The issue opens with the team flying to Dallas to confront the Calvary Corporation, namely their CEO Ms. Pesta. During the flight, Boomerang is shooting off his mouth and being told to shut up constantly from Waller. Waller explains the game plan for the team. The game plan pretty much amounts to Harley and Boomerang helping Parasite regain his energy and for Waller to confront Pesta with Deadshot.
At the Calvary Building, Harley and Boomerang detonate an explosion and infiltrate the labs while Waller and Deadshot await Pesta in her office. Despite Deadshot having a gun pointed at her, Pesta appears calm and collected. Waller asks Pesta point blank for the reason she is trying to bring down Task Force X. Pesta explains that the task force has disrupted business deals on a global scale. She even tells Waller they attempted to create their own metahuman team but the metahumans were too difficult to control so they shut that program down.
Pesta then explains the role Vic Sage played in her plans to take down the team. He was going to release a prisoner of Task Force X from prison with vital information about the team and would, ultimately, lead to the government shutting down Waller’s team. Pesta tells Waller that she will give her the evidence to pin the whole thing on Vic Sage so that they can all move on and put the matter behind them.
Back down in the labs, Boomerang has enraged Harley as they battle the guards. The Parasite hooks himself up to some generators and absorbs a massive amount of energy. He unleashes the energy and finds himself in a weakened state again.
Back in the office, Waller tells Pesta that she will find a way to bring her and Calvary Corporation down. Pesta tells Waller than her organization is too engrained into society. Pesta states that nation states are fading into the past and that corporations have the power these days. They end their conversation with Pesta telling Waller she will send over all evidence to take down Vic Sage.
Waller leaves with Deadshot saying that she is more concerned about what Sage has down at Belle Reve. The issue ends with Black Manta escaping from Belle Reve.
I actually have not been following this series but this issue was a lot of fun. It delivered some great moments with the dialogue and action. The artwork did not blow me away but the action was fun and seeing Harley and Boomerang take down some corporate goons was entertaining.
Since I have not been following the series, I had to play catch up and look back to what had happened to Deadshot and Parasite. Despite Deadshot’s problems, I was still amazed at how Waller pretty much wrote him off for the mission as nothing more than her escort during her interrogation of Pesta.
The interrogation took up most of the issue but I enjoyed it a lot. Pesta was well written as the evil corporate CEO who is only obsessed with money and control. I thought the references to our current political climate was an edgy move, but it was pulled off perfectly in the context of this story. Pesta’s quote, “Governments don’t make decisions without running them past us first”, was my favorite line and its ominous implications definitely spell danger for the future of the government sanctioned Task Force X.
Overall, I liked this issue and since I have not been following the series up until now, I will say that I will be checking in now to see the conclusion of this arc. Knowing that Seeley will be coming onto the book soon also keeps me interested in the near future of this series.
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