Secret Six

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Secret Six is the name of a series of comic book publications that the Time Warner group-owned US publisher DC-Comics has published since the late 1960s, as well as the various fictional groups of adventurers / mercenaries that these publications are about.

While in the original version of the material classic heroic agent characters are the focus of the plot, the newer interpretations of the material describe the deeds and misdeeds of a team of partially refined professional criminals.

Publications under the title "Secret Six"

The first series under the title Secret Six brought DC Comics to the market in May 1968. The series, which ran every two months until April / May 1969 and reached seven issues, was designed by the author E. Nelson Bridwell and the illustrator Frank Springer.

From 1988 to 1989, a series of stories that brought the old "Secret Six" team back together after twenty years and describes the formation of a successor team appeared within an eight-page feature in the anthology series Action Comics Weekly . These stories were included as an eight-page feature in issues # 601 (May 1988) through # 612 and issues # 619–630 (September 27 through December 13, 1988). These stories were written by Martin Pasko , while the visual implementation was done by the illustrator Dan Spiegle (1st series of stories) and the illustrator of the 1968/69 series Frank Springer (2nd series of stories).

The material was reinterpreted in 2005 by the author Gail Simone as part of the Villains United series , in which a mercenary team of former super criminals - mostly opponents of established DC superhero characters such as Batman - was introduced that was more dubious but has mostly turned to legal orders for the highest bidder. This subsequently appeared in numerous stories in various DC series, so that the publisher decided to dare to experiment to put the characters at the center of its own publications: First, a six-part mini-series was published, which was published every month between July 2006 and January 2007 came on the market. After this sold sufficiently well, a regular series was launched, which ran from November 2008 to October 2011, and reached 36 issues. The artists Dale Eaglesham , Brad Walker and Nicola Scott took care of the artistic realization of Simone's manuscripts .

As part of the restart of most of DC's comic series under the banner The New 52 , a new series was launched in December 2014 under the title Secret Six . The series was again written by Gail Simone, who was supported by the draftsmen Dale Eaglesham and Ken Lashley. This series was discontinued in May 2016 with the 14th edition.

In German, the series Villains United was published in 2006 in the second volume of the series Infinite Crisis Monster Edition . The six-part Secret Six miniseries was published the following year, together with the miniseries The Battle for Blüdhaven under the title One year after the Infinite Crisis in the first volume of the series One year after Monster Edition .

action

1st series and "Secret Six" features in the Action Comics series

The original series describes the adventures of six secret agents who perform genre-typical missions given to them by a person named Mockingbird who remains unidentified until the end of the series . The members of this team were August Durant, Lili de Neuve, Carlo di Rienzi, Mike Tempest, Crimson Dawn and King Savage.

The "Secret Six" feature, which appeared on the Action Comics series in 1988 , eventually revealed that team member Durant was the mysterious mockingbird of the old series: in the stories in the action comics , he brings the old team back together and is also putting together a junior team consisting of the new characters Mitch Hoberman, Ladonna Jameal, Tony Mantegna, Luke McKendrick, Vic Sommers and Dr. Maria Verdugo exists and takes the place of the old team after it dies in the second story of the feature ( Action Comics # 602).

Secret Six Miniseries (2007)

The new version of the Secret Six, introduced in 2005, is made up of characters that largely existed before this team was formed: This team unites various well-known super villains of the DC universe as a mercenary group operating in a gray area between legality and illegality, with the team members of their criminals Half and half forsaken the past and have now taken on the roles of antiheroes . Although the protagonists are basically unrepentant criminals who are ready to walk over corpses, they appear to be popular figures, as most of their opponents are portrayed as far more cruel and bloodthirsty than the Six.

Members of this team are the assassin Deadshot (alias Floyd Lawton), a long-time adversary of the superhero Batman, the adventurer and thief Catman , also a Batman villain, the killer Cheshire, an opponent of the superhero Wonder Woman , and the three new characters: The shrill psychopath Ragdoll (alias Peter Merkel, Jr.), Scandal Savage, a daughter of the ancient, immortal Stone Age man Vandal Savage, and Parademon, a cyborg from the futuristic planet Apocalypse , a hybrid of demons and robots.

In the course of the 2006/2007 miniseries, Parademon is killed while Cheshire betrays the team and joins the Secret Society of Supervillains, an association of various super criminals at odds with the Secret Six. She is replaced by the human-like alien Knockout - who starts a lesbian relationship with Scandal - and the over-the-top former psychiatrist Harley Quinn.

In this new incarnation of the “Secret Six” concept, too, there is a client and protector behind the team using the code “Mockingbird” (mocking jackdaw). He is eventually revealed as the billionaire and Superman archenemy Lex Luthor .

2nd series (2008-2011)

In the ongoing Secret Six series released from 2008, the team includes Catman, Deadshot, Scandal Savage and Rag Doll. He is joined as newcomers by the South American terrorist Bane , an old opponent of Batman, as well as (from # 3) a character named Jeannette, newly devised by Gail Simone for the series.

The first story arc describes the efforts of the Secret Six to get hold of a "Get out of Hell free" card created by the demon Neron, which grants its owner the privilege, not his Misdeeds to be sent to hell. Since numerous other super villains of the DC Universe also strive to obtain this valuable item, a brutal race between the Secret Six and their competitors ensues. At the end of the story, the magic card is apparently destroyed in a battle between the warring factions. As revealed on the last panel, however, Scandal managed to secretly take them.

In the storyline "Depths" (from # 10) of the series, the Six deal with the slave trader Mr. Smyth: He hired the group to secure a huge prison on Devil's Island, which he is building. Plagued by remorse, the group soon turns against him. At the end of the story, Smyth is shot dead by Deadshot.

After the argument with Smyth, Bane takes over the leadership of the team, replacing Scandal Savage with a new team member named Black Alice. Soon thereafter, the team underwent extensive restructuring: After Catman's son was murdered, he traveled to Africa, where Ragdoll, Alice, Deadshot and Scandal followed him. Bane and Jeanette then bring King Shark, a hybrid of man and shark, Dwarfstar, the martial arts-experienced British mercenary Lady Vic and the Flash adversary Giganta, who has the ability to grow to gigantic size, into the team to maintain the target size of six members.

In the course of the crossover "Blackest Night", the Secret Six are hired by an anonymous client to break into the Belle Reve prison in order to free a prisoner. This proves to be a trap that opaque intelligence official Amanda Waller set for the team to capture and Deadshot again for the Suicide Squad , a super-creatures' secret special operations team led by her that carries out dangerous missions on behalf of the US government and was a member of the Deadhsot prior to joining the Secret Six.

In issue # 29 and Action Comics # 896, Lex Luthor hires the team to kill Scandal Savage's father, Vandal Savage, a rival of Luther in his attempt to assassinate him.

Issue # 30 (as well as the comic Doom Patrol # 19) describes a dispute between the Secret Six and the Doom Patrol , another antihero team from DC-Verlag.

In the last story of the series, the team ends up in Gotham City, where, at the instigation of Bane, they are supposed to kill various allies of his archenemy Batman (Catwoman, Red Robin, Batgirl and Azrael). This endeavor fails and Batman and his allies, as well as numerous other heroes hurrying to their aid, manage to defeat and arrest the Secret Fix, which ends the series.

3rd series (2014–)

After the restart of the series in December 2014, the team includes the well-known Catman and Black Alice, the villains Strix and Ventriloquist as well as the detective Ralph Dibney and a new character called Porcelain. The Batman villain Riddler is revealed as the Mockingbird who instructs the team in the background in issue # 3 .

Anthologies

Since 2008, numerous "Secret Six" stories have been reissued in the form of anthologies.

  • Secret Six. Six Degrees of Devastation , 2008. (contains xy's six-part miniseries)
  • Secret Six. Unhinged , 2009. (contains issues # 1–7 of series 3)
  • Secret Six. Depths , 2010. (includes issues # 8-14 of series 3)
  • Secret Six. Danse Macabre , October 2010. (contains issues # 15–18 of the 3rd series and Suicide Squad # 67)
  • Secret Six. Cat's in the Cradle , 2011. (contains # 19-24 of series 3)
  • Secret Six. The Reptile Brain 2011. (contains issues # 25–29 of the 3rd series and Action Comics # 896)
  • Secret Six. The Darkest House , 2014. (contains issues # 30-36 and Doom Patrol 19)
  • Secret Six. Villains United , 2014. (contains the Villains United miniseries and the Secret Six miniseries from 2006)
  • Secret Six. Money for Murder , 2015. (contains issues # 1–14 of the 3rd series)
  • Secret Six. Cat's Cradle , 2015. (contains issues # 15–24 and Suicide Squad # 67)

reception

The series was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Outstanding Comic Book category in 2012 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vaneta Rogers: GAIL SIMONE Reinvents SECRET SIX for the NEW 52nd Newsarama, December 3, 2014, accessed on August 12, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Oliver Sava: DC exclusive: The Secret Six say goodbye one last time. The AV Club, May 20, 2016, accessed August 12, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Comic Guide: Infinite Crisis Monster Edition. Comic Guide, accessed on September 29, 2016 (German).
  4. ↑ Comic Guide: One Year Later Monster Edition. Comic Guide, accessed on September 29, 2016 (German).
  5. ^ Secret Six. GLAAD, accessed on August 12, 2016 .