THOUGHTS: Secret Six #1 “Unhinged, Part One: At the Point of Puncture” - An Assassin and Catman walk into a store.

Secret Six #1 “Unhinged,Part One: At the Point of Puncture” Written by Gail Simone Pencils Nicola ScottInks Doug Hazlewood Letterer Steve Wands

Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation came out from 2006-2007. The first issue of Secret Six third volume, now an ongoing series, hit store shelves September 3 2008. A lot can change in a year, even in the temporally nebulous DC Universe. The Death of the New Gods happened, which means sadly Knockout is dead (or is she?). Bane is now part of the Six, no idea where that happened, but that’s cool. The more things change, the more they stay the same though. This is still a bunch of rapscallions trying to get theirs, living their lives their, and not get thrown in jail.

I love a good macguffin, it is a common narrative tool that when used eloquently can be super effective. They are a staple of Alfred Hitchcock’s work and Star Trek, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In most of those cases they weren’t a lame plot device but a mysterious but obvious plot device. What normally goes wrong is the miss calibration of interest in this macguffin because of things like “mythology” and vague ideas of its importance to character and viewer without ever properly getting the point across. The inherently unimportant thing is treated with far too much importance. With the mercenary setup Secret Six has I won’t be surprised if macguffin chases is the normal propellant in this series. With this being the first issue not much needs to be covered beyond setting it up. In this case it is Catalina Marie Flores aka Tarantula. She has something the Six’s secret backer wants, something the size of a playing card. What that card actually is makes it even better.

In my thoughts on Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation, I called the portrayal of its characters as honest. Beyond the death of Knockout and inclusion of Bane, not a lot has changed. What happens though when you begin to perhaps want something more than the Neil McCauley dream? Catman, Thomas Blake, is wrestling with the want to do something “good” for a change. Good of course is relative, he doesn’t kill those skinheads who tried to rob him…just mark them. After something happened in Africa, Gail Simone and Nicola Scott intercut his apparent vengeance in Africa with the takedown of the local skinheads robbing the convenience store. If the Catman is capable of such change is another matter.

The convenience store sequence is a nicely done introduction to these two characters for potential new readers. It hits on the “Come as You Are” nature of the cast, Deadshot is completely ok with his actions “I’m Deadshot. I’m an Assassin.” In a strict moral sense, this isn’t the best gang any good that comes from their action isn’t the first priority. When dealing with characters like this if you aren’t trying to make your audience dislike them ala Walter White (and even then you’ll have people still expose the heroic greatness of Walter White), you make them out to be loveable dicks. Everyone knows someone like that, a person who out of context you realize is kind of a jerk but S/he isn’t targeting you so it’s fine. These characters have to be if not likeable, entertaining and interesting. Deadshot is like that here. He would get mad at the moron sticking him up for doing poor job of it. He respects the craft too much. His explanation of the proper way to do things and subsequent actual robbery is a great moment of dark humor.

Speaking of humor the gang getting Scandal a stripper dressed as Knockout in an attempt to get her out of her depression was both sweet and hilarious. The spirit of Knockout appearing before her former partner giving her the OK to have fun with the stripper, Liana, is another matter. As the phantom proclaims “Perhaps it is because I am a New God and death alone cannot extinguish what burns within me” she appears. Or it’s all in drunk and sad Scandal’s head. Either way, one can never really tell in comics (until being told).

Artist Nicola Scott nails some subtle facial expressions in this one. In particular the pathetic expression on Catman’s face after Deadshot becomes worried Scandal will kill them. How could Scandal kill the Catman? He brought the ice cream.

Good sound design is what really can make a horror film great. Sure impressive gory and scary visuals help but without the sound there it all looks kind of funny. Comic books don’t have that oral avenue of attack. The thing that makes a scary noise even more freighting is a dark scarier corner for us to hear it coming from. So a thing eating a person in a box, after giving him the choice of him or his family, but never seeing it actually take place is rather effective. It’s left to our minds to stitch together the gory details. It isn’t too horrifying; you still have the visual gag of blind folded thugs taking down notes at the behest of the creature inside the box.

This all just feels right. It’s all rather seedy, low rent, and kind of naughty but is also bad ass and unbashful in its pursuits.

I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at weekntv.com and comicweek.com