Warning: SPOILERS for Suicide Squad #1 & #2

Harley Quinn has been all about the squad goals recently across many platforms, but in DC Comics’ Suicide Squad #2 she gives fans a peek into her team philosophy. Unfortunately, her audience is pretty unreceptive to her professional experience.

Everything is coming up Harley recently, and she is keen to share the love with a plethora of teams - including some rather interesting team-ups. In the upcoming Birds of Prey movie, Harley has left her Clown Prince of Crime behind for a new all-female gang. The Harley Quinn animated series follows a similar premise but with Harley attempting to build an intrepid band of villains to make it into the criminal big leagues. Fans should not forget the comics either with Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey #1 set to hit stands February 12th and Brian Azzarello’s Birds of Prey standalone series coming soon. Harley apparently has a knack for building teams and her psychological background certainly does not hurt in terms of bonding different personalities together.

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In Suicide Squad #2, she has some team bonding advice for Lok regarding her current teammates: “As team bonding exercises go, eatin’ a coworker is pretty poor.” Unfortunately, Lok is not in the mood for Harley’s professional opinion and gags her. The Revolutionary’s Wink seems to be thinking along the same lines as Harley when she suggests to Lok that maybe he should “see if we can watch a singing cartoon princess for an hour and a half without killing each other before we attempt to topple a sovereign nation?” However, Lok has his own ideas for team bonding, and they include the threat of death and a joint mission to assassinate a president.

The Suicide Squad needs all the synergy they can muster given their new situation. Not only are they now under the control of Lok, a leader who makes Waller look gentle as a kitten, but the Suicide Squad also has a new set of teammates. As Harley said, so far they have not been excelling at team bonding with each team taking out several members of the other. It perhaps also did not help that the Revolutionaries were initially the target of a Suicide Squad mission. Hostile takeover seems to be the term for the day with group synergy going right out the window. Without giving too many spoilers, the two teams do find some common ground in the end but at a price.

In an interview, Tom Taylor has promised readers that they will start “seeing seeds of, ‘Hang on, something else is going on here’ in about Issue #3.” If the twist at the end of Suicide Squad #2 is just a prelude, then fans should prepare themselves to have the world as they know it turned completely upside down – perhaps sideways as well. If anyone is going to survive this Suicide Squad arc, then they are going to have to work together almost seamlessly. While Harley’s professional experience as a psychiatrist was played off in this issue, it might make or break this new squad in the long run. Harley certainly has some more choice insights for her team beyond don’t eat each other.

Amidst the chaos, this issue reminds readers that Harley does have skills beyond her ability to rather effectively wield a bat. While she is often discounted by men like Lok, Harley is just as smart as she is deadly. When she finds out what is really going on with the team, Harley Quinn might have some marvelous ideas for how Suicide Squad synergy can cause one hell of a riot.

Suicide Squad #1 is available at your local comics shop and online.

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