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’s “identity Crisis’, where Doctor Light had his mind tampered with because he knew their secret identities. They tend to forget or not know he raped and killed Sue Dibney as well.
It is unclear how they obtained the other information and how they were protected from Zatanna’s spell, but a team of criminals was assembled as opposition, especially since the Secret Society of Super-Villains appeared indifferent to the situation, although they may have also been mentally influenced. The details of how they were kept free from mind control are revealed in the story.
This opening volume contains Villains United #1-6, Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special #1 and Secret Six #1-6.
Not all of the team are willing. Catman is the most reluctant, but he also has aspirations to be a superhero. It takes a while to identify the other five, who are Cheshire, Ragdoll, Deadshot, Parademon and Scandal (who is Vandal Savage’s daughter), and all are 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 a 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 supervillains here to make you wonder if the superheroes thought they’d all gone on holiday. I’m treading carefully around spoilers here. About the only heroes they run off their own backs are the Doom Patrol.
It’s only when you read this graphic novel and I ignore 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 is 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 supervillains’ plan. Fortunately, Oracle gets wind of this because of her secondary security system at Arkham, and her alerting Batman discovers not only that he has been missing for a day but also that all the heavy hitters except the Martian Manhunter are gone. There is then a matter of organising all the B-class superheroes to act as a force against them. It shouldn’t be a spoiler to say they succeed but not at a cost.
There are 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 we should admire such a group. Probably not. The selling point is action rather 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
