Review: Suicide Squad Most Wanted- Katana
Quick Summary
Pros: The focus on Katana is handled well and showcases her character nicely. The entire book is filled with action and fun. The artwork looks nice and helps enhance the read.
Cons: The storytelling has a few problems throughout the read. The dialogue is poor in some places.
Overall: This collection has a few problems but still manages to tell an entertaining story about an often overlooked character. Katana is the true star of this book, as she brings personal struggles and plenty of action to the collection. However, problems with plot and dialogue prevent the book from being as universally entertaining as it could have been. Readers looking for a Katana-centric book with tons of action will likely enjoy this book.
Story
Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Katana, by Mike W. Barr, is a generally positive book that still has its fair share of flaws. On the positive end of things, Katana ends up being a great lead and brings both emotion and fun to the reading experience. This creates a book with plenty of action and some entertaining fight scenes. Unfortunately, the plot is lackluster and the dialogue can be poor in places. This doesn’t take away from the book’s main focus, Katana and action, but does hamper the rest of the book. Overall, this isn’t a universally great collection but it does work as a very effective showcase for Katana’s character.
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The main draw in Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Katana comes from Katana herself. Reader have a chance to learn about Katana’s motivations and mentality in a way that does not happen that often. This includes wholesome interactions with innocent people, heartwarming conversations with her husband’s spirit, and a general dedication to justice that shines in all of her actions. She also demonstrates a sound tactical mind, especially when dealing with the members of the Suicide Squad. In most comics, Katana ends up being a minor or secondary character so seeing her in the spotlight is very rewarding.
Katana’s actions are also very fun to watch and lead to the collection’s other big draw, action. This is a book that starts with Katana defeating a squad of villains after crash landing a plane and ends with Katana fighting a being of pure energy. In the middle, she defends the populace of a small country and has an intense team-up with the Suicide Squad. This action is handled well in most places and leads to a fun and engaging reading experience.
Although the focus on Katana is enjoyable and the action is entertaining, problems enter Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Katana through the storytelling. The plot jumps around at times and has trouble maintaining a consistent focus. One example of this can be seen when larger problems are randomly dropped for a moment and the focus shifts to a wounded cat. In addition, the plot stumbles more significantly as the book approaches its conclusion and the enemy turns out to be an energy being rather than a greedy warlord. This change is ambitious but the shift in villains isn’t executed in a way that feels natural to the story’s progression.
In addition, this collection also has some problems when it comes to dialogue. Interactions between characters can feel static and uninspired in more than a few places. There are also places where dialogue describes the current situation in a way that seems unnatural and way too on the nose. In this way, nothing is left up to the reader’s imagination and even the simplest of motivations are spelled out through strange conversations. This is not a huge problem but it does negatively affect the book throughout the read.
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Art
The artwork in Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Katana looks nice and goes well with the story being told. Diogenes Neves presents a detailed and well-structured book that is constantly filled with energy. Characters constantly move in dynamic ways that transition well from one panel to the nest. This bombastic approach to action pushes the story forward and makes the fighting more exciting. As this book centers around action in many places, artwork like this is necessary and appreciated. It also helps that the landscapes and characters are well-designed, especially in the case of Castle Markov and Katana’s costume redesign. Overall, this is a visually pleasing book that pairs nicely with the story.
Continuity
Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Katana is a miniseries that does not continue any specific story threads.
The story here does not continue in any specific comic. However, Katana and the Suicide Squad’s next major adventure is detailed in Suicide Squad Vol. 1: The Black Vault (Review) .
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- Katana makes a number of references to her relationship with the Justice League. Presumably, she is referring to her time with the Justice League of America (Reading Order). She joined the Justice League of America back in Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous (Review).
- The Suicide Squad team lineup seen here seems to indicate that this comic takes place at some point in time after New Suicide Squad Vol. 4: Kill Anything (Review) but before Suicide Squad Vol. 1: The Black Vault (Review).