Ladies and gentlemen, voting for the very first edition of "Favorite Comic Runs" has come to an end. This week, we wanted everyone to reflect on Gail Simone's SECRET SIX and her current run on BATGIRL. And don't worry, a writer can appear in this segment multiple times with different stories. After five days of voting and thinking about the two books, the community had no problem picking a favorite. Earning 55% of the votes, Simone's SECRET SIX wins!
BATGIRL went down swinging, receiving 22% of the votes. 5% of voters love the runs equally and another 5% don't like either series. A disappointing 13% hasn't read either! That's okay, though, because one of the goals with this segment is to promote stories we love and think you should absolutely check out. Hopefully this premiere pairing motivated some of you out there to pick up a SECRET SIX trade or give her current BATGIRL series a shot.
Simone's SECRET SIX was only 36 issues long but man, it left quite an impact. The writer did a beyond commendable job breathing new life into each character and creating so many engaging relationships between the teammates. For example, Bane became lovable (yes, lovable, that's not a typo) and she was able to turn Catman into a fan favorite and a legitimate badass. It was severely disappointing to see this series come to an end, so hopefully DC editorial has plans to resurrect sometime it in the future.
Viner Post of the Week about SECRET SIX is by mightyrearranger
"Secret Six, for sure. The Villains United arc upset a lot of fans who felt their favorites got "jobbed" by the Six, but that was kinda the point. They got incredibly lucky on more than one occasion in some hilarious ways.
I think Gail's Batgirl has evolved into a very underrated book (now that the editorial has probably taken their hands off the wheel a bit), but Secret Six was the book that really got me into DC comics again. Gail mixed her own characters with classics like Bane, Deadshot, King Shark, and Catman, and added a ton of emotional dimension to each of them. Whether it's Ragdoll's bromances with Parademon (later King Shark, briefly and ill-fatedly Mad Hatter), Scandal and Bane's platonic respect for each other, Catman's evolution into an alpha-male, or Black Alice's struggles with her powers, everyone had some sort of personal touch of characterization going on that made me appreciate them all individually."
If you're looking to read more of Simone's stories, we recommend checking out her work on BIRDS OF PREY, WONDER WOMAN, AGENT X, and VILLAINS UNITED. That's just naming a few, so if there's something else you strongly recommend, be sure to give it some love in the comments below.
Hey, guess what? We have a tease for next week's face off! Here's a small part of the image that'll be used in Monday's article. Can you identify the two covers and who the writer is? Be the first to guess it all correctly and we'll be sure to give you a bit of praise in Monday's feature. Yes, that means if you're going to take a swing at it, please only post when you think you're able to solve all of it instead of just one of the covers.
Want to suggest a writer and two of their stories for the segment? Tell us below or send it to Gregg via Twitter.
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