The Secret Six vs. The Secret 666
The Good: Redundant, but I still LOVE Calafiore's artwork. It's especially great here with all the demons and demonic forms of the Six.
Speaking of, I have to make a special mention of the Six's 'Demon Lord' designs. We already got a peek at Scandal and Bane from the cover of #31, but Calfiore really brings them to life, and they look AWESOME. Bonus that they get to keep them when they fight.
I've been noticing a lot of writers not writing Etrigan's rhymes very while. They rhyme and work, but they don't always flow right. Gail Simone writes a great Etrigan. The dialogue just flows so naturally, I never find myself having to read back over or slow down to be able to feel the sense of the rhyming.
The scene where we get to see the fate of Catman's father is simply sublime. As another reviewer has said, anyone who read 'Cat's In the Cradle' will feel immensely satisfied.
The personal hells of the Six were a great balance of serious and funny. Unsurprisingly, Bane and Jeanette had serious hells based on personal demons of their past, and characters who live more in the moment like Deadshot and King Shark had hilarious hells.
The Bad: The end feels very rushed. I feel like this arc could've gone another issue. Ragdoll's conversion back to good seemed abrupt and didn't have much motivation, and I really would've liked to see them fight Lady Blaze.
This arc is not a good place for new readers. In fact, the solicit for the first issue in the arc was one of the reasons I went back and bought the tpbs. (I jumped in with #25). So much about this issue is a reward for dedicated fans. The whole Get Out of Hell Free card, which apparently fans have been clambering for ever since #7, the final fate of Catman's father, Knockout and the Parademon, Ragdoll's fears of going sane; all of this is tailor made for long time fans. And in a way I respect that A LOT. Just not the best arc to start with.
In Conclusion: 4/5
Overall, I enjoyed this issue immensely. This arc as a whole has been the culmination of almost 3 years of storytelling and it doesn't even stop there. It hooks right into the next arc. This leaves the end a bit abrupt, but it's not completely the end, so I guess it's not so bad.
