Nobody puts Catman in the box.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Ken Lashley
What They Say:
Gail Simone is back with the NEW 52 debut of the fan-favorite team–THE SECRET SIX! Six strangers are brought together under mysterious circumstances for an explosive first issue that will leave everyone asking, “What is the Secret?”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The previous Secret Six series that was running before the New 52 launch was essentially one of the only books I was reading after reconnecting lightly with the DC Comics world. I had liked the characters and concept since it was the closest thing to my old favorite of the Suicide Squad as you had lesser known characters that you can do a lot more with creatively. The book had a great run and was one of those that you really felt bad that it was lost to the changes, and even more so in that there was no relaunch of it for a variety of reasons. But now, a couple of years after that event, the title is back and Gail Simone is back, this time with Ken Lashley, to give us a new Secret Six team and a different motivation for its existence.
First issues are tricky books in general and this one is no exception since, outside of two characters for me, everything else is an unknown. Luckily, one of those characters is Catman, who has been spending his time at a dive at the ass end of the world. His luck has run out though as some serious types in suits have come to take him in, and while he agrees to it, there’s a bit of dissent over the whole cuffing thing. With Thomas Blake as Catman, we see there’s definitely more cat in his personality this time around. Subduing him means coming down hard on him and the result is that hours later he wakes up inside an oversized steel box shaped like a coffin with five other unusual people that he doesn’t know. And even worse, they’re being worked over psychologically to answers a single question on the wall – “What is the secret?”.
Suffice to say, nobody knows. All they do know is that they have to escape, especially since failure to answer in a few minutes means one of them will die. The book works through this as a means to introduce us to the cast as we get a group of people that mostly make mild references to their powers and occasionally a code name, like Black Alice or Big Shot, but there’s not much really shown just yet. But as the clock ticks down, we see the panic within Blake, which means his cat side is really freaking out. It’s like the opening stage to films that work this concept of being locked in a place with no answers and struggling to find out, which can work well. What Simone does here is use it to properly introduce us to the characters with what we believe to be their base stories set against the ticking clock of one of them dying. Giving us a tease of masks along the way that they don adds a really good element to it.
Not surprisingly, there’s not a lot of depth here nor any real questions answered. What we do get is an intriguing cast of characters that are just as mysterious as when Blake first sees them, even though we get some names and a touch upon their supposed abilities. What helps to make this book even more engaging though is what Ken Lashley brings to the table with his artwork. While they could have gone with a more traditional superhero-ish look to it, Lashley gives this a great amount of very raw and rough style that feels wholly appropriate and separate from the rest of the DC Universe. I don’t doubt that it’ll cross over in a big way at some point, but right now this feels like an independent title with a real sense of self and style that’s only going to improve. The rawness of the artwork with the character designs in particular really hits beautifully here because it adds to the idea that these are the dregs of the world in a way, even someone as smoldering as Blake.
In Summary:
I went knowingly into this book that there would be no answers given here, especially this early. With Simone’s work on the prior series and what she’s accomplished since then, I’m in the camp that’s hopeful for an intriguing and layered story with feints and teases along the way to the real truths of it. What Simone and Lashley do here is to introduce us to a tense situation, give us a variety of characters that you can latch onto in different ways and others that you want to know more about, and to make it brim with excitement because everything feels like it’s going to come crashing to a close rather than just being the start of something. Normally a push like this in the final pages would feel very forced with what it’s trying to do, but the combination of pacing, artwork and character material already elevates it to something more. And oh boy do I want more.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 3rd, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
