Secret Six: The Reptile Brain (Review)

Writers: Gail Simone and Paul Cornell

Artists: J. Calafiore and Pete Woods

Publisher: DC Comics

Collects: Secret Six #25-29; Action Comics #896

Despite numerous brushes with the larger DC Universe, Secret Six has always felt like an indie book to me. Following a team of C-list villains (and Bane), it's violent, crude, sexy, and lots of other things that would make Superman blush. Being slightly off the rails has made it a thrill to read; with unpredictable storylines and captivating characters, it's one of the hottest mainstream series out there right now.

Which is why I was a teeny-tiny bit disappointed with The Reptile Brain.

With the team split in two, we get some fun new additions from the bottom of DC's collective rogues gallery. Every one of them gets the Gail Simone treatment; elevating them from "villain-of-the-weeks" into blank canvasses ripe for masterpiece. She makes King Shark disturbingly hilarious, and you just know something bad is gonna happen to Dwarfstar from his attitude.

Villains United (Classic Review)

Originally released in 2005.

Writer: Gail Simone

Artists: Dale Eaglesham and Val Semeiks

Publisher: DC Comics

Collects: Villains United #1-6

Back during DC's Event story Infinite Crisis they released four tie-ins that added extra backstory or angles to the overall plot. Villains United explored the formation of Lex Luthor's "Secret Society" and their "scrappy underdog" counterparts (and adversaries), the Secret Six.

The anti-villain characters of Scandal, Deadshot, Catman, Ragdoll, Cheshire and Parademon would prove to be so popular a team dynamic that, with a few minor changes to the ever-fluctuating roster, they eventually got their own ongoing series out of it.

But Villains United is where it all started. With the Secret Society recruiting pretty much every supervillain in the DC Universe into its ranks, the Six were formed by the mysterious Mockingbird to uncover the Society's true purpose. Six villains who were either too insignificant or too proud to join the Society, but were swiftly transformed into some of the most intriguing characters in the DC pantheon.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!