Secret Six Volume 1: Villains United by Gail Simone, Sale Eagesham and Brad Walker (graphic novel review)
I was doing some research on DC villains and came across the ‘Secret Six’. This second version of the team came about after the Justice League Of America ‘Identity Crisis’ where Doctor Light had his mind tampered with because he knew their secret identities. They tend to forget or didn’t know he raped and killed Sue Dibney as well. Quite how they got the other information is unclear and how they were protected from Zantana’s spell but a team of criminals were drawn together as opposition, more so as the Secret Society Of Super-Villains seemed rather blasé about it but could have been mentally influenced as well. Quite how they were kept mindfree means a read to find out.
This opening volume contains Villains United # 1-6; Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special # 1 and Secret 6 # 1-6.
Not all of the team are willing. Catman is the most reluctant but he also has aspirations to be a super-hero. It takes a while to identify the other five which are Cheshire, Ragdoll, Deadshot, Parademon and Scandal (who is Vandal Savage’s daughter) and all brought together by Mockingbird. Right from the start, the number is more than six, so you have to assume not all of them survive. Outside of Deadshot, I don’t know the rest of them. I probably know more about the Secret Society Of Super-Villains which is rather telling. I thought initially Ragdoll was actually a woman but under the mask is male, well sort of. He declares later in this volume that he committed castration so he couldn’t feel pain in the nether regions
There are enough super-villains here to make you wonder if the super-heroes thought they’d all gone on holiday. I’m treading around spoilers here. About the only heroes they run off their own back is the Doom Patrol.
It’s only when you read this graphic novel and I ignored the back cover which gave the source material mini-series that you realise it’s a series of mini-series as the credits are often a few pages in each time. Gail Simone is the writer and much of the art by Dale Eaglesham with Val Semeils and Brad Walker and a host of inkers.
After the first mini-series, with a slight build-up at the end where a prison warden has his family threatened if he doesn’t just release all of his prisoners, we find this has been expanded to all American prisons and it isn’t just wardens but their officers as well. This is the Secret Society Of Super-Villains plan. Fortunately, Oracle gets wind of this because of her secondary security system at Arkham and her alerting Batman discovers not only he has been missing a day but also all the heavy hitters except the Martian Manhunter. There is then a matter of organising all the B-class super-heroes to act as a force against them. It shouldn’t be spoiler to say they succeed but not at a cost.
There’s a lot of different agendas going on here. Time traveller Vandal Savage wants his daughter Scandal to mate with Catman so she can breed a son for him. That doesn’t go down well for either of them. Jervis Tetch aka the Mad Hatter pops up and at least gives someone of a similar size to take a pop at Doctor Psycho, who really does live up to his name.
You do have to wonder what keeps this team together outside of survival. Alliances are continually questioned and they are just as easy to fight amongst themselves as anyone who comes after them. It’s a very grey area as to why should we admire such a group. Probably not. The selling point is action than ethics and there is a lot of that. A little research shows this series was extremely successful, so my own research continues.
GF Willmetts
March 2026
(pub: DC Comics, 2015. Page softcover graphic novel. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-4012-5075-1)
check out website: www.dc.com
