The Secret Six are, once again, reluctantly marshaled to stop their even-more-villainous counterparts from conquering an extra-dimensional jungle and unleashing nuclear Armageddon on the US.
The Good
Holy crap... nobody makes Bane cooler than Gail Simone. Far from the roid-addict with a tendency to talk like Ivan Drago, this Bane, with his to-the-point speaking style and total peace with his will to power, is one of those rare characters where you're just waiting to hear what he has to say next. I could comment about how much I enjoyed seeing the Six put into action against their will again, and how well-done Waller's terse lunch table confrontation was... but it's Bane who steals the show. I love how the tribes-people take to worshiping him in a way that's a lot more reasonable than what's usually done in stories like this.
The Bad
This is another title that could really benefit from a recap page. I've been reading and seriously enjoying this title for almost half a year, now, but a month is still a long time to keep plot intricacies fresh in mind, especially if you're reading a lot other comics too. I'd honestly forgotten the precise reasons (or pretexts) for Bane's team getting sent to the prehistoric land and, while I wouldn't want Simone to put in a lot of redundant, expository dialogue, I was still a little lost without a recap.
The Verdict - 4.5/5
Month in, month out, Secret Six is consistently one of the best books coming out of DC. It's so well-done that I knew this was going to be a good week for comics just by seeing that this was on the shelf. You could enjoy this for Simone's Bane, alone. Once this arc's done, she should seriously do a one-shot or a mini-series about this venom-abusing super-villainous brute everybody loves to hate.
Glad to see the issue is great, but I disagree with Simone's writing of Bane. It's good, but I miss seeing him portrayed as an intellectual character, too.
Can't wait to read this one. I'm still really confused about the whole prehistoric thing and I've been following along for a while now. There was some weird stuff happening after the arc about Catman (with his kid and all that) and now it seems like Simone's scrambling a bit to start up a new arc. It's a little trippy, but then again the whole series has kind of been a little off-kilter.
Bane was always one of my favorite characters. As some one who doesn't really follow DC would I be able to get into this series or would it be too full of references to stuff I wouldn't know about? I also tend to like to wait until a series is over and read it in as few sitting as possible too. I consume so much media that it's tough to keep the dozen or so individual games, movies, comic series and TV shows I have going in my head at any one time.
Ok, that's it. You've finally gone and done it. I'm adding Secret Six to my pull list. Been meaning to do it for a while but just didn't, but I think I finally will. Thanks for the great review.
@Zack Freeman I agree with you on the awesomeness of Bane that Gail Simone provides within Secret Six. However, I do disagree with your idea on Bane talking like Drago. I don't recall him having that affliction within comics, and am not even going into the godforsaken horror that was his depiction in Batman & Robin. Otherwise, good work !
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