Suicide Squad: King Shark #2
DC Comics 2021
Written by Tim Seeley
Illustrated by Scott Kolins
Coloured by John Kalisz
Lettered by Wes Abbott
Defacer must form a partnership with the Man-King to ensure humanity isn't overtaken by shark domination! But, she's kinda starting to like the King Shark, and the avatar of all humanity kinda sucks!
I wasn’t sure what to expect out of this but what we see during the tournament is exactly what we need to see. What we don’t need is this psycho possessed Amanda Waller demanding King Shark be returned to Belle Reve. This really should be his story without Waller’s interference and that is it with her. I love seeing B’Wana Beast as the MC of the games, it is nice to see he isn’t forgotten and that he’s got some life still left in him and of course it means I wanna a story featuring him and what he’s about these days. The real biggie here are two arcs that are running side by side and they both heavily feature Defacer. I like the subtle shift in how she sees things happening and in her actions that she’s not aware of until it’s already too late.
I’m very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances do a marvellous job in bringing out their personalities. I’m pretty impressed with how well we are getting to know some of these folks in such a short span of time and space. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more we want to see and know.
I am appreciative of the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. What these layers do is open up new avenues to be explored, such as Man-King’s stuff or shudder Waller, that add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably rendered.
The interiors here are really rather nice to see. The linework is utterly fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality within the attention to detail is bloody brilliant work. I’m pretty impressed with how the backgrounds are being utilised here to enhance and expand the moments. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a tremendous eye for how colour works.
Outside the Squad these characters really do have a chance to shine. I mean who would have thought that this Defacer was worth more than a panel's worth of airtime? Now she’s kind of endearing and her begrudging friendship with King Shark while away from the influences of Belle Reve really takes on this great new shape and quality. King himself, well there’s so much more to him than I ever realised and it really is nice to see him getting a spotlight that doesn’t make him this ultimate villain and instead the champion of his people. It is an aspect that we’d never have expected to see and one that makes complete and total sense to me and I am loving every moment of these two issues thus far.
About the Creator
Steven Leitman
Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.
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