Guest Blog: ‘Vamp or Not?’: Justice League vs Suicide Squad

Today I’d like to welcome Clark back to TMtV. He has written some guest reviews in the past and today has a ‘Vamp or Not?’ look at Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, which has multiple writers and artists listed and was released as a trade paperback in 2017. It is part of the DC Universe Rebirth era.

I'll hazard a guess that readers are aware of who both the Justice League and Suicide Squad are, after all, they have been quite highly publicised in film form recently.

This graphic novel focuses on the JL deciding that Suicide Squad are dangerous, and must not be allowed to operate. They intercept the squad as they undertake a mission (under strict Black Ops guidelines), and, of course, a fight between the 2 takes place. Cut a long story short, the JL are captured by Amanda Waller, head of the Task Force X (Suicide Squad) programme, and taken to Belle Reve prison along with the squad.

This enables a third party, Maxwell Lord, to assemble a motley crew of supervillains in order to steal an object called the Black Diamond. The theft leads to a team up of both the Suicide Squad and Justice League, and the writers had me laughing out loud in places with the interaction between Harley Quinn and her "new bff" Wonder Woman.

Said diamond corrupts all who attempt to control it, and with Lord being a telepath this enables it to corrupt huge swathes of the world (including some members of both the squad and the JL) into creatures filled with rage, who shun sunlight (although any bright light seems to work), drink blood and eat flesh.

Needless to say that Batman, along with others uncorrupted - mainly Killer Frost, manages to fix the problem and restore everyone back to their human/metahuman selves. Not really vampires, and only there towards the end of the graphic novel, but still an interesting premise and a fantastic read.