Hm, This could be interesting. DC has canceled a lot of books over the years, including an infamous “DC Implosion” where they axed a number of books unexpectedly, some after only one or two issues.
Or it might be something else. Sometimes stories aren’t published for a reason.
Issue:  Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault #1, February 2021
Writers:Â Â Elliot Kalan and Jim Zub
Artists:Â Â Tradd Moore and Mike Norton
The Plot:Â Â Ambush Bug introduces an unpublished Suicide Squad story.
Commentary:  Yeah, I don’t know what I might have expected here. It could have been an issue to resolve plot points for some series that was canceled in the middle of a storyarc. It could have been some old story from the Silver or Bronze Age that never saw the light of day. It could have been anything.
Instead, it’s basically what could have been a modern day Suicide Squad story where Deadshot and Harley get sent on a mission by Waller. They need to take out a mad scientist, one Waller has what seems like a personal concern over, and there is maybe little question about whether or not the two will finish the mission. That said, it doesn’t seem like much of a mystery to me, even with the story as it was set up. This is an unpublished story, whatever that means, so I find it a wee bit unlikely that the story would have put in major changes to the status quo for Deadshot, Harley, or Waller.
And indeed, nothing does really change. The two, the only survivors of a four man Squad as the rest were taken out before they even go to the mission, take out all kinds of henchmen while Waller refers to them as her dogs, and then they need to make a decision. Not much to this issue, really.
As for the framing device, well, it’s Ambush Bug working as a janitor at the DC offices. It’s…well, not all that funny, but it just has to set up the story.
Overall, I wasn’t overly impressed with this issue. Nice artwork on the Suicide Squad story, though.
Grade:Â C+
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