Secret Six: Depths by Gail Simone, Nicola Scottt, Carlos Rodriguez and Doug Hazlewood (graphic novel review).
There were two extra collected volumes of Gail Simone’s Secret Six run, and Depths collects material from Secret Six #8-14. Quite why these issues were reprinted this way rather than simply reissuing the original four volumes beats me, but comics publishing has always had its own private logic, probably kept in a locked room with the old continuity charts.
Essentially, you’ve got the Six, or some of them, in Gotham stopping three kidnappings at a time when Batman’s cowl is up for grabs. Naturally, this being the Secret Six, their response to Gotham’s sudden job vacancy is not exactly heroic, sensible or likely to pass a police background check. The idea of any of them becoming the new Dark Knight is absurd, which is exactly why it works.
The main part of the book is The Measure Of A Man, where the team finds itself hired to maintain a slave labour camp and then, inevitably, rebels against the arrangement. This is where Simone’s handling of the team really pays off. They are villains, mercenaries and damaged goods, but not empty monsters. There are still lines they will not cross, even if they only discover those lines after stepping on them with hobnailed boots.
The pleasure of this run is that Simone makes a bunch of second-string villains and oddballs feel more vivid than many of DC’s more polished heroes. Catman, Deadshot, Bane, Scandal Savage, Rag Doll and the others all carry their own peculiar damage, and the book works because it never pretends they are nice people. It just understands why they are interesting ones.
Both stories are strong examples of Gail Simone’s writing. If you want a sample of her gift for black humour, sharp characterisation and moral discomfort wrapped in superhero violence, you can’t really go wrong with this volume.
GF Willmetts
June 2026
(pub: DC Comics, 2010. 168-page graphic novel softcover. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-4012-2599-5)
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