Customer Reviews

Secret Six: Unhinged

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Man, I am so friggin' on board the SECRET SIX bandwagon. Her Scribey Awesomeness, writer Gail Simone, takes a bunch of low rent supervillains and somehow turns them into people you root for, never mind that these cats are either homicidal, suicidal, amoral, really weird, or just plain rat crazy. They may even smell bad (I'm looking at you, Ragdoll). Odd thing is that, separately, none of these bad guys would normally draw me in. Together, though, they form this dynamic, absorbing character soup.

If you haven't yet cracked open Villains United (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) or Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, then I say you're missing out on some entertaining chunks of comic book goodness. Familiarity with those two mini-series comes in handy with this "Unhinged" story arc, told in this trade collection. Gail Simone jumps right into those awesome character moments, without as much as a polite "What Has Gone On Before" segment. So if you don't know jack about the Secret Six (or the Secret Five, as this story begins), then you may be a little lost for half a mo. But it's worth it catching up. SECRET SIX: UNHINGED collects the first seven issues of the regular ongoing series and, really, if you haven't jumped onboard yet, why the wait? Life's short.

I'm about to SPOILER some stuff from issue #1.

The ominous opening sequence introduces the seriously twisted villain of the piece. But, first, check out this other dude, some nobody being bullied into a desolate room by two henchmen, and, I'm sorry, but this poor sap may as well have had "Dead Vic" etched on his forehead. In the room sits a wooden box and a voice from inside it offers the Dead Vic a choice - his own life or his family's. The scumbag opts to save his own skin, except that whatever is in the box then reaches out and drags him into the box. This is almost never a good thing.

We cut to the next scene, and the fun starts. Thomas Blake (a.k.a. Catman) and Floyd Lawton (a.k.a. Deadshot) are in their civvies and out on an ice cream run. They're in a convenience store, in the middle of a heart to heart, Pulp Fiction style, when they get interrupted by an armed robbery. The cool twisty thing is that they foil the robbery (all the while engaged in their conversation) and then Deadshot himself casually confiscates the loot, as well as an armful of smokes. This is pretty awesome to me and typifies the interesting dichotomy of these characters. Bent and corrupt and damaged inside, and yet somehow likable. What sort of "friends" or colleagues would try to cheer up their grieving teammate by hiring a stripper to dress up like the grieving teammate's just deceased love? Why, the Secret Six, that's who, muther&^%$#*s!

The team leader is Scandal Savage, daughter of the immortal Vandal Savage, and she may have vomit on her duds (she's the grieving teammate, and she's been in the cups), but she can still land a gig for her team. Now that's professionalism. The new job isn't a cinch. The Six have to break out some supervillainess called Tarantula out of Alcatraz and then transport her cross-country from Frisco to Gotham City. Tarantula possesses something which the Six's employer desperately covets. In the middle of Scandal's briefing, Catman's cellie rings and it's the Huntress tipping him off that maybe the Secret Six shouldn't take the job - because a ten million dollar bounty has been placed on EACH of their heads, and all kinds of metahuman villains are raring to collect. The call ends, and on Huntress's side of things, we see Batman blending into the background. Oh, it's on, brother!

SPOILERS sort of end.

So, it's not surprising that parts of this story arc unfold like the plot from Clint Eastwood's THE GAUNTLET. Our guys go thru a gauntlet of a LOT of bad guys. Except that instead of a reinforced bus, the Six's vehicle, for a leg of the journey, is an unintimidating ice cream truck (hint: never let Ragdoll procure your getaway car). It's worth noting that if the Secret Six are considered B- or C-list villains, then the scuzzbuckets who come out of the woodwork to ambush them rate even lower down the alphabet. I see Mammoth, and a version of Crazy Quilt, and I swear there's a big shark dude. Cheshire and the Cheetah do bring in solid street cred.

One thing that seems to happen quite a bit - and there's an almost whimsical quality to it now - is that the team is always losing its sixth member. We eventually meet the new sixth member, and her name is Jeanette. Jeanette is interesting and a bit mysterious and quite posh, and we learn eventually that she is not one aristocrat you'd want to cross. I hope Simone keeps her around for awhile. Then again, she IS the sixth member...

I think, hands down, SECRET SIX is the most fun, best written bad guy-centric comic book out there, and this is with due respect to IRREDEEMABLE and WANTED, two titles which I also happen to like. For sure, I like SECRET SIX better than THUNDERBOLTS or DARK AVENGERS or even SUICIDE SQUAD. I can't get enough of Nicola Scott's clean artwork. She consistently visually captures Deadpool's smirky essence, Catman's conflicted nobility, Ragdoll's sheer floppy almost spooky weirdness, and Scandal Savage's lean, almost ordinary looks which belie her ability to layeth a vicious beatdown.

Gail Simone continues to impress me as a writer in this field. The Secret Six comprise some of the most messed-up misfits around, and yet Simone convinces me to pull for them and she keeps me engaged in their crazy adventures. She knows better than to remake the core characters into good guys. The Six are still very much out for themselves, and that callousness is perhaps sometimes overlooked because they tend to unleash their brand of nasty on those well deserving of it. Whenever a Sixer does a good deed, it's usually motivated by sheer self-interest. Simone doesn't sugarcoat the violence, and there are brutal scenes in here, including one of the Six enduring torture at the hands of the story's Big Bad. Speaking of violence, Deadshot won't hesitate to murderize you and then make a snarky remark about it, and for some reason I like that about him. Simone dishes out heaps of dark psychological leanings, sudden homicidal urges, backstabbings, and other forms of extremely bad behavior. In fact, the introduction of the McGuffin - that is, that very valuable item of Tarantula's - proves to be a severe test for team cohesion, and that whole "no honor among thieves" thing scratches its way to the surface. Villainy and trustworthiness - that's almost in the territory of antonyms.

In the end, for me, it's really about those great interactions, those character moments. Even the colorless Bane receives an infusion of personality with his disturbing fatherly demeanor towards Scandal Savage, which by the way really freaks out Floyd Lawton. And then there's Catman. A few years ago this dude was one of those irrelevant minor villains. But then the VILLAINS UNITED mini-series went a long ways to build up his credibility. Now he's the BEST TRACKER IN THE WORLD, which may have been true before but now, hell, I'm using caps. I don't even blink twice when he deploys to Gotham to distract Batman while the rest of the team carries on the Alcatraz stage of the mission. Catman has "words" with the Bat, and by "words" I mean fists to the face. And, after the fighty fight - when Catman informs Batman: "I let you win, you know." - there was a short moment when I half-bought into that. So Catman's come a long way. Out of everyone in this warped bunch, Catman may be the closest to having a moral compass. He's even contemplating going on the straight and narrow, even if Deadshot's reaction is to pretty much laugh in his face at the mere notion. I also get a kick out of how consistently Deadshot seems to get freaked out by Bane and Ragdoll. Although, yeah, Ragdoll's occasional musings do tend to open a door you'd rather had stayed close. Ragdoll is a very sick puppy.

This story arc comes with the by-now-expected gallows humor, and a good portion of the reading experience here is giggling at stuff you wouldn't giggle at in polite company and also marveling at the sudden spurts of violence and also at how sick and depraved some of these folks are. The main villain is this West Coast crimelord named Junior, and this guy is so creepy and so frightening that he supposedly makes the guys at Arkham drop a load in their pants. And if he's not enough of a Big Bad, yet another psychologically scarred villain pops in late in the game, and this one is nursing a personal grudge.

Here's one irritation. Bowing down to the then upcoming Green Lantern: Blackest Night event, issue #6 shortens up on the main story to insert an Origins & Omens bit on the Secret Six. This is a six-paged time waster, unless, of course, you haven't the 411 yet on the Secret Six. Then it's kind of handy.

SECRET SIX is one of those fringe titles, and by that I mean, by virtue of its dark, off-center qualities and its countercasting, it might not draw in readers who prefer more traditional superhero storytelling, let alone the more casual comic book readers. But Gail Simone has a knack for luring in unsuspecting window shoppers and converting them into her personal reading addicts. I've got my fingers crossed for this title.

Bags of superhero fun... Hang on, they aren't superheroes. Let me try this again.

Bags of supervillain fun... Um, well they are villains but they spend most of the time fighting other villains and doing the right thing usually for the wrong reasons and for money.

So, er, bags of super-powered fun with: Catman the conflicted sort-of bad guy who's really almost good but can't just quite get there; Deadshot the roguish amoral ruthless assassin who isn't quite as bad as he likes to make out; Scandal Savage, the leader, and in mourning for her dead girlfriend Knockout and is she just imagining that her ghost is speaking through other women?; the extremely flexible and totally insane Ragdoll who is almost a model of sanity compared to a relative of his the gang meet; newcomer Bane the man who broke Batman's back and who has a strangely chauvinistic paternal interest in Scandal; and lastly the one who doesn't turn up until later in the story.

Well, a really really bad guy sends all the supervillains he can find to get a certain something (and what a something it is!) from the Six provided in the process they inflict deeply painful and slow deaths on our friends. Lashings of gore and inappropriate inclinations, Catman fights Batman, extreme evil, great gags, and all of it wonderfully illustrated in true superhero -er, supervillain, no super- oh the heck with it, by Nicola Scott comic artist superstar in the making and garishly written by the one and only truly great Gail Simone.

How can you resist? Well, if you are, stop it. Buy this book now!

Secret Six is a story featuring a bunch of second stringers that I hardly know with the exception of Deadshot. But Gail Simone knows how to make each of them interesting and compelling. (Although I don't personally like Ragman) the plot line is the Secret Six fighting a mysterious character named Junior and the hunt for a Get out of Hell Free Card by Neuron. The Secret Six fight many interesting villains (with a few exceptions I don't know them as well. Makes me wish that I read more DC books) over this card and it's value.

Aside from the humor and team dynamic the book also has really good art. And I feel spoiled that this artist is monthly just because of how great his art is. I do have a very few nitpicks with this good (Bane who's most well known role was in Knightfall is off venom but he's really only off it because he claims that drugs are bad. I was kind of hoping for a better reason like it had some role on his health or something) Gail Simone really knows how to make these odd characters seem cool and have there dynamic work. I never in a million years would think that Catman could be written as something else as other as a bad punch line.

From their introduction in "Villains United" the Secret Six, Gail Simone's collection of B-list do-badders have been nothing but a treat to read. So much so that, after their own miniseries and a show-stealing appearance in "Birds of Prey", the six got the green light for their own ongoing book, the first storyline of which is collected here.

In "Unhinged", the six have accepted a contract to kidnap an incarcerated supervillain, Tarantula (she of sexual-assault-on-Nightwing-perpetrating fame), and transport her, along with a certain item in her possession, to their anonymous benefactor in Gotham City. However, the west-coast crimelord named Junior also has plans for Tarantula and the artifact she stole, and has issued bounties on the six, to the tune of ten million dollars a head. The Six, never the paragons of well-oiled teamwork, must struggle to stay together, even while an army of greedy villains have them in their sights, and Tarantula's secret threatens to tear them apart from within.

As a group, the Secret Six manage to be compelling despite their loathsome actions. Gail Simone does an excellent job of balancing each member's particular psychosis with enough genuine personality to make them endearing. Even Bane, the musclebound mastermind who snapped Batman's back years ago, comes across as a human who is not unsympathetic despite being a brute and a murderer.

Junior, the main villain of the piece, is one of the many high points this book has to offer. After reading this book, I guarantee you will never look at wooden crates or burlap sacks the same way again. "Brutal" and terrifying" are just two of the words that spring to mind. You can also expect to become very familiar with the phrases "oh god oh god oh god," and "I want my mommy."

To summarize: Hilarious, horrifying, and perfectly executed "Secret Six: Unhinged" will not disappoint.

In this collection, Simone again begins with the Secret Six recovering from losses, and again she moves them around from place to place in the process of getting back to the roster size mandated by the title. This time, the story is heavily plot-driven, and Simone makes it work. A scary and mysterious villain (whose identity I guessed from clues in the foreward, so you may want to skip that first page if you want a better surprise) hires the Six to transport a hostage across the country because she's holding a MacGuffin, and various lame DC villains pop up here and there to try and stop them. The MacGuffin, oddly enough, turns out to be a great way for Simone to explore ideas of guilt and redemption and mortality, and I was surprised that the plot was more complicated and mature than "Move Object X from Point A to Point B. Make Jokes." The book isn't all philosophical and heavy, though, as the reader is once again treated to many pages of Ragdoll hinting at a gleefully nauseating private life, and Bane in a sober, Ward-Cleaver-style role. Simone clearly loves these characters for who they are, and it is a real treat to read the way she writes them.

The Secret Six is a comic about six villains that got together to work as a team of mercenaries. They do good things and bad things, but the bottom line is money. This makes for a set of interesting characters that give us some laughs and sometimes make us love the characters and sometimes makes us hate them. This is something I like about the group a lot.

The group of characters were introduced in a miniseries called "Villains United", a series I didn't like, but even though I didn't like it, I enjoyed the character interactions and since Secret Six was getting stellar reviews, I had to read Secret Six.

This particular story, "Unhinged", has an interesting plot. It introduces a mysterious villain in the first issue and a mystery quest for our "heroes". The comic consists of 7 issues, all of which are about this mystery quest and this mystery villain (which I won't spoil). I'll mention that the quest and the villain are great and the character interactions are unexpected and enjoyable. However, I think the ending wasn't very strong. Surprisingly, even though it was 7 issues long, the end felt rushed. I had to reread the pages a few times to figure out what went on, but what happens is a bit nonsensical and unlikely.

One very positive thing about this book, is that the characters are much more interesting that I would imagine they would be. Bane is honorable and I find almost everything he says funny (although he doesn't realize it), Catman strives for redemption, Deadshot is very laid back but still cares a lot for his group, Ragdoll always has a funny thing to say. It is a fun bunch to read about.

I should point out that Nicola Scott, the artist, does a really good job with this story. The art is full of details, many pages with multiple villains and even when pages have characters seen from very far it still looks good (I am often disappointed with how a character looks overly cartoony when seen from afar). Great art.

I was disappointed with the conclusion to the story arc, but overall the comic was very good.

I had reservations about buying this comic due to being burnt out on the Secret Six. I like the anti-hero stuff but the character Scandal always bugged me as being the token angry lesbian assassin with no real depth or character. However, Gail Simone did a great job adding some human qualities to her where it's possible to see her as a genuine person and not some stereotype filler. All the other characters are interesting even with other writers but Simone just has a gift of making the people interesting including the B list of cameo characters.
Simone also has an intriguing storyline that is not some has been rework idea but something I have never considered. Her take on Bane changes him from some steroid Hulk knockoff to being a character that could carry his own book. Also, the conversation about the Cheetah being able to take a punch from Wonder Woman is priceless.

6 outlaw misfits of various stripes. Set against innumerable opponents equally as deadly as they are, if not deadlier. Over what is perhaps civilization's most valuable (notice I didn't say "greatest") prize. A Batman villian now trying to start a new life. An ice cream truck. An immortal dominatrix. Devastating family secrets. A sharkman with the most adorable stub you ever did see. Even a flying prostitute (I think).

Don't tell me you've got something better to do with your time.

Former Birds Of Prey mastermind Gail Simone penned this bizarre little gem, which in my humble(ish) opinion, can't help but make me think at times of another fan-favorite look at the DCU's seemy underbelly: Garth Ennis & John McCrea's Hitman (now coming back in trade; check it out, if you haven't). Anyhoo. After stints with Dale Eaglesham & Brad Walker, Simone is now joined here by her one-time BOP collaborator Nicola Scott, who's proven to be quite the find in her-- now several-- years at DC. Indeed, the estimable Aussie adds a real shine to "Unhinged's" script, without dulling the edge of the story's blade. Pretty, yet meaty. Preaty.

All in all, I'd say "Unhinged" is one of recent mainstream comics' best examples of 'this probably won't change your life, but who cares?'

between having been a fan of deadshot for a few months before reading this series, and the overwhelmingly positive reviews it's received I figured there'd be no harm in springing for a copy of the adventures of the Six before I started buying the monthly issues. I wasn't disappointed, everything about it flows splendidly, and the action never disappoints. As another reviewer has said the ending is a bit of a let down but not so much that I was disappointed in having bought the trade.