Secret Six

• Title: Secret Six #7
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Dale Eaglesham

Secret Six #7 is a bit of a Who’s Who of the mystical and magical side of the DCU as we’re introduced to a meeting of several of the most powerful members of this group including the Phantom Stranger, Deadman, Zatanna, Klarion, and others gathered together to discuss a mutual problem: Black Alice. The young woman’s ability to tap into and temporarily steal their powers has not gone unnoticed, but the real trouble with how Alice operates is that it leaves each member of the collective weakened and in turn is causing a weakening in the mystical defenses that are keeping out a looming threat too powerful to fight. Their solution, however, won’t sit well with the other members of the Secret Six.

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• Title: Secret Six #4
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artists: Ken Lashley, Tom Derenick

Secret Six #4 is a tease of the comic we should be, but aren’t, getting. Thanks New 52. After the new team makes its way to the suburbs they are almost immediately attacked by three of Mockingbird‘s assassins who will be familiar to longtime fans of the team well-before they are unmasked: Scandal Savage, Ragdoll, and Jeannette (who seems oddly toned-down here). Despite still missing Deadshot, and insisting on dressing Catman in that awful fetish costume (#BringBackTheCowl), Secret Six #4 has a bit of the old magic (even if it is unnecessarily stomped on by quite a few superfluous characters).

Ragdoll’s unique voice has certainly been missing in the comic. His addition works well here while Scandal, as enemy rather than one of the major driving forces behind the group, is a bit off-key. The latest issue opens with a buddy-buddy moment between Catman and the nondescript detective-ish guy (a character so forgettable neither I nor the Internet seem to remember who the hell he is) which only makes me miss Catman’s best bud even more. Oh well, at least there’s some fun to be had. For fans.

[DC, $2.99]

• Title: Secret Six #3
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Dale Eaglesham

Four months after the release of the last issue the adventures of the new Secret Six continue with the recently thrown together team moving into the suburbs together. Needless to say they make quite an impression on their neighbors.

Although I’m still not completely sold on the make-up of the new team, writer Gail Simone has fun bouncing the various group members off each other under the same roof for the first time. While the comic doesn’t have much in the way of action it does reveal a traitor among the group as well as the true identity of Mockingbird this time around.

Sadly the issue does have its problems starting with the incredibly disappointing look at Catman in his new costume. The early scenes involving the bare-chested warrior (whose run in with the cop could have been toned down a bit) bring back the character Simone masterfully brought to the forefront of the DCU, but his new duds (making him look like a failed back-up dancer for a Michael Jackson tribute band) are the worst thing to happen to the character since Kevin Smith. For fans.

[DC, $2.99]

• Title: Secret Six Volume 1: Villains United
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artists: Dale Eaglesham, Brad Walker

Secret Six Volume 1: Villains United collects the Villains United mini-series, which relaunched Catman as a major player in the DCU, along with the first Secret Six six-issue mini-series. The best part of Infinite Crisis, the Villains United series centers around a group of villains who refuse to join Lex Luthor‘s Secret Society of Super-Villains led by the most unlikely of characters – Catman.

Despite the depths the character had sunk to in the years previous to writer Gail Simone’s makeover, I’ve always been a fan of Catman and Simone does a terrific job in rebranding the character from D-list back to A-list while still acknowledging his fall from grace. Choosing to join the team on his own, Catman became a part of the Secret Six who were controlled by the mysterious Mockingbird and sent into action with the promise of reward (and the threat of death).

The mini-series follows the group through battle, torture, dysfunction, betrayal, and more while setting up the group’s core dynamics like Deadshot and Catman’s bromance, the insanity of Ragdoll, the deception of Chesire, and the twist of a romantic relationship between Scandal Savage and Knockout.

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• Title: Secret Six #2
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Gail Simone
• Artist: Ken Lashley

The 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]