months and counting) and then I saw the Star Wars movie and it has triggered all my worst nerd obsessions, so I am catching up on superhero movies and fantasy series and generally ignoring all those serious books I normally intersperse in here. I'll get back to the weighty stuff as soon as I can manage it (or finish reading that lovely book on cetaceans I've been chipping away at), but in the meantime, I read this...

I never really intended to read any of DC's New 52 reboot; I hate reboots and I'm more a Marvel girl, really. Also heard horrific things about almost every series in this reboot from a feminism standpoint--lots and lots of fridge girls, apparently. (I don't typically let feminism guide me too much on what I read, but it happens that I do think the comics industry in general is a giant train wreck of misogyny, so it pays to heed the screaming around here if you hear it.) But, you know, so many superhero movies this year! And this looks so good...

Let's just say I hope the series gets better after this opening collection. Didn't love the art. The stories had the right premise but fell short in the execution. Too many point of view jumps, too many bit villains sliding in and out, not enough stardom to carry the ensemble performance (there's definitely a reason it already looks like Harley Quinn and El Diablo are stealing the show in the movie's trailer), too many moments of stupid (a super villain does not generally forget what his powers are when he's in a jam, writers: Yo could have killed King Shark so easily, why didn't he?), and nothing really new to see here plot-wise. Maybe the B-team from the author pool got stuck on this? I honestly don't know. Even Harley's arc lacked a little something.

BUT it was picking up at that point. Ooh, and those finishing scenes: so great! So I'll definitely keep reading. I just hope it gets a bit better from here. Is it wrong to want Harley to have better? It's probably wrong. Oh, well.



( )

Well, you know, I just had to read the comics after loving the movie. Yeah, yeah, I know some people love to hate, but I've got nothing but love for the crazies and the psychos in there. :)

It's all about RELATIONSHIPS. It's a romance, see? Don't let all the action and the exploding nanites and the collateral damage fool you. It's a love story.

Mostly.

Of course, for most of them, it's just a love of staying alive just a little bit longer, but don't let anyone tell you that self-love is less important than the gushy stuff!


These stories are pretty fun for an intro in the fourth revision of Suicide Squad. I'm particularly loving Harley. Her origin is pretty much what we saw in the movie and I'm lovin it. :) ( )

Since the Suicide Squad movie trailer was released recently, I decided I wanted to read one of the comics. Honestly, this book was a bit of a let down. While I did like Kicked in the Teeth better than [b:Harley Quinn Vol. 2: Power Outage|23012588|Harley Quinn Vol. 2 Power Outage (The New 52)|Amanda Conner|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1410802091s/23012588.jpg|42579018], it wasn't quite as manic as I was hoping it would be.

The story is five prisoners sentenced for life are sent on incredibly dangerous missions by the government, with the promise of shaving time off of their sentences if they succeed. The prisoners are injected with nano bombs set to go off if they disobey. They are called The Suicide Squad.

The action moments in this book are done very well. The team is fighting techno-zombies, and the fast, sketchy drawing style works very well.

However, the non action parts and some of the flashbacks DRAGGED. Also, we got Harley Quinn's origin story again, a couple of not interesting throwaway characters, and the Joker taking up the story WITHOUT ACTUALLY BEING IN THE STORY (seriously, he shows up in flashbacks and conversation, and yet, he's still more memorable than some of our mains. YAWN.) And, honestly, I am baffled by how many people liked Harley Quinn as a character, and her character development in Kicked in the Teeth. It's incredibly disappointing to see her SO sexualized, and, frankly, not be that exciting a character here.

Even though I did like this better than Harley Quinn 2, I'm not totally compelled to read the next book in this series, despite this book ending on a cliffhanger. I think I like the idea of The Suicide Squad (a team of villains forced to do good by a warden with less morales than they have) more than this particular version depicted. I'm still excited to see the movie when it comes out! Maybe it just needs some charismatic actors portraying the slower moments to pique my interest.

P.S. I freaking loved King Shark. Definitely my favorite Suicide Squad member, even more than the fan favorite, Harley Quinn. The scenes where he's chomping on everything in sight, with hardly any dialogue, were my favorite parts of Kicked in the Teeth. My rating for this book went up one full star because of King Shark. ( )