Secret Six #19 (DC)

"I was thinking what it's like to be abandoned and tortured and abused and forgotten. When your life is so worthless that your only degraded value to anyone is when your pain gives them amusement, and the person entrusted to care for you sees you as more disposable than used tissue. But then I thought . . . . . .'I wonder what it's like to ^%$# a butterfly?'"~Ragdoll


Writer: Gail Simone (♥!)
Artist: Jim Caliafiore
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Cover Artist: Daniel Luvisi
Editor: Sean Ryan

(Misconceived: Part 1 of 4 of "Cats in the Cradle")

Comic Book Week: March 10th, 2010.

This book is NOT for the weak of stomache! X-P

Gail Simone (*♥*) is the funniest woman alive. And apparently very disturbed as well. Having said that, Secret Six is one of the best mainstream comics on the market. For those who don't know, it stars William Blake, Catman, former Bat foe and current absolute hunk of beef ( :-9 )...........somehow; Floyd Lawton, Deadshot, also former Bat foe and Suicide Squad survivor; Scandal Savage, renegade daughter of Vandal Savage; Jeanette, basically a revamped (& much cooler and better dressed) Silver Banshee; Peter Merkell, Ragdoll, the most wonderfully twisted villain ever recreated; Bane, another Bat foe that I never cared about until he showed up here to be a surrogate father for Scandal; and possibly temporary member Lori Zechlin, Black Alice, who can absorb the magic powers of any magic character, one at a time.

Originally organized by Lex Luthor, calling himself Mockingbird, to fight the Alexander Luthor organized Society (it was all part of the Infinite Crisis.............ya had to be there), the team stayed together to become mercenaries, lead by the new Mockingbird, who turned out last issue to be Amanda Waller, the leader of the Suicide Squad. Whew! I need a glass of water!

Anyway, if you know all this, great. If you don't, it doesn't matter, because all you need to know is these guys are bad guys, and they are completely irredeemable. They kill people in the funniest & baddest ways possible. And no one is more surprised that I love to read about it than me! But they always come through for each other.

This issue is the first part of a 4 part story that looks to pit Catman ( ♥! ) against his teamates. The whole issue leads up to the "villain", who has to be REALLY villainous to be a villain in THIS book, setting this fight up. But along the way we get Ragdoll saying some outrageous things (see above), Black Alice (a minor) hitting on Ragdoll (who had his "man-bits" surgically removed), and Bane somehow being Bane but better. And I think Jeannette may be becoming my new favorite character! She kicks patootie! ☺

Oh! & ex-member Chesire puts in an appearance............doing what Chesire does best.............killing people (I suppose Arsenal/Red Arrow/Roy Harper mite say something different! ☺)!

The artwork is great, though not quite as good as when Nicola Scott (*♥*) was on the book a couple of months ago, but I think this Caliafiore guy may have a future ahead of him! ☺ His style's a little more angular than Nicola's, but perhaps that makes it a little less jarring for some of the more violent scenes that have to be drawn.

The colors are dark but still expressive, & the letters are serviceable (which is what they should be!).

Since it's the first part of a multipart story, it's hard to comment without spoilers, but I know I'll be back next month for the next part. You should be too!

So let's give this one..............

RATING: 9 ragdolls out of 10

Since you're probably like everyone else & wonder how Catman (:-9) became a hottie, here's a link to DC's new origin for him: http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/heroes_and_villains/?hv=origin_stories/catman&p=1. Mite help!