Customer Reviews

Villains United (Countdown to Infinite Crisis)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lex Luthor has assembled the newest incarnation of the Secret Society of Super Villains and this time it's a doozy. The latest Society is legion in number having 314 members including heavy hitters like Black Adam, Sinestro and Solomon Grundy, small timers like Scarecrow and Cheetah II and completely obscure villains like Captain Nazi and Mr. Terrible (whoever that is). This is without a doubt the most impressive line-up of super villains in the history of comics and who stands in their way but a small group of six villains know as the Secret Six. This group, led by the mysterious Mockingbird, includes Deadshot, Catman, the new Rag Doll, Parademon, the daughter of Vandal Savage and some woman named Cheshire. If there seems to be a power disparity between these two groups it's only because there is in fact a massive power disparity. In their first assault on the Society the overmatched six are quickly beaten down, captured and tortured.

Villains United is a much better series than the forgettable Day of Vengeance and it occasionally borders on excellent. Perhaps the most interesting part is the transformation of Catman from bottom tier villain into a credible and formidable fighter. In some ways it seems as if the writer was trying to change Catman into the mirror image of Batman and when he wears his black costume during the middle section of the book he's a dead ringer for the Dark Knight. The other part I thought was well done was the friendship between the new Rag Doll and Parademon. Because of his upbringing on Apocalypse Parademon is the only member of the Secret Six who actually enjoys the torture delivered by the Society. It's these little moments in Villains United that make the series interesting and fun. There is an actual touching scene at the end of the series between the bizarre Rag Doll and the violent, unstable Parademon that will likely stick with the reader after the book is put away and forgotten.

Like the rest of the Crisis books Villains United concludes on a cliffhanger that's meant to be resolved in Infinite Crisis. A few villains die in the series, a few new ones are created and a few emerge as larger players. I'm curious to see how this gigantic assemblage of characters plays out as the Infinite Crisis unfolds.

This was a Countdown to Infinite Crisis tie-in mini-series. Luthor, Talia, Deathstroke, Black Adam, Calculator and Dr. Psycho form a "Society" of super-villains to stand against the super-heroes. But a few villains won't sign up, and those villains are the Secret Six, lead by the mysterious Mockingbird. The real "breakout" character of the Secret Six is Catman, an obscure Batman villain who I always thought had a lot of potential as sort of an "Anti-Batman". Here, he gets made over into the character he always should have been. Anyway, this is a fun series that fans of DCU super-villains should enjoy.

This book is sooooo much better then all the other countdown books. I never liked Deadshot, but I do now. I didn't know who Catman was, but I do now. This is a perfect example of taking the Identity Crisis issue and using it to move a story, but not be the only focus, unlike that stupid Crisis of Conscience book. If you're a fan of comics, you'll be a fan of this.

Having learned of the Justice League's mind-tampering of several of their colleagues - most notably, the deranged Dr. Light - many of the DC universe's supervillains unite and form the Secret Society of Super-Villains for their own protection, under the leadership of Lex Luthor. However, not all the villains are eager to sign up, even with the threat of bodily harm. Six of these non-joiners even go as far as to form their own counter-team. This group, comprising of a lesser caliber of costumed villains and calling themselves the Secret Six, is ramrodded by the mysterious Mockingbird, a figure lurking in shadows who seemingly has his own murky agenda. The Secret Six's main goal is to undermine, combat, and eventually eradicate the Society. Hah! Good luck to them. The odds aren't very good...

There's a Seven Samurai (or Magnificent Seven) feel to this mini-series as the underdog, undermanned and underpowered Six go up against Luthor's Society, which numbers in the hundreds and has on its roster high powered names such as Black Adam, Bizarro and Sinestro, each of whom can singlehandedly wipe out the upstart crew without breaking a sweat. I can almost hear Elmer Bernstein's rousing Magnificent Seven score in the background as the Six go about their way. The Secret Six, by the way, consists of the deadly accurate Deadshot, the duplicitous Cheshire, the new and very odd Rag Doll, the crude and pain-loving Parademon, Scandal (the daughter of Vandal Savage), and the revamped Catman. Only Parademon seems to be on the heavy hitter level.

The Secret Six reminds me of the defunct Suicide Squad, which also takes the premise of banding together several villains to undertake against-odds covert missions. Unlike the goody-goody superhero titles, there is an escalated level of grittiness and tension here. Members have spats and the reader is never sure that these spats wouldn't lead to serious violence and even death. Most of the group seem to have no compunction against killing, notably Deadshot and Cheshire. Of the six, only Catman seems to be somewhat on the side of the virtuous, the others either ambiguously straddling the fence or being decidedly amoral and villainous. Who lives, who dies? It's really up in the air in this mini-series.

This 6-part offering is of course one of the four limited series in 2005 which led up to the big 7-issue Infinite Crisis saga. The other three are The OMAC Project, The Rann-Thanagar War, and Day of Vengeance. There's also an added four-issue Crisis tie-in series featuring the return of Donna Troy. Villains United is my preferred series out of all of these. Expertly written by Gail Simone and artistically rendered by Dale Eaglesham and Val Semeiks, this is an engrossing story which doesn't necessitate any great familiarity with the characters and urges the reader to empathize and side with the underdog. I'm certainly now a fan of Catman; who knew he had such potential. And I've always liked the unscrupulous Deadshot, way back from the Suicide Squad days.

Apparently artist Dale Eaglesham was ill in the midst of the project and Val stepped in and pencilled issue #3. But, no matter; the terrific quality of the art doesn't flag for one moment.

So for a good PG-13 read, get yourself some Villains United. And here's hoping the Secret Six continues on. There's already another mini-series out about them. Go, Catman!!

When the one-shot "Countdown To Infinite Crisis" came out back in 2005, a couple months after the Identity Crisis (DC Comics) finale, it started a pattern that would continue on with a host of DC's biggest projects and events over the next year or so - taking big, immediate-appeal concepts that often hit across the DC Universe, and then often having these events spearheaded by characters who were certainly less-than-obvious picks. Countdown To Infinite Crisis officially ignited the post-Identity Crisis happenings and served as a prelude to Villains United as well as to Day of Vengeance (Countdown to Infinite Crisis), The OMAC Project (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) and The Rann-Thanagar War (Countdown to Infinite Crisis), and served as a major pivot point in the DCU. But instead of having the likes of Superman or Batman at the center of attention, that focus went to Blue Beetle, a character who'd seldom been seen in the few years prior, and whose heyday in the 1980s wasn't remembered by many as being particularly....memorable. But it worked tremendously well, he was the right guy for the story, and just as Day Of Vengeance brought in some highly unorthodox choices to lead the war against an insane Spectre, Villains United also went down that road.

In Villains United, Lex Luthor has succeeded in pulling a vast host of the DC Universe's deadliest bad guys into a co-operative venture the likes of which the Earth has never seen before. With so many A-List villains in the fold, the spotlight naturally falls on.... Cat-Man, Scandal, Cheshire, Ragdoll, (a single) Parademon and Deadshot?? With the possible exception of Deadshot, and with Parademons usually only counting as big players when they're en masse, not exactly the characters one would expect to take an important - let alone central - role in this. Those six, though, don't even form a part of Luthor's Secret Society; in the series's first big swerve (this isn't a spoiler, the first issue of the six parter sets this up) the main group in these pages arguably isn't Luthor's Society at all, but a much smaller group of lower-profile villains assembled by an unseen mastermind called Mockingbird to take on the Society. Going by the name The Secret Six, the group is headquartered in a surprising location (I don't think this place had been featured prominently within the DC Universe in ages) and isn't even made aware of their ultimate objectives. Whereas Luthor's Society has been recruited at least partly through coercion, the Six have been brought together by more direct force, and have no choice but to begin taking on Mockingbird's missions.

Meanwhile, the Society itself has an inner circle consisting of Luthor, Black Adam, Talia Al Ghul, Deathstroke, The Calculator (another unorthodox choice for such an important role, and one that would have been unthinkable before Identity Crisis revamped the character as a computer-inclined entrepeneur who doesn't plan out crimes of his own but who sells his organizational services and resource-gathering skills to other villains) and Doctor Psycho, plus it quickly gathers upwards of 300 other associates. And although we don't see all of them on the pages, we do see a lot, and they've brought in a ton of recognizable characters like Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow and Dr. Polaris, not a bunch of generic henchman-type villains. Although there are immediate benefits to such a united force, the ultimate goals behind the inner circle - or perhaps just those of Luthor himself - remain something of a mystery in the beginning.

Some will be disappointed that the Society and its grand plan aren't given the total focus in here, with so much being spent on the Secret Six but I think it worked great and that it was better not to cram too much into six issues; much of the struggle between the Society and their collective 'good guy' enemies takes place in the tie-in issues to Villains United (Firestorm # 17; Breach # 7 - now There was an underappreciated series; Action Comics # 831; Superman # 221; JSA Classified #s 5-7 - see JSA Classified: Honor Among Thieves, Nightwing #s 109 & 110) and much of it happens later, as Villains United was always intended to flow straight into Infinite Crisis.

This tale is done extremely well, with lots of twists and a couple of Highly unexpected returns; it can be read on its own although having the 'tie-in' issues enhances and extends the whole series. Villains United works as both a vital piece of the extended crossover arcs that started with Countdown To Infinite Crisis and continued straight through that event, and, like Identity Crisis, did a great job in taking previously unused (or occasionally mis-used) characters and making important, interesting characters out of them. This isn't the kind of story geared for someone new to comics, but for somebody already into the DC Universe it's a dream project. Also recommended, in addition to the aforementioned 'Countdown' events (Day Of Vengeance, Rann/Thanagar and OMAC) are JLA: Crisis of Conscience (Identity Crisis) (Countdown to Infinite Crisis) and JSA: Mixed Signals.

One of the four mini-series' leading up to DC's Infinite Crisis mega-event, Villains United is definitely the most fun. Lex Luthor has assembled the largest Secret Society of villains ever put together, including heavy hitters like Deathstroke, Talia Al Guhl, Black Adam, Sinestro, and plenty more. However, there is a group standing in their way, and no, it ain't the Justice League. The Secret Six, led by the mysterious Mockingbird and featuring Deadshot and the very Batman-esque Catman, want no part of Luthor's devious plans, and the next thing you know, it's all out war. What's the most surprising about Villains United is how fun it is. It's clear that writer Gail Simone had a blast writing all these villains in one story, and it's refreshing to read something so fun and enjoyable considering how grim and gritty the rest of the Infinite Crisis stories are. The art by Dale Eaglesham and Val Semekis is pretty good too; all of which nicely round out the package. All in all, of all the Infinite Crisis tie-in's, Villains United is the most worth picking up.

When I ordered this book I had no idea of the reading experience I was about to enjoy. This was a comic made for adults; it actually had a plot which was not only interesting, it had a flow to it which made for a "must read". The utilization of Catman as a central character was brilliant; like many of the villians the reader is shocked to see how capable an opponent he is. Without explaining any "powers" he might have, the writers were able to convey a sense of competence and gravity to his character that frankly is lacking in most DC major heroes. The whole idea of the "Six" was perfect as well, and each of the characters were interesting, with the possible exception of the Parademon; I think we've just seen to many parademons used as fodder over the years to take this one to seriously. All the others fit in well however, and it will be interesting to see how they evolve from this story arc into the rest of the DC universe.

6 former(?) villains versus almost every other badguy in the DCU. How can this NOT be a tense comic?!

The art is strong throughout and the story is solid.

Characterization is a key point of Simone's writing, and she was a great choice to write this series/TPB.

All that said, there are some things I was not happy with:

There is a scene featuring the Crime Doctor. I think things got a bit too "dark" or "intense" there. Maybe it's just my silver and bronze age preferance coming through, but I though the scene went on too long and that there were other, better ways to convey what Simone wanted to convey.

Also, while it was nice to see so many villains come out of the woodwork, a guide (who's who) would have been nice. Some of the baddies only show up for a panel or a page and while they have no real impact on the story and even less on the overall DCU, I would have liked to know who was who.

Finally, not all of the major players got equal "camera" time and were, frankly, under-writeen.

Thalia, of the Batman lore, comes most to mind here. She has so much potential and is reduced to the role of intern to Luthor here. Black Adam should have played a larger role as well, but he could have wiped the 6 heroes off the page if he was allowed to.

And Calculator, while a second-stringer in the older comics, plays a big part in the story. But he comes across as pretty one-dimensional.

All in all, a good TPB collection. Much stronger than Rann/Thanagar War, Day of Vengeance, and the Return of Donna Troy, all of which came out at the same time as VU.

Catman gets a makeover--but, oh yeah, a lot of other stuff happens. Truly truly compelling stuff...with villains as the stars.

If you want to see the Before shot of Catman, you need to get the Green Arrow graphic novel called Archer's Quest (ie. flabby, sobby, petty, pathetic). But if you actually want to be impressed by the Cat dude--as well as his teammates in the Secret Six, then Villains United is for you. The only thing is, Catman is somewhat upstaged by Deadshot, the former hack-Batman-villain who got his own revitalizing makeover in the Suicide Squad comic which also quite unexpectedly starred villains acting a bit like heroes while still clearly being villains but doing hero-type stuff while acting like villains as soon as they bump into heroes but often being heroes when fighting other villains who are definitely always villains until captured and temporarily turned into heroes alonsgide the heroic villains who caught them, and...it's all so morally ambiguous. I LOVE IT. What a great idea, as long as we don't jump the shark by having these villains become heroes. It's a tricky balancing act--keeping characters like Deadshot and Catman on a moral tightrope that holds water as well as it holds the heroes, ah-uh-oops, the villains. I meant villains. So far, it's working. And in Villains United, having villains we cheer for versus villains we boo and hiss at (though some of these creepos hiss far better than I ever will...but I'm not reptilian, either genetically or ethically).

When Lex Luthor gets hundreds of villains working for him merely by extending countless polite invitations, he gets a bit of a shock when he is dissed by Catman, Deadshot, Ragdoll, Parademon, Scandal, and uh, who am I forgetting--someone hot, I know--oh right: Cheshire. When these supposed second-raters actually have the audacity to form a team to counter his master plan (well, okay, they're forced to, by the mysterious Mockingbird) then he really gets upset. So he sends scads of his new employees after Catman and his heroic band of backstabbing, infighting, grudge-holding, fractious, "doesn't-play-well-with-others" personalities. But beating up on the Secret Six doesn't seem to work, does Mr. Luthor discover. Capture/Torture shows short-term profits, yes, but long-term projections are stymied by a vicious, vengeful escape (see, there's the difference: heroes escape; villains escape while stopping along the way to be vicious and vengeful). And trying to keep the Secret Six from blasting their way into Luthor's stronghold proves that the best defense isn't going to work, so why not attack them in their own home as a really big finale, later, when they aren't expecting it.

Some highlights: a traitor on each team; Catman and Deadshot just never quite getting along (several instances of them almost killing each other); anything to do with my new fave-rave, Ragdoll; Parademon's ambivalence to anything Earth can throw at him, be it torture, etc.; Scandal finally getting her gear on; Cheshire and Catman getting frisky like felines; Deadshot and Deathstroke facing off in a fast-draw; Lex Luthor asking Psimon a stupid question and getting a snappy answer.

Obviously, this mini-series--now packaged as a graphic-novel extravaganza--was linked to various superhero titles as it unfolded, so a few scenes are out-of-place, no doubt relating to events in other comics. This creates a slightly patchy effect that rolls around at regular intervals and disrupts the flow. But in a story where the essence is controlled chaos, where heroism keeps interrupting all the delicious villainy at odd spots, perhaps this is fitting. Catman and Deadshot wrap things up by putting Green Arrow on the pavement and pointing a gun at him, and then walking away wondering which side they want to fight for. I think if these characters ever stumble out of the colourful Grey Area they inhabit as villains with nobility (but definitely villains!) then we won't get stories as splendid as Villains United ever again.

While I enjoyed the "Villains United" mini-series (featuring the debut of the "Secret Six" anti-heroes), I felt that the "Infinte Crisis"-mandated beats cut into some of the characterization and stopped the story short. Thankfully, Gail Simone returned in 2007 with Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, a brutally funny and mature take on the super-villain squad that spins wildly out of control.