The crescendo of Amanda Waller’s plans kicks off in this week’s War For Earth-3. This plot has been brewing ever since last year’s Future State: Suicide Squad and now we’re seeing it come to fruition. While being largely setup in the Suicide Squad ongoing series, this event will span across its own bookended title as well as The Flash, and Teen Titans Academy. How all it’s all going to play out is anyone’s guess, but from this debut issue I’d say we’re in for an unrestrained delight.
SPOILERS AHEAD for War For Earth-3 #1!
The issue starts off with a bang as Waller leads her assault on Earth-3 with a multiversal Suicide Squad. Hordes of her minions burst onto the scene to challenge the world governed by the Crime Syndicate. Immediately, the writer’s nail the voice for the Syndicate and their cracked mirror Justice League dynamic. The tenuous love triangle of Ultraman, Superwoman and Owlman is on display as well as the iron grip they impose on their world. Waller’s arrival challenges their status quo and the consequences are deadly.
Concurrently, Rick Flagg’s Suicide Squad is trapped fighting an multiversal clayface after removing Waller’s neck bombs. The action here is off the wall and lends the issue cohesion by bringing in its first real set of heroes. Despite feeling like an extended epilogue to Suicide Squad #12, these scenes still keep the story’s momentum barreling forward. This is perhaps one of the strongest aspects to this issue: it doesn’t feel padded out. The narrative keeps developing in unique directions at each turn and keeps one invested in what’s to come.
DC Comics
This is especially on display as the fight between the Syndicate vs. Waller comprises the bulk of the issue and holds nothing back. It’s unbridled destruction as Power Ring’s constructs blast through the throngs of Waller’s fodder and Owlman launches an arial assault. Meanwhile, Ultraman and Superwoman hash out their relationship issues on the sidelines. It’s a darkly humorous take on the team dynamic that works well at delivering captivating action broken up by well-timed melodrama.
The only complaint I have with the issue is the shifting artists. There are three separate artists across this single issue, and while each approach works individually, shifting between them does not. I particularly like the dynamic style Dexter Soy brings to the action as well as Steve Pugh’s emotive faces. However, bouncing back and forth between multiple styles is distracting. Each artist has similarities to one another, but their face renderings differ enough to break the consistency across the issue. The unified coloring is strong, though, and pops across the board.
Overall, the War For Earth-3 event is off to an action-packed start. Set so far apart from the main continuity, it truly feels as if anything can happen here. The story also makes enough sense as a jumping on point for someone like me who’s not caught up on the main Suicide Squad title. I do wish there could have been more art style consistency across the issue, especially before we get into the actual event that will span entirely different books helmed by even more creative teams. Despite this and the high cover price, I still enjoyed the issue and look forward to what’s to come.
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