Suicide Squad: The Official Movie Novelization

by Marv Wolfman

[Jennifer | Pushing Pages]

Slightly incomplete, but...

Overall Feelings:
□ There were parts that felt rushed - because this definitely was a novelization that followed as closely to the film as it could. So there were some blips of scenes that I would have liked to see more in. There wasn't anything too intriguing with the writing style, but I do think that when there were indirect passages that were in the POV of certain characters, the language fit. There were moments where instead of using ~literary words~ to add some flare to situations, Wolfman just chose phrases such as "told them to chill" or the like, and it was just funny and in-style. I would have liked to see more told and more shown that we didn't get the chance to explore because of the large cast in the film, but perhaps that would have required like a duology or trilogy to accomplish.
□ This book had a lot of chapters and weird breaks in chapters that didn't feel very structured. There's like 60 or 70 chapters? And some of them are only two pages long. It was really weird and choppy to read in parts because of that. I've read books that play with the variance in chapter length before, but it didn't really work for this book, I don't think.
□ There weren't a lot of literary elements to this book so much as it was just retelling the story. It kept me pretty entertained throughout. And it made me want to watch the movie again, so I think it accomplished what it set out to do.

Themes:
□ There were - sometimes subtle - systematic themes throughout the film that I think get completely lost in the book form. And I do blame, potentially, the author's POV for this. I honestly felt that when we saw minorities in the prison - Harley, Floyd and Diablo in particular - you could feel the sexism and racism. I really feel as if Wolfman pulled back on that a lot. The author could have highlighted it a lot more in this book and fleshed out the prison. But every prison scene felt like he just wanted to get through it and get to the heist/war part of the plot. I was pretty disappointed in that. I feel as if I would have really taken the time to do more with that.
□ The prison guards felt like they had the pent-up aggression and power struggle that you see them with in the films, though. While the full extent of the toxicity wasn't really there in the book, you do get - through glimpses of Griggs - the sense that these guards hate their current predicament and are very much in love with this idea of machismo that their positions tease them with. This in particular is a big theme in Gotham, that all of society's worst traits play a huge psychological role in how the people of Gotham respond and react to their circumstance - toxic masculinity, objectification, systemic racism, classism… I don't know if Wolfman intentionally played into that with the guards, or if the author was working with what characters we were given in the film.

Character Development:
□ I love that they actually made Killer Croc the Croc I wanted from the film that I didn't get. The character was great, but I was so turned off and disappointed by the design. It just wasn't my Croc, y'know? I got what they were doing - he was like a humanoid lizard more than an inhuman crocodile monster, but to me it was like watching the Geico gecko in a hoodie. So it was cool that Wolfman described him as over 6 foot and somewhere around 350 pounds. Even with all of that though, the face design of Croc in the film was so friggin cool! Honestly it was just the neck down that surprised me and took me out of it.
□ Flag and June also felt a little rushed, if I'm being honest. There were sweet moments between them, and in those moments you do see them gravitating towards each other, but in a book you need a little more, I think.
□ I can't tell from this book if Wolfman cares about these characters much. And I definitely was hoping for someone who really gave each character their own moment.