Broken Frontier

The Six have taken on a mission that could get them all killed…. Like they care about a little thing like death…

Writer Gail Simone is producing what is arguably one of the funniest, most action packed, off-kilter, and sometimes just plain wrong comic books on the mainstream shelves today. Perhaps most amazingly, she sacrifices nothing to do it. Oftentimes characterization can go out the window when the crazy action starts happening but Simone keeps it all in and the comic is richer for it.

Catman goes to Gotham to distract Batman (and also have a few words about Batman’s "advice" that the Secret Six stay out of their current job) while Scandal, Ragdoll, Deadshot and Bane infiltrate the metahuman prison on Alcatraz Island in order to break out the vigilante Tarantula… whether she wants to go or not…

If nothing else, one has to love the respect that Simone gives to all of the characters under her pen. They can be sick and wrong and weird as all get out but there is still this underlying thread of respect that runs through. A lot of fans, for instance, have probably been looking forward to the Catman vs. Batman fight this issue. It lives up to expectations and I won’t spoil it for you but I will say that Simone perfectly captures Batman’s voice and actions and she treats him with respect rather than using it as an opportunity to build Catman up by putting Batman down. In another place she gives Bane an intelligent sensitivity and his own strict code of honor… which apparently does allow for hitting metahuman villains in the privates with a lead pipe. Which brings up her other strength… an uncanny ability to write all out action sequences that include a sneaky, snarky, and sometimes slightly off-color humor? Think Mel Brooks at some of his most brilliant when he would satirize an element of pop culture while simultaneously giving audiences a perfect example of said element and you’ll get some idea of what Simone produces this issue.

The art by Nicola Scott is also excellent. I have held off saying this before but I’m going to say it now… Scott is the direct heir to the legacy of George Perez. Like Perez, she crafts scenes that are incredibly detailed, unique and action packed. More to the point, she obviously works well with Simone’s scripts as the story flows effortlessly from scene to scene.

With grace, humor, cleverness, and characterization there is little that Secret Six does not have and virtually nothing that it needs… except maybe more of the same. There are heroes and there are villains and then there is the Secret Six in a category all their own.