John Romita Jr. To Reportedly Join Suicide Squad Two Issues Earlier Than Expected

Considering that comic books are solicited three months in advance, it’s not unheard of for creative changes to happen within that time span. The latest example of this is apparently that of Suicide Squad. According to Bleeding Cool, John Romita Jr. – who recently exited All-Star Batman and wasn’t slated to begin drawing Task Force x until March with issue #13 – will now make his debut on the book in February with Suicide Squad #11.

Originally, Riley Rossmo was penciled in to contribute interiors, but plans have seemingly changed. As highly praised as Romita is, it would have been cool to see Rossmo stick around a little longer considering that he did some fine work in Suicide Squad #9, which served as a Justice League vs. Suicide Squad tie-in.

Unlike said tie-in, the series will hereby return to having twelve page main stories and eight page backups, which are set to be illustrated by Eddy Barrows. This format allowed Jim Lee to meet those twice-monthly deadlines and will likely do the same for Romita. Let it also be known that all content will continue to be penned by Rob Williams.

This change isn’t exactly a bad move because Romita now gets to kick off the “Burning Down The House” arc as opposed to coming in on the third chapter. So, when this thing is eventually collected into a trade paperback, that will allow for a much more fluid experience when it comes to visual storytelling.

Suicide Squad #11 arrives in comic shops on Wednesday, February 8. In the meantime, you can check out the cover art below, which was originally intended for #13.