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Secret Six: Sort of a Review
Aug. 17th, 2011 09:55 pmI've been meaning to write this for like...a week by this point and I just don't know how to approach it. Secret Six is a comic series featuring a bunch of D-list and originally created villains from the DC universe, written by Gail Simone. It defied all my expectations and was heartbreakingly brilliant. I want to review it. I'm not even sure where to begin, but here goes. A general, unspoilery overview is available outside the cut-tag, a more character-focused and in-depth review is available beyond the cut-tag. In it, I try not to spoil any major plot twists, but there are light spoilers and the resolutions to a few subplots are discussed, but I'm never sure how to grade spoilers, so proceed at your own risk!
The first thing to say is, I didn't originally think this would be the comic for me. I mean, I didn't doubt it was good - it was written by a writer for whom I had a lot of respect - but what I knew of it, how people sold it, was with words like "dark" and "edgy" and "twisted humour" and I know why, because I'm here, now, fumbling for different words to describe it and failing because they all apply. But I think they can also give the wrong impression. It makes it sound like one of those books where dark things happen simply because they are shocking, where the main characters are villains so that fanboyz can talk about how kewl it is that people get beheaded and how it's so much more "mature" than Superman. And if there's one thing I hate it's the fandom meme that darker = better. That you can't tell a devastating story of moral dilemmas and subtle characterisation and complex emotion with Superman, you can only do it with Batman.
But now here I am. This book is dark. This book is edgy. This book is full of delightfully twisted humour. This book is really, really good.
It's hard to explain why it doesn't succumb to the pitfalls I described above. I mean, primarily, it's because of good writing, but it's also the type of story. It's a tragedy. Like, in the classic, dramatic sense. It's about lost opportunities and bad choices. Emotional complexity is an area in which this series excels, so of course, personal pain is an element of the tale, but the story is never about single, emo tears. It doesn't feel like any kind of moral statement - it feels like six people struggling, and failing to save each other, but continuing to try anyway.
I spoke previously here about Miller's Batgirl series and how it was wildly optimistic because Stephanie Brown just kept getting up. I think that Secret Six could be described as tragic and nihilistic for the exact same reason. They just won't stop getting up.
So maybe that's it. Its darkness and edginess and twistedness is part of the architecture, but not how I would describe it. It's more like...Thelma and Louise, if they'd landed that car, and had to keep on going, somehow, forever.
Six people whose only redeeming quality is their inability to surrender, their refusal to be owned. Not out of machismo or even personal pride in the conventional sense, but because it's pretty much the last thing they have left.
( Detailed character-based review follows; light spoilers included, though I try to steer clear of anything really major. )
So, yes. Secret Six. Epic talking. I'm done now. I'm really, really going to miss this series, but, as Jeanette says, as her Dublin lullaby says;
Recommended Reading Order
Secret Six showed up in a few mini series and crossover arcs before their got their own ongoing series.
Chronologically, it goes:
Villains United (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Secret Six: Six Degrees of Separation (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Birds of Prey #104 - #109 (frustratingly, #104 - #108 are in one novel - "Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter" while #109 is in "Birds of Prey: Club Kids" but it's worth tracking down #109 if you can because something fairly...major happens to one of the Six).
Then we finally get the ongoing series, all of which have been collected in trade paperbacks, with the exception of the very recent issues, which I'm sure will get collected shortly, and if not are still easy to track down since the series literally only ended this month.
I do think that the mini series are worth reading and have some great stuff in them, but Secret Six #1 is also a good jumping on point and honestly I think the writing gets better as it continues, and it's really in the ongoing series that it hits its stride.
The first thing to say is, I didn't originally think this would be the comic for me. I mean, I didn't doubt it was good - it was written by a writer for whom I had a lot of respect - but what I knew of it, how people sold it, was with words like "dark" and "edgy" and "twisted humour" and I know why, because I'm here, now, fumbling for different words to describe it and failing because they all apply. But I think they can also give the wrong impression. It makes it sound like one of those books where dark things happen simply because they are shocking, where the main characters are villains so that fanboyz can talk about how kewl it is that people get beheaded and how it's so much more "mature" than Superman. And if there's one thing I hate it's the fandom meme that darker = better. That you can't tell a devastating story of moral dilemmas and subtle characterisation and complex emotion with Superman, you can only do it with Batman.
But now here I am. This book is dark. This book is edgy. This book is full of delightfully twisted humour. This book is really, really good.
It's hard to explain why it doesn't succumb to the pitfalls I described above. I mean, primarily, it's because of good writing, but it's also the type of story. It's a tragedy. Like, in the classic, dramatic sense. It's about lost opportunities and bad choices. Emotional complexity is an area in which this series excels, so of course, personal pain is an element of the tale, but the story is never about single, emo tears. It doesn't feel like any kind of moral statement - it feels like six people struggling, and failing to save each other, but continuing to try anyway.
I spoke previously here about Miller's Batgirl series and how it was wildly optimistic because Stephanie Brown just kept getting up. I think that Secret Six could be described as tragic and nihilistic for the exact same reason. They just won't stop getting up.
So maybe that's it. Its darkness and edginess and twistedness is part of the architecture, but not how I would describe it. It's more like...Thelma and Louise, if they'd landed that car, and had to keep on going, somehow, forever.
Six people whose only redeeming quality is their inability to surrender, their refusal to be owned. Not out of machismo or even personal pride in the conventional sense, but because it's pretty much the last thing they have left.
( Detailed character-based review follows; light spoilers included, though I try to steer clear of anything really major. )
So, yes. Secret Six. Epic talking. I'm done now. I'm really, really going to miss this series, but, as Jeanette says, as her Dublin lullaby says;
Recommended Reading Order
Secret Six showed up in a few mini series and crossover arcs before their got their own ongoing series.
Chronologically, it goes:
Villains United (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Secret Six: Six Degrees of Separation (6 issues, collected as a graphic novel)
Birds of Prey #104 - #109 (frustratingly, #104 - #108 are in one novel - "Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter" while #109 is in "Birds of Prey: Club Kids" but it's worth tracking down #109 if you can because something fairly...major happens to one of the Six).
Then we finally get the ongoing series, all of which have been collected in trade paperbacks, with the exception of the very recent issues, which I'm sure will get collected shortly, and if not are still easy to track down since the series literally only ended this month.
I do think that the mini series are worth reading and have some great stuff in them, but Secret Six #1 is also a good jumping on point and honestly I think the writing gets better as it continues, and it's really in the ongoing series that it hits its stride.
