Secret Six

Secret Six #2

/ / Comics

Secret Six #2The second issue of the new Secret Six continues with the entrapment of six strangers while also offering us flashbacks to Catman‘s previous incarceration to help explain the super-villain’s dislike of confined spaces such as a coffin-shaped tomb in the bottom of the ocean.

Although I think the team is still missing the right chemistry creating a void (which someone like Deadshot or Ragdoll could help fill), Secret Six #2 is a step-up from the first issue as Catman, even in his tortured flashbacks, gets to be more of the bad ass mother fucker fans of the previous series came to know and love and less of the emo douche that we saw in the new volume’s opening issue. I’m still not sold on Ken Lashley’s art which works better when the team leaps into action than when they are standing still (something they’ve done much of in the first two issues).

The issue ends with the escape of the villains who it seems are going to stick together long enough to get some answers and take some vengeance on the hidden voice responsible for their capture and torture. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Secret Six #1

/ / Comics

Secret Six #1Spring of 1980. That’s the first time I picked up a comic book, and the first Batman story I ever read was Batman #323 which featured both Batman and Catwoman being bested by lesser-known villain known as Catman. Needless to say I was an immediate fan. Sadly, the following two decades weren’t kind to the character who resurfaced in 2005 as the break-out star of DC’s Villains United giving birth to the first iteration of the Secret Six.

With the new Secret Six #1 Gail Simone returns to the comic (along with her run on the original Birds of Prey) which made me a lifelong fan of her work, albeit through the craptastic lens of DC’s New 52 filter. Playing on similar themes of the Six being brought together and controlled by an unknown master called Mockingbird, Secret Six #1 opens with Catman being kidnapped and locked-up with a group of five others and tortured by a mysterious voice who wants answers to a question that has yet to be asked.

The first issue doesn’t sell me immediately on the series, but (unlike so much of the New 52) doesn’t immediately turn me off of beloved characters, either.

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If I Rebooted the DCU (Part Three)

/ / Top Tens & Lists

With DC Comics reboot of their entire universe with 52 new first issues now underway I continue to take a look at what I would do if I rebooted the DCU.

Where I could I kept ideas DC wanted to explore in the relaunch (when not incredibly stupid like Voodoo), and even included titles I’m personally not all that high on but characters I know have a devoted fan base. You’ll find I’ve also kept far more of the current titles than DC’s proposed reboot, and brought back a few personal favorites as well.

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If I Rebooted the DCU (Part Three) Read More »

Top Ten Most Memorable Moments of the Secret Six

/ / Top Tens & Lists

In July of 2005 DC Comics unleashed writer Gail Simone in her own little corner of the DC Universe with the six-issue mini-series Villains United. The idea behind the comic was simple, the various villains of the DCU were banding together as part of Lex Luthor‘s expansive Secret Society of Super Villains, that is until one villain said no. The rest, as they say, is history.

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Top Ten Most Memorable Moments of the Secret Six Read More »

Is this the end for the Secret Six?

/ / Comics

secret-six-36-coverYou know you’re in trouble when Ragdoll is the voice of reason. On the eve of Bane‘s plan to take on Batman by attacking those closest to him the team begins to fray as they are surrounded by heroes who have followed the Penguin‘s tracker to the abadoned warehouse the Secret Six is using as its temporary base.

In an attempt to end things quickly Huntress calls in favors and brings in everybody, and I do mean everybody, to take the Six down, but as Huntress realizes far too late this isn’t the team to back down against an overwhelming show of force. As Ragdoll points out this team only has one redeeming virtue: they simply don’t know when to quit. That’s one lesson they never learned.

The Secret Six aren’t just another super-villain team. As screwed up as they all are there’s something noble about a group who will fight for each other, against all odds, knowing the chance of actually winning is impossibly high. And in this final issue Gail Simone let’s them go out Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid style.

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Is this the end for the Secret Six? Read More »