Noteworthy Issues: Suicide Squad #15 (May, 2022)

Huh.  That Suicide Squad series that maybe should have ended with that anticlimactic crossover event ended not long after that anticlimactic crossover event.

Color me unsurprised.

Issue:  Suicide Squad #15, May 2022

Writer:  Dennis Hopeless

Artists:  Eduardo Pansica and Julio Ferreira

The Plot:  Rick Flagg leads the Squad to find some new funding.

Commentary:  So, I was really digging this series before the whole “War for Earth-3” thing that kinda just ended with a whimper.  What can I say now about a series that maybe should have ended right then and there as the first issue back afterwards seemed rather directionless?

Here’s a better question:  why did the series toss off a fantastic final issue that could have kept on going with more stories?  I know the correct answer is probably “sales,” but I think it’s a good question.  Rick Flagg has some plan to kidnap Lex Luthor for ransom to fund the Suicide Squad, but it looks like his various plans are all failures as Luthor manages to easily capture each and every one of the Suicide Squad members when they show up to try and kidnap him, often without breaking a sweat.

And it turned out that getting captured was part of the plan because Flagg’s ultimate goal was not to kidnap Luthor but to somehow convince him to become the team’s new sponsor.

Doesn’t that sound cool?  A Suicide Squad run by Lex Luthor, a man who is not a government officer or employee or anything?  He just wants the Squad to be on his payroll or something.  Wouldn’t that be a neat avenue to explore?

Instead, the series ended with that note.

Bah.

Still a good issue.

Grade:  B+